Category Archives: Sports

GCSAA members – the unseen heroes of many a golf course!

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Golf Course superintendents’ work is often seen, but they are rarely seen or their work realized. It is not an uncommon practice for the maintenance staff at a golf facility to be up working well before the sun comes up.

As a PGA member since 1999, I certainly appreciate the hard work and dedication it takes to be in the golf industry, but I know it takes even more hard work and dedication to be in charge of the grounds and maintenance. More times than not, GCSAA members and their colleagues do not get the accolades they deserve. I consider golf course superintendents the unsung heros of the golf industry.

Next time you see your golf course superintendent keep in mind, their jobs are often 24/7 shifts. It takes time, patience, flexibility, and supreme organization to manage 100 acres or more of managed turf, not to mention their staff and their families.

Yes, it is true; superintendents do mow grass, rake bunkers and pick up trash but consider this:

 

YOUR GCSAA MEMBER IS ALSO:

An ambassador for your facility

An environmental steward

A mentor to their staff

An agronomist for the facility

A communicator to the membership

Facility manager for the ground department

Human resources director for their area

OSHA director

Financial planner managing the facility’s largest portion of the budget

Material scheduler and planner

Landscape and golf course architect

A certified, licensed applicator

An artist

A mechanic

An irrigation technician

Meteorologist

Public speaker

An educator

A political activist

ALL IN A SINGLE DAY’S WORK!

The next time you head out the golf course, be sure to spend a couple of minutes getting to know the golf course superintendent and thank him for all the hard work and commitment they provide for your golfing enjoyment!

 

Not just a Calcium Products company…

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With my job and I am very fortunate to travel all across this great country of ours. I have an opportunity to meet people from all walks of life and introduce them to Calcium Products, Inc. Typically, I give them my 30 second elevator speech about who Calcium Products are and then depending on who I am talking with I will expand into a more detailed account of our company.

Most people can figure out what we do simply by looking at our company name, but we are so much more than that. While calcium certainly plays a huge role in our base ingredients for manufacturing we actually blend 9 of the 16 essential  plant nutrients in our base calcium products. You could make a very strong case however we blend  12 out of 16 if you include Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen.

If you are going to be growing anything, whether it is corn or beans to flowers and turf, all plant life needs to have some percentage of all 16 nutrients to survive. Three of the 16 essentials are provided from air and water; carbon (C), hydrogen (h) and oxygen (O), the remaining 13 are taken up from the soil; nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), sulphur (S), magnesium (Mg), boron (B), chlorine (Cl), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), zinc (Zn).

If 81% of the essential nutrients are taken up from the soil, wouldn’t a grower need to have the properly conditioned soil to grow in? Our answer at Calcium Products is yes!

You see, at Calcium Products we strive to create the most ideal soil environment to feed the world, inspire outdoor recreation and develop products that are vital to the stewardship of land and water resources.

Here is a look at our products and the nutrients we supply to the growers of the world:

SuperCal SO4–  21% calcium (Ca), 17% sulphur (S) {in our gypsum, we actually have 2 extra water molecules attached to the crystalline structure of the gypsum, therefore you can include hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) to the nutrient mix.}

SuperCal 98G–  36% calcium (Ca), <0.5% magnesium (Mg)

Triplicity–  13% carbon (C), 37% calcium (Ca), 0.5% sulphur (S), 0.3% magnesium (Mg)

HumaCal–  18% calcium (Ca), 5% sulphur (S) {also contains 30% humate materials}

SuperCal 15K–  15% potassium (K2O), 1% calcium (Ca), 9% sulphur (S)

MicroHume–  5% calcium (Ca), 8% sulphur (S), 2% boron (B), 1% copper (Cu), 2% manganese (Mn), 3% zinc (Zn)

Sulphur Plus–  2% potassium (K2O), 1% calcium (Ca), 9% sulphur (S) 

Whether you’re a farmer or a gardener, a turf professional or a homeowner, you need products that can supply the nutrients that your plant needs to survive. So the next time you are looking for a full line of products, remember Calcium Products isn’t just a calcium company!

 

 

 

On the Tee Segment

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So what do Spring Valley Golf Course in Livermore, IA and Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego, CA have in common? Recently, I had an opportunity to spend some time with our good friends at the Iowa Sports Connection and talk golf. If you follow the PGA Tour, you know that last week Torrey Pines hosted the Farmer’s Insurance Open. What was more amazing than Kyle Stanley’s epic collapse on the 18th fairway was the conditioning of the golf course. Thanks to SuperCal SO4, the players were treated to the best conditions in the history of the tournament.

Listen to my segment from “On the Tee” radio show below:

“On the Tee” Interview

 

 

 

Anderson’s to close their Fairmont, IL facility

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On December 13th the Anderson’s announced in a letter to their customers that they “elected to cease production of pelletized products at our Fairmount, Illinois facility.”

This is a big surprise since they closed the plant in spring of 2010 for repairs and upgrades. That closure caused wide spread shortage of pelletized lime and pelletized gypsum in the spring of 2010.

Many suppliers upon hearing such news would raise their prices 20-30%. Calcium Products will be keeping its current spring pricing in place. Though we strongly encourage all our dealers to contact their sales reps to plan out their spring needs. History has shown that when this plant is not operating there is a shortage of product in the market place. We are committed to ensuring our customers that prepay, that they will have good product supply for spring.

The one thing that we have going for us is we have some advanced warning of the shortage. We plan on running all plants at full capacity to try and meet the demand but storage is limited. We are working to find additional storage at satellite warehouses and with dealers. Those that can take product early are strongly encouraged to do so.

Are you missing this step in your fertility program?

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Humates and humic acids are certianly nothing new, in fact, humates are millions of years old. They are organic matter in an advanced state of decay. Humates have passed through the stages of compost and peat but have not yet become coal.

Here is a great informational sheet prepared by Calcium Products, Inc. describing the benefits of Humates.

Humic Info Sheet

If you are not currently using humates and/or humic acids you need to consider adding this powerful soil amendment to your fertility program.

Frost delays expected around the midwest!

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Temperatures around the midwest are predicted to drop near freezing over the next couple of days. While some areas have already had their first frost, this looks to be the first regional freeze.

Here is a forecast for selected cities in the midwest, courtesy of accuweather.com.

Minneapolis, MN                           Madison, WI

Des Moines, IA                              Sioux City, IA

Fargo, ND                                     Stevens Point, WI

I have also linked a video from Pace Turf regarding the cold hard facts of Frost Delay on Golf Courses: Frost Delays on Golf Courses:The Cold, Hard Facts

  

Superintendent incorporates gypsum into the soil to keep salt levels low

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Thumbing through the September issue of GCM magazine, the official publication of the GCSAA is came across a great article written by Barbara McCabe. She is a freelance writer from the San Diego area. In the her article, “On the Rebound” she talks about how superintendents survived last summer’s worst-case weather scenario and how they formulated smart strategies for handling the heat and it’s effects in 2011.

Within that article was a smaller inset article titled, “Summer surf ‘n’ turf in SoCal”. It was in this article that she talks about the challenges of being a superintendent in the Southwestern USA, in this case, southern California. In this inset article she talks with superintendent Troy Mullane and his struggles managing high sodium levels in the soils due to poor water quality and small amounts of rainfall. He has some great solutions to remedy the sodium problems including the use of granulated gypsum.

Below is a link to the GCM article in case you missed it in the magazine. Enjoy the read, I sure did.

http://digitalgcm.gcsaa.org/DigitalAnywhere/viewer.aspx?id=27&pageId=56&refid=587256&s=undefined

Hurricane’s and Turfgrass

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It seems to me that in the past few weeks the 2011 hurricane season has really started to gain some traction. After a relatively quiet start to the season which began on June 1st, it is looking like the second half of the year is going to be a rocky one. This brings me to the topic of how tropical storms and hurricanes can damage turfgrass. 

Hurricane’s can bring an enormous amount of salt water inland through storm surge as well as being carried with the rain. This salt water can cause millions of dollars worth of damage to turfgrass if action is not taken to flush the salt from the top layers of the soil profile. Below are some suggestions on how to help turf managers overcome saltwater damage to turf.

One of the most important cultural practices is to flush the effected area with as much clean, sodium-free fresh water. This process is critical to rinse the accumulated salts from the turf leaf and the leaching of salts from the root zone of the soils. Be sure to test all the water sources first for salinity. If your irrigation source has been compromised take the appropriate steps to replace the salt water with fresh clean water.

Here are different types of grasses and their salt tolerance:

  • Bermuda, zoysia, creeping bent and St. Augustine turf grasses all have relatively good salinity tolerance (1500ppm total soluble salts).
  • Tall fescue and perennial ryegrass have medium salinity tolerance (800-1000 ppm total soluble salts).
  • Red fescue, Kentucky bluegrass and centipedegrass have poor salinity tolerance (600-800 ppm total soluble salts).
Repeated irrigation with water containing 1200 ppm total soluble salts will be harmful to the turf unless followed by sufficient rainfall or fresh water irrigation. By allowing salts to accumulate in the root zone of the soils, especially with poor drainage can create turf problems.
Gypsum (calcium sulfate dyhydrite) can be a very effective way to leach salts from the soils. Calcium sulfate dyhydrite works best when it is incorporated into the soil profile but this is not necessary, it can be just as effective by broadcasting the pellets with a broadcast spreader. Depending on the amount of damage to the turf, try 20-40 lbs. per 1,000 square feet. Calcium sulfate dyhydrite is extremely water soluble and as soon as the pellet of gypsum comes into contact with water it will begin to breakdown, often times making the calcium 100% plant available within minutes. This characteristic is important to note because it is possible to obtain an anhydrite form of gypsum that may never fully break down and provide the calcium to the soils. Make sure that when you are sourcing our your gypsum the analysis reads Calcium Sulfate Dyhydrite (CaSO4*2H2O). By using a dyhydrite the natural chemical reaction between the gypsum and the salts will begin working immediately and you should expect to start seeing results within days and weeks not months and years. Continue to irrigate with clean sodium-free water to assist in the leaching process. Poorly drained soils will be more difficult to leach but the gypsum will work to also flocculate the tight soils and help with drainage too.
Other cultural practices that you may want to consider might be core and/or deep tine aerification.
For more information on how gypsum can assist turf managers please visit Natraturf Professional or Calcium Products Inc. 

Some of the material in this blog were obtained from the LSU Ag Center’s Disaster Information Series, titled “Salinity and Turfgrasses After a Hurricane.

 

Fairy Rings and the Open Championship

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If you are a golfer,  undoubtably you noticed on the greens at Royal St. George's  that there were a lot of fairy rings. Below is an exerpt from the Open Championship, A guide to the enviromental management of the links,  that refers to fairy rings on the course. 

 

Fairy Rings

"Observant spectators at The Open may spot rings and arcs of darker coloured grass to some greens and fairways at Royal St George