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Late-Summer Marathon and Right Soil, Right Place…

Its been a busy month since our August launch of the “Down and Dirty” series with TurfRepublic. On my end, a new cohort of wide-eyed students has arrived here in sunny and very warm and DRY West Lafayette, hopefully they all brought a winter-coat because this wont last long! My team and I are in the middle of planting trials for 2016 and beyond as well as winding down field research for 2015. It’s always a very busy time of the year, almost like a marathon and I sometimes need to remind myself like a marathon runner “It’s all about the pace”. In addition, many of our state turf associations are very generous and host various golf fundraisers in support of our turf programs at this time of year. It is an honor to be invited to participate in these events, every little bit helps support our research facilities and I know the turf team here is always grateful. More importantly, it is a great opportunity to get away from the “ivory tower” and re-connect with the people that really make our industry great.

If you don’t know me very well, my mind tends to connect random points and bring them together in unusual ways… For example my earlier statement, “Its all about the pace”, got me thinking about last year’s musical HIT, “It’s all about the bass” which for me turned into “It’s all about the base”… that “base” being the soil environment. That having been said, in this article I wanted to discuss the basic components of soil texture: sand, silt and clay and why in practical terms they matter to our industry.

Check out: International Year of Soils

Soil particles (technically defined as anything < 2mm) range in size, no surprise there… and we further classify these particles into three size classes; sand, silt and clay based on their relative size. The largest particles are sand, often the predominant “base” of any high-value turf area (e.g. sand-based rootzones like golf greens or stadium sports fields). To put these soil particle sizes into practical perspective; if a clay particle is the size of a standard glass marble, a silt particle would be the size of a soccer ball and a sand particle would be about 45 feet in diameter! The point big differences among these sizes. The general ratio of sand-silt-clay is referred to as the “soil textural class” (there are 12 of these, like sand-clay-loam, etc.) and maintaining or perhaps changing this ratio is fundamental to current and future performance in a turf area. Side note: The whole idea of sand particle size distributions will be the subject of another article.

See Also: Down and Dirty Series

The importance of this ratio was highlighted at a golf course I visited this past month, when I ended up in a sand bunker (no surprise!). It had rained recently, and the sand composition in the bunkers had apparently changed over time, with the granular sand having been contaminated with a higher percentage of silt and clay. This resulting sand possessed a strong crust which formed in the bunkers. The additional silt-clay was sealing off the sands capacity to drain and from a golf perspective began to ultimately affect playability and performance.

So my point or “base” for this submission, if performance at a high level is important, pay attention and monitor your soil textures. There are a number of accredited laboratories that can test this property. With this information in hand you can evaluate these performance characteristics and determine if they need to be adjusted. For now, that’s it for me and “Down and Dirty and in the meantime, keep submitting your “Frisky Fairy Ring Friday” photos to the “King of Rings” on The Twitter @mikefidanza