Sorry About the Smell

The entire golf course is being fertilized this week.  We use a product from Agrium that has an analysis of 21-1-1.  It is a bridge product that contains a 50/50 mix of an organic fertilizer called Groganics and a synthetic fertilizer called BCMU.

Groganics is a dried poultry manure that contains 8% calcium.  It's analysis by itself is 5-3-2.  The groganics smells pretty bad when applied, but the difference between it and other organic fertilizers is that once it's watered the smell goes away in less than 24 hours.  Other organic fertilizers typically smell worse after being watered.  Organic fertilizer helps to feed the soil which will help increase soil microbe poplutations and increase our base line of nutrients.  Also, the 8% calcium acts in the same manner as lime or gypsum and will improve water infiltration and nutrient uptake.

BCMU stands for Balanced Chain Methylene Urea.  It is a combination of Urea and Formaldehyde that releases over 16 weeks.  We shoot for an application rate of 0.125 #'s of nitrogen per week.  That is the optimum rate for divot recovery in turf.  In order to get the total product rate where we need it, we simply multiply the desired weekly rate times the amount of time the fertilizer last in the soil.  So 16 weeks times 0.125# N per week equals a total application rate of 2# of nitrogen.

Using both of these slow release fertilizers provides us with a dense growth habit that produces thicker turf without increasing the height like quick release fertilizers would.  Feeding the soil with these organic fertilizers over the last five years has also increase our residual fertility in the soil.  This allows our current fertilizer inputs to be more effective and will help reduce fertilizer needs in the future.