In the summer of 1998, I moved from Oregon to Shanghai to work as the assistant golf course superintendent at Shanghai Links, a Jack Nicklaus Signature course then being constructed on reclaimed land beside the East China Sea. The tees were sandcapped, the fairways were sandcapped, and the greens, built to USGA specifications, were also built with sand.

During my employment there, first as assistant and then as superintendent, I became quite interested in nutrient availability and nutrient requirements for turfgrass, particularly in sand rootzones. We were able to create good turfgrass conditions, but I wanted to learn more.

I subsequently had the opportunity to study nutrient availability at Cornell University, and at the Asian Turfgrass Center I have continued these researches, most recently through a collaboration with PACE Turf in the development of Minimum Levels for Sustainable Nutrition (MLSN) guidelines.

This week, I gave a seminar in Japan entitled Understanding Turfgrass Nutrient Requirements. The eight page handout for this seminar, available for download in English or in Japanese (eleven pages, expertly translated by Mr. Yukio Ueno), explains some important aspects of soil pH, cation exchange capacity, nutrients in the soil, nutrients in turfgrass leaves, and temperature-based turfgrass growth potential. This handout helps to explain the background of the MLSN guidelines and how they can be integrated with expected plant uptake to determine fertilizer requirements.