Overseeding grass variety and fertilizer test area at Habu CC

I was looking through some photos of Habu CC, where I was the superintendent before going to graduate school at Cornell University, and I was reminded of the many tests and trials we conducted to determine the best way to produce the desired grass conditions. This was fun, it was useful in helping us to develop the most effective maintenance program for the course, and it didn't take a lot of time.

Nursery green at Habu CC with a test of potassium nitrate fertilizer on Penncross at left and test plots of creeping bentgrass and velvet bentgrass cultivars at right

In my time at Habu CC, I remember that we did tests, at various times, of:

• fertilizers and microbial products
• earthworm control products
• creeping and velvet bentgrass performance tests
• winter overseeding grass variety and seed rate tests
• herbicides

Onsite testing at Habu CC helped the course maintenance team to produce the desired playing conditions

These tests did not take much time, but we learned a lot. I encourage all turfgrass managers to test products and practices to discover the most effective way to do things at a particular site. 

Today there are many measuring tools that can be used to assist in evaluating the effect of products on turfgrass performance. Last week I spoke about this in a seminar entitled Understanding Data Use for Turf Management.

PACE Turf have published this excellent guide to testing products and practices. It describes the hows and whys of doing onsite testing and is full of practical advice on how to do so most efficiently.