These five articles are ones that I refer to and recommend repeatedly. This list is a continuation of the first and second sets of articles in this series.

Testing products and practices: a guide for golf course superintendents, by PACE Turf, describes a method "to determine which products and management practices work best on your own golf course."

Just what the grass requires, by Micah Woods, Larry Stowell, and Wendy Gelernter, explains how to use the MLSN guidelines to ensure the grass is supplied with all of each macronutrient and secondary nutrient that it can use, all while keeping an additional amount (the MLSN guideline amount) as a reserve in the soil.

Manipulating creeping bentgrass nutrition, by Wayne Kussow, describes what happens when different elements are applied. And it contains this choice quote: "How many more times do I have to say that applying nutrients to turfgrass growing on soil already well supplied with the nutrients is a waste of time and money?"

Evidence, regulation, and consequences of nitrogen-driven nutrient demand by turfgrass, by Wayne Kussow, Doug Soldat, Bill Kreuser, and Steven Houlihan, is a little bit technical, but very informative in describing experiments with creeping bentgrass and with kentucky bluegrass. It shows how increasing rates of N increase yield, and also how that increases the demand for other nutrients. In the conclusions, they share these three characteristics of plant growth-driven nutrient demand, after first showing how nitrogen controls growth:

1. Nutrient uptake and tissue content are more closely related to growth rates than external nutrient supply

2. Nutrient uptake at a given level of external supply varies substantially in response to variable nutrient demand.

3. Tissue nutrient content tends to remain constant once external nutrient supplies allow plants to satisy their demand.

What's the ideal fertilizer ratio for turfgrass? by Bill Kreuser, gives an overview of turfgrass nutrient uptake and demand, explains how plant use is related to soil test levels, and suggests which fertilizer N-P-K ratios may be best for particular turfgrass situations.

Previously, I described Five articles every greenkeeper should read and Five more articles every greenkeeper should read.