Today I have two seminars at the 北海道グリーン研究会 autumn meeting. That's the Hokkaidō gurīn kenkyūkai -- the Hokkaido green research association. You can view or download the presentations and handouts at the links below.

The first presentation is called If turfgrass growth were a recipe, these are the ingredients.

• view slides in Japanese
• download handout in Japanese
• view slides in English
• download handout in English

There are four main factors (ingredients) that influence growth. These are temperature, water, light, and nitrogen. And one can either measure or control each of them.

Adjusting the growth rate of the grass is what greenkeeping is all about. And being able to measure and control the "ingredients" allows one to compare maintenance at one site to another, compare differences from year to year at the same site, and adjust inputs for different species. This provides a template for improvement of the turf through adjustments to the growth rate.

The second presentation is called How I would manage bentgrass greens today.

• view slides in Japanese
• download handout in Japanese
• view slides in English
• download handout in English

I explain how I would measure and control the ingredients of growth, and explain how I would do it differently today than I did 15 years ago when I was a greenkeeper managing bentgrass greens in Japan.