Gulf Coast GCSAA Presentation on MLSN

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Dr. Larry Stowell presented the new concept of Minimum Levels for Sustainable Nutrition to the Gulf Coast Golf Course Superintendent’s Association via webcast on December 11, 2012. The attached pdf file provides an edited version of the presentation that includes information requested during the question and answer period. The key change was the inclusion of information on nutrient requirements for bermudagrass that is overseeded with ryegrass compared to non-overseeded bermudagrass.

Here are some bottom-line tips on fertilization to target soil MLSN guidelines:

• Apply maintenance applications nitrogen (N), phosphrous (P) and potassium (K) in a ratio of 10💯4 (N:P:K). To prevent leaching and runoff, never apply more than 0.5 lbs N/1000 sq ft in a single application. Lower rates of application and shorter frerquencies are recommended. Adjust nitrogen rates to produce turfgrass performance that grows and recovers adequately to meet golfer expectations.
• Test soils in the spring and fall and compare soil test results to MLSN guidelines
• If soil tests report nutrient levels lower than listed in the MLSN guidelines, increase the ratio of P and K in the maintenance fertilizer applications. For example change to a 6💯4 (N:P:K) ratio. If nutrients other than P and K are low, for example calcium or magnesium are lower than MLSN guidelines, supply these nutrients as needed to adjust soil levels to exceed MLSN guidelines. Application of 1 lb element/1000 sq ft (about 5 g element/m^2) will increase soil levels by about 20 ppm per application.

Stowell, L. Minimum Levels for Sustainable Nutrition. Golf Coast GCSA Meeting Dec. 11, 2012

Pesticides and sustainability

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Pesticides and sustainability. An oxymoron, you say? A contradiction in terms?

Most definitely not. There are clear and measurable steps that turf managers can take to improve the sustainability of their facility by using the tools listed below to select and apply pesticides that are effective, yet also as low in environmental and human toxicity as possible.

Reduce pounds on the ground:

• Use the diagnostic laboratories in this listing if necessary to confirm the identification of the pests or problems causing turf damage
• Use products with the lowest labeled rates of active ingredient. To calculate active ingredient rates using the pesticide label, use this active ingredient calculator spreadsheet.

Use lower toxicity products:

• Use the U.S. EPA’S system for categorizing pesticide toxicity to select the least toxic products (Categories III and IV) and move away from use of the more toxic products (Categories I and II)
• Use some ingenuity to identify the least toxic products (Category IV), despite the EPA’s non transparent system, as described here.
• As an alternative to the EPA system of four categories, Cornell University has proposed the concept of Environmental Impact Quotients (EIQs) to quantify the toxicity of pesticides. It’s a much more comprehensive system that uses equations to assign an EIQ value (the higher, the more toxic) to each pesticide.
• Use the Pesticide Toxicity Class Spreadsheet (to track either pounds or kilograms of active ingredient) to track both the amount and the toxicity of pesticides used over the year. This is a great way to document your progress towards sustainability, by keeping good records of your efforts to move away from Category I and II products and towards Categories III and IV. Just follow these steps:
1. Fill out columns 1 through 4 on the Pesticide Toxicity Class Spreadsheet to track either pounds or kilograms of active ingredient applied.
2. To complete column 2, look on the pesticide label for the Signal Word (DANGER, WARNING, CAUTION, as described here.
3. To complete column 4, use the nifty active ingredient calculator.
4. Once all columns are completed, the spreadsheet will calculate how man pounds (or kilos) of Category I, II, III or IV pesticides you have applied throughout the year.
5. Each time you add a new product to the list, click "save as" on your Excel file menu so that you can continually track product use throughout the year. By comparing one year to the next, you have a tangible way to document your progress.

Other useful tools for implementing and measuring progress towards sustainability:

• Reduce fertilizer inputs by participating in the Global Soil Survey for Sustainable Turf and by using the new Minimum Levels for Sustainable Nutrition soil guidelines.
• Listen to our GCI podcast, "Sustainability: but what does it mean?"
• Use the GCSAA–sponsored IPM Planning Guide to develop your own site specific IPM plan.
• A wide range of soil, water and pest guidelines

Please take a few seconds to read the note below:

We continue to make some turf management information available to the public for no charge on the PACE Turf website, but as a PACE Turf member, you would be entitled to much, much more. Sign up for the PACE Turf Information Service today, and you will have immediate access for the next 12 months to weekly emailed updates, educational videos, site-specific weather and pest forecasts, state-of-the-art web site and many other services that will help you to prevent turf problems before they occur, save you time and money, and keep you current with the newest management products and practices. At $275 per year, or just $ 0.75 per day, it’s a bargain that you can’t afford not to take advantage of!

For more details on member benefits, please take the tour of PACE Turf member services. Or read what other turf managers have to say about the benefits of membership. Please also feel free to contact us at any time. All the best!

Dr. Larry Stowell and Dr. Wendy Gelernter

Finding the safest pesticides

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency goes to a lot of trouble to review thousands of toxicology test results in order to assess the environmental and human safety of each pesticide, as described here. So exactly why they would make it so difficult for us, the consumers, to find out which products they think are the safest, is unclear. But that is in fact what they have done.

The EPA system starts out clearly and simply — a DANGER signal word on the pesticide label means you're looking at a product deemed to be in Category I – the highest toxicity group. A WARNING on the label means the moderate toxicity of Category II products, and a CAUTION on the label means the low toxicity of Category III products. So far, so good. But for Category IV products — the safest of all the pesticides, the EPA allows manufacturers to either omit a signal word altogether, OR to use CAUTION on the label, which is the same signal word used for moderate toxicity products. The end result is that it's impossible to distinguish between Category III (low toxicity) and Category IV (very low toxicity) products based on the label.

To find the products with the lowest toxicity potential, you unfortunately have to do a bit of hunting. The best place to look is the MSDS (material data safety sheet) — also sometimes called the SDS (safety data sheet), which accompanies each shipment of pesticide. If you go to section 11 (toxicological information) of the sheet, it will show the results of the 6 toxicology tests that the EPA uses in their toxicity categorization system. By comparing those results against the scheme shown here, you should be able to determine whether the product is a Category IV or not. If the product exceeds Category IV standards in even one toxicity category, then it cannot be classified as Category IV.

This is much more awkward than it should be, and we hope that the EPA makes their system more transparent in the future. Until then, you'll have to delve. We have listed below a few of the Category IV products that are commonly used in turf.

• Insecticide: Conserve (spinosyn)
• Insecticide: Acelepryn (chlorantraniliprole)
• fungicide: Alude, and many other phosphonate or phosphite fungicides
• Herbicide: Tenacity (mesotrione)