Always a good day the Turf Science Live event was well received and got people talking about current and future issues for turf managers.
We also had the chance to see the new Syngenta water management technology, SPIIO in action.
Thanks To Sam Evan’s course manager, Andy Reason – deputy and the wider team for all the work in the build up to the event, managing the trial and demonstration areas and generally making sure everything ran smoothly!
Welcome
The day started with a little networking for the group over some hot drinks and Ed Carter from ICL intruded the day and explained running order.
Everyone was divided into five groups, one for each of the interactive stations on rotation.
Moisture Management Matters
With the R&A and BIGGA clearly identifying water conservation and sustainability as a key area of focus for the future, it was great to have Dr Eric Chen from Syngenta’s R&D biological team talking on all things water conservation.
From the big picture things like investing in building or expanding reservoir areas to hold more of the winters deluge into summer, all the way down to how wetting agents like Qualibra can get each soil particle to hold more moisture.
There is so much to cover in this space I don’t doubt his session ran over!
He touched on a few things Syngenta is investing in for the future of water sustainability, like SPIIO sensors which have recently been launched in the US and the testing that’s going on to bring us the next generation of Qualibra.
Very exciting to see a SPIIO in a moist bucket of sand, Eric didn’t get to keep the bucket unfortunately.
Dollar Spot Investment Pays Dividends
I led the session on Dollar Spot, running the attendees through the results of the recent dollar spot survey and what that means for turf managers this season and into the future.
Really great to have interaction from all the groups, this disease is proving a growing threat to managed turf so it was great to have the time to dig into what the trials are showing and the adjustments we can make to improve things.
I’ll try and put a blog together on the feedback from the day, as we had some interesting insights at a high disease pressure time of the year.
I had the only air conditioned room so I think that may have raised the popularity of my session.
From Soil to Sustainability; exploring organic-based fertilisers
Dr Andy Owen from ICL ran the groups through a fascinating session on the differences in sources of fertility and the benefits/drawbacks of each.
Organic and mineral based nitrogen, and as always did a great job of demystifying the subject. (that’s Phil not Andy – He’s just photo bombing)
Precision nutrition
Phil Collinson & Matt Nutter of ICL had a session on equipment used to apply fertility and the updates in this space.
It looks like a slow wheelbarrow race in the photo, but the cells to measure deposition in a given area allow you to check your spreader is giving you the even spread which is so essential to a successful program.
The fifth and final session was the AIM – nearest the pin competition.
With the winner walking away with the coveted AIM dartboard and darts set.
Overall it was a great day, if a little warm (happy about that AC) with everyone hopefully coming away with something to think about for next season.
Thanks to all the speakers and the attendees who asked lots of questions and made it a very interactive event.
