{"id":1064,"date":"2020-06-22T11:24:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-22T11:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greencastadvisory.com\/blog\/the-lockdown-lowdown-conclusion\/"},"modified":"2022-06-20T06:24:47","modified_gmt":"2022-06-20T06:24:47","slug":"the-lockdown-lowdown-conclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greencastadvisory.com\/fr\/blog\/the-lockdown-lowdown-conclusion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lockdown \u2013 Lowdown Conclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As we&rsquo;ve reached the end of the Lockdown Trial I&rsquo;ve concluded that, given the same situation again for a period of low intensity management, I&rsquo;d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greencast.co.uk\/product\/turf-management\/growth-regulator\/primo-maxx-ii\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">apply as much Primo Maxx<\/a> as the label would allow me too. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>But, it&rsquo;s also given a fascinating insight and explanation as to why, under normal conditions, that&rsquo;s probably not best practice for a typical Spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So what did we set out to learn and what did we learn?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Can we use Primo to reduce maintenance in fine turf?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes &#8211; By max&rsquo;ing out the Primo Maxx II label (0.4L\/Ha applied every 7 days) we achieved high levels of growth suppression. At its highest we achieved around 55% suppression, compared to untreated. The same benefits, to a lesser degree, were seen in all the Primo applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/greencastadvisory.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/image-37.png?fit=900%2C526&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3692\"\/><figcaption>Growth suppression<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Can we do it Safely?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes. This trial really tested Primo Maxx to its extreme. We applied it: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>With no additional Nitrogen (which is standard practice)<\/li><li>At the highest rate permitted by the label<\/li><li>At the tightest application windows permitted by the label<\/li><li>Earlier in the season than you would normally apply<\/li><li>Through conditions of unseasonably high temperatures and low rainfall, with limited irrigation. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>And we saw no phytotoxic effects and less than half a point difference in turf quality ratings between the control plot and the highest rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/greencastadvisory.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/image-40.png?fit=900%2C475&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3698\" width=\"665\" height=\"350\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Would we see any benefits other than reduced growth??<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>During the period of low growth in early Lockdown, and higher heights of cut &#8211; the turf quality benefits normally associated with Primo Maxx were minimal. In fact the highest levels of Primo showed a slight detrimental effect to turf quality (That&rsquo;s OK &#8211; we would never recommend 0.4l\/Ha every 7 days in the spring anyway). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However when we&rsquo;ve moved into the middle of the season, we were seeing some great turf quality improvements from all the Primo treated plots against the untreated &#8211; which by the end, with a reduced height of cut to restore playing surface conditions, were going into a nosedive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&rsquo;ve seen that same pattern on turf colour as well; increased levels of Primo has resulted in better colour response. Combine the turf quality and colour response together, and you can see why Primo becomes a mainstay in turf managers programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/greencastadvisory.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/image-41.png?fit=900%2C481&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3701\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The benefits of using a <a href=\"https:\/\/greencastadvisory.com\/category\/growing-degree-days\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">GDD model<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>We&rsquo;ve learnt:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>We can smooth out the levels of growth suppression <\/li><li>Reduce the number of applications but target them at the best time<\/li><li>That Bingley is the probably the coldest place in the UK!<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I&rsquo;ve also learnt that now we have created the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greencast.co.uk\/growing-degree-days\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GDD tool<\/a> on our website, GDD applications have become possible for all turf managers. For those of you that are on the first steps on your journey into GDD I&rsquo;m creating a Beginners guide to using GDD to time your Primo applications. Watch this space&#8230;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What would I do if faced with that situation again?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Simple &#8211; Max out my Primo applications and reduce my cutting to the minimum I could get away with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Under the Lockdown environment &#8211; spraying greens would be at least as quick as cutting them, if not quicker. By spraying regularly I could save significant labour and lose nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&rsquo;s certainly not best practice for creating consistent putting surfaces, but there was no downside and consistent putting surface was not the objective of this trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For me, it has been really valuable to validate the potential for the GDD interval model to give more consistent growth suppression under UK conditions. We&rsquo;ll continue to do more research on that and bring you the conclusions through the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And of course that&rsquo;s been the other huge learn from Lockdown. That we can run a real-time turf management trial and bring you answers and solutions as they happen, to assist you with informed decision making day-today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read about all the <a href=\"https:\/\/greencastadvisory.com\/category\/plant-growth-regulator\/\">results of the Lockdown Turf Trials<\/a>, week by week here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As we&rsquo;ve reached the end of the Lockdown Trial I&rsquo;ve concluded that, given the same situation again for a period of low intensity management, I&rsquo;d apply as much Primo Maxx as the label would allow me too. But, it&rsquo;s also given a fascinating insight and explanation as to why, under normal conditions, that&rsquo;s probably not\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plant-growth-regulator","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greencastadvisory.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greencastadvisory.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greencastadvisory.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greencastadvisory.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greencastadvisory.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/greencastadvisory.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greencastadvisory.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greencastadvisory.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greencastadvisory.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greencastadvisory.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}