Soil Health: Why Having Green Grass Isn’t Enough
Having a healthy lawn means more than hitting it with nitrogen to achieve a green color. What customers see on the surface is what they care about most, but educating them is just as important as taking care of their lawn. Of course, achieving a green lawn is definitely a good goal to have, but it’s not everything. It’s necessary to build and nurture the soil.
Yes, nitrogen gives turf its hallmark green color and can assist turf health in other ways, but there are other major factors that contribute to turf health, too. You can explain this to customers, and they will likely have questions.
Customer Question: Why Not Just Nitrogen?
It’s important to note that nitrogen is an essential nutrient that contributes to turfgrass health. It helps alleviate injury during spring greenup, creates amino acids, and, of course, helps produce chlorophyll. There is more to turf health than just nitrogen, though. Nitrogen contributes to growth and promotes color response, but there are 17 essential nutrients that contribute to turf growth that the plant must have in order to remain healthy. If any one of these nutrients is deficient, then plant health is not optimal.
Depending on the nutrient(s) that are deficient, the plant may exhibit lesser response in any number of ways. It could be water use, a growth response, defense mechanisms (stress or disease), lack of chlorophyll, photosynthetic activity, and more. These can all be problematic.
Customer Question: Is Nitrogen a Temporary Fix?
Nitrogen is a mobile nutrient, and simply adding it to the soil isn’t going to be a long-term solution if there’s a bigger problem. Adding nitrogen to ensure a proper NPK balance is one thing, but if a customer’s soil is unhealthy, solely adding nitrogen to it would be akin to filling a punctured tire. Nitrogen is incredibly important and should not be used or viewed as a temporary fix. Rather, it’s one of the many necessary nutrients and practices that contribute to turf health.
Providing Nutrition and Educating Customers
Providing a balance of nutrition beyond nitrogen (and iron, which also promotes growth and color response) is crucial to creating a healthy lawn. Products using Foliar-Pak Armament Technology can help bridge nutrient gaps that exist in the soil. In addition to Armament Technology, it is important to work hard to provide a better balance of nutrition over the long haul; Microsync is an additive that can help alleviate micronutrient deficiencies.
Communicating the importance of a healthy lawn to your customers can go further. If you’re looking to educate customers on healthy turf, you can also discuss:
- Nutrient Availability
- Fertilization
- Proper Mowing Practices
- Watering
- Aeration
Nutrient Availability
When soil pH is at a certain level—generally a halfway point between acidic and neutral (6.0-7.0)—most nutrients are available, and the chance of thatch decreases. In addition to pH, the organic makeup of the soil will affect nutrient availability. For example, if there is a large concentration of sand in the soil, it will not hold nutrients as well as more earthy soil.
For an in-depth look at what issues may be present in customers’ soil, a soil test can help you see what the soil needs. Soil tests measure the soil’s pH, cation exchange capacity (CEC), electrical conductivity, and organic matter. The results will also reveal nutrient deficiencies or excesses. Your ATS rep can provide more information on soil testing and walk you through how to obtain one.
Using a product like Armament Concentrate will make nutrients more readily available and help increase uptake. A proper pH and a boost of nutrients can make lawns more resilient, vibrant, and healthy.
Fertilization
In addition to nutrients found naturally in the soil and products like Armament Concentrate that can help make nutrients more available, fertilizers also help get those important nutrients back into the soil.
Proper Mowing Practices
Ensuring that lawns are mowed at the right height is vital. For cool-season grasses, don’t mow below three inches, and don’t go below two for warm-season grasses. Any lower and roots can become thinned and weakened due to an excessive amount of sunlight. The plant will focus on blade health as opposed to root health, causing root thinning and inviting in turf diseases and weeds.
Watering
Customers know that watering their lawn is important, but explaining that fertile soil will need less water proves having healthy soil benefits their wallets, too. A few other watering callouts for customers:
- Proper watering helps roots grow and enhance drought tolerance—especially important for young lawns.
- Too much water can be detrimental.
Aeration
Root health is also enhanced by aeration. Using an aerator, the operator will push the machine, sending its tines into the ground and pulling up soil cores that allow water, nutrients, and oxygen to access the roots easily. This helps strengthen the lawn. Roots will grow deeper and the turf will be able to better withstand stressors like turf diseases, weeds, and insect infestations.
As a lawn care operator, it’s important to educate the customer on general turf health. It certainly doesn’t need to be complex, but letting them know that what really matters lies beneath the surface will help them appreciate that green grass is not the only thing to focus on. Working the soil and making it more usable and healthy is the true key to healthy, green grass.
