Like every living thing, your turfgrass has specific nutritional requirements to ensure it remains healthy and resilient. When it comes to maintaining sports fields, a commonly overlooked step in the process is ensuring you are using enough nitrogen, a major nutrient in the turfgrass’ diet. Nitrogen is a key component of chlorophyll, the pigment that gives plants their vibrant green color and is responsible for photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert light into energy. Without sufficient nitrogen, your turfgrass might not perform to its full potential and could end up weak, thin, and susceptible to disease and damage.
Sufficient Nitrogen Applications Reduce Labor Costs
One of the main reasons why sufficient nitrogen applications are important when maintaining your sports fields is that it helps cut down on labor costs. When a sports field is healthy and well-maintained, it requires less maintenance and upkeep over time, thus freeing up time in your team’s workday to accomplish other tasks. By applying sufficient amounts of nitrogen to your sports field, you are also ensuring that your turf is going to be resilient enough to withstand the stresses of a season’s play. Two great ways to introduce nitrogen to your turf are by applying products with polymer coatings or by using humic-coated fertilizers. With new technologies, you can put down nitrogen at higher rates in fewer applications and will be able to cut down on time spent reapplying at later dates. And by applying sufficient amounts of nitrogen to your sports field, you are also ensuring your turf is resilient enough to withstand the stresses of a season’s play.
Spyker ERGO-Pro Walk-Behind Broadcast Spreader
Dialing in Your Applications
Applying nitrogen is a balancing act – too much can cause unwanted growth or increase disease pressure, but too little will leave your turf thin and susceptible to damage. Understanding the right source of nitrogen to use, the proper rates to use it at, at the right time of year to make your applications will yield even stronger results. This decreases the opportunity for nutrients to leach or volatilize. Polymer-coated ureas are designed for precision and consistency in applications, delivering nitrogen to the turf as the plant demands. This consistent flow of nitrogen allows your turf to compete against heavy traffic and ensure that it is being fed the proper nutrients throughout the application.
EC Grow’s 35-0-10 95% EPEC 6MO is a long-term applicant, supplying nitrogen to your turf for up to 6 months. EC Grow’s 40-0-3 85% EPEC 4MO is considered a mid-term applicant and will nourish your turf for up to 4 months. If you’re looking to go the route of more applications over a short period, EC Grow’s 26-0-10 80% EPEC 3MO might be the right call. Supplying nitrogen to your turf over 3 months is a perfect option to put down during shorter sports seasons. With these options, Turf Managers will be able to choose the optimal fertilizer program for their facility. With all our polymer-coated ureas, make sure to apply when turf or foliage is dry, and to water following the application to enhance the fertilizer’s performance.
Applying humic-coated fertilizers is another strategy to help you use nitrogen efficiently. Studies show that with humic-coated urea (HCU), you can use less nitrogen and still yield the same results as with other fertilizers. The Andersons offers great HCU options, such as 22-0-4 50% HCU 43% Black Gypsum DG, and 9-12-6 37% HCU 36% Black Gypsum DG. The humic coating helps provide ample opportunity for your turf to access micronutrients, including nitrogen while stimulating the surrounding soil microbiology to provide sustainable nutrient availability for extended periods.
In summary, effectively utilizing nitrogen yields a wide range of benefits for sports field managers and your turf. You’ll see significant improvements to the durability and resilience of your fields and a drop in the amount of time spent on field upkeep. Whether you’re using polymer or humic-coated fertilizers, you can be sure your fields are benefitting from balanced, consistent nutrition.
If you have any questions or would like to learn more, don’t hesitate to reach out to your Reinders sales reps today!
Check out our Turf & Landscaping library to help you further plan for the spring season!
