Technician Nematode Experiment

Despite being an Equipment Manager I do have a great interest in solving issues even turf related ones. While I don’t have a 4 year degree in agronomy I try to look at things from a lot of different perspectives. One of the things that intrigues me is the damage done by nematodes and the very few successful ways to control them.While riding the verticutter this past summer I realized that in all of the nematode areas the soil seems to be dry and sandy and just rips the turf up. The other areas seem to have a lot of organics. So I wanted to do a trial to further understand what was going on.

What I did was took a hex plug in the middle of a really bad nematode area in the fairway. I removed 4″s of the old material and cleaned as much of the old sand out of the roots as I could. I then filled the void with Max Sand and stuck the same plug back in. I started taking pictures and it is crazy the difference it is making. It is possible eventually nematodes may move back into the area but there is such a drastic difference and obviously more time is needed. This certainly ins’t a cheap solution due to the cost of the Max Sand but it is a start. My next plug I plan to use a cheaper mix to see if it makes the same difference in these areas and possible try a large area that we will just resod and add a 4 inch layer of Max Sand to see how it does. My point here is that you should never stop learning. I started the trial on December 28th so my thinking was I wouldn’t see much until we got to growing season. This may be nothing new to some of you but for me I like seeing the cause and effect so I can better understand what is going on out on the course.

December 28th

February 4th

 February 4th Overview

March 25th