Boyce Hill Golf Club – Essex, UK

Boyce Hill Golf Club is located in the town of Benfleet in Essex, with over 100 acres of spectacular views over the rolling hills around Thundersley village. They have been an Indigrow customer for many years, but recently have added more products from the range to their annual course maintenance programme, particularly into their greens programme. We spoke to the Head Greenkeeper, Andy Harding, about his experiences with Indigrow products.

Greens

The greens programme at Boyce Hill Golf Club has undergone a transformation over the last couple of years, as more Indigrow products have been added to the mix. The main seasonal programme has had the inclusion of Fusion Liquid Fe, Asset Gold and Asset Chitosan. Andy, the Head Greenkeeper, told us that “this combination of products has really helped to dry out the grass plant canopy during a wet Spring, and helped us to keep the disease to a minimum.”

Andy said “whilst the Asset Chitosan has taken a while to build up in the plant, we’re seeing excellent results from the product. We used to have anthracnose disease after a hot summer period, with several problem greens, but our new approach has led to a healthier soil profile, and we’ve seen minimal disease for over a year”.

The Winter programme at Boyce Hill combines a variety of products, Solar Pro-Active, Asset Chitosan, Compass Bio-Complete, Solar K and Solar Ca+Mg all at their recommended application rates, applied in two tank mixes every two weeks. The Solar Pro-Active and Asset Chitosan are applied together, whilst the Compass Bio-Complete, Solar K and Solar Ca+Mg are applied two weeks later. Andy told us “this combination of products gives the plant everything it needs over the Winter. The products really do work together to strengthen the plant against disease. We’ve used this programme for two Winters now and had very little to no disease at all during that period.”

During the build up to the Winter programme, Magnum Recoil is used to help keep dew to a minimum across the course. According to Andy, “keeping the moisture off the greens in the Autumn is an important step towards keeping the disease at bay during the Winter”.

Tees

Impact CGF fertilisers are used on the tees throughout the year, with Impact CGF 28-8-8 being used in early Spring, and Impact CGF 15-5-15 throughout the Autumn and Winter.

The Impact CGF 28-8-8 is applied at 30g/m² as soon as the temperatures are warm enough to stimulate growth.  Andy told us “we get a response from the Impact CGF 28-8-8 around four to five days after application. The product lasts for the full growing season, giving us 5 or 6 months of nutrient release, depending on the weather that year”.

Once 6 months have elapsed and the response from the Impact CGF 28-8-8 has diminished, applications of Impact CGF 15-5-15 are applied to the tees every 10-12 weeks throughout the Autumn and Winter to keep the turf growing.

More information about Boyce Hill Golf Club, and course photos can be found on their Twitter account @boycehillgc or on their website: boycehillgolfclub.co.uk