Testimonial – Garesfield Golf Club, UK
Shaun Harrison is head greenkeeper at Garesfield Golf Club, a parkland course located west of Gateshead in the North East of England. Shaun took time out of his busy schedule to tell us how he utilises Indigrow products throughout the season to keep the course in excellent condition.
Greens Programme
Due to the location of the golf course, most years Garesfield Golf Club start their greens programme about one month behind the majority of golf courses in Southern England. The hilltop nature of the course adds to the difficulties in getting the Spring programme started.
Shaun Harrison, head greenkeeper at Garesfield Golf Club therefore has to think about some alternative solutions to ensure playability as well as aesthetic appearance at the beginning of the year. Shaun told us, “regular early season applications of Fusion Liquid Fe at the start of the year help to give the colour that the members here are looking for whilst temperatures are still too low to apply our first granular application of the season”.
Early Season Applications
Once the temperatures have picked up and the season is underway, Shaun applies ImpactPlus Summer Perk 14-0-4 to begin the season. “The added Iron content in this product helps keep the colour in the greens that the early season applications of Fusion Liquid Fe had given us.” As well as the early season application of ImpactPlus Summer Perk 14-0-4, Impact Organic 14-2-8 Fine is used throughout the season to maintain feeding levels on the greens.
Tank Mixes reduce Disease Pressure
One of the major components of the annual greens programme at Garesfield Golf Club is a regularly applied tank mix of products from the OneShot range. The products regularly mixed and applied include:
Shaun explained to us, “we mix 4 sachets of each product together regularly in a tank mix. This tank mix is applied monthly throughout the growing season, sometimes when we’re applying other products, sometimes without. Since starting to add this mix of OneShot products to our application programme, we have seen a significant reduction in disease pressure on the course”.
The combination of seaweed, phosphite, amino acids and humic acids all work in conjunction with one another to provide a healthier soil profile which in turn will lead to a healthier sward. As the plant is healthier, it is naturally more able to resist diseases.
Ending the Season
ImpactPlus Perk 4-0-14 is used at Garesfield Golf Club to end the season. As with all granular applications on this hilltop course, the weather can sometimes affect the effectiveness of the product, with it taking up to a week for the nutrients to begin to be released. This doesn’t phase Shaun though, “we’re used to the weather affecting things here and we know and trust the products from Indigrow will do what they’re supposed to do – that’s why we put our trust in them throughout the season for our greens programme”.
