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I Don’t Really Want to Blog…
I hate blogging. And I don’t want to blog. No… I want to blog and blogs are really hip and cool and so I want to be a hip and cool blogger. No… I hate blogs and I hate bloggers even more. Wait… I...
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Git Yer Tinfoil Hat and Yawlp To The World!
I love communication. Love it. I love to talk. I love to write. I love to yell. I love to blather endlessly about not much of anything. I love communication. To me, there’s nothing not to love about...
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I Would Like to Acknowledge a True Friend
Back in October, I was having a bit of a life crisis. No…Not a bit of one…A huge one. And Thomas Bastis was there for me. So, I wrote this post in a place where I was working out some angst. I think it...
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The Killer Application
Last week, Sierra Pacific had our Spring Symposium. Just over 100 people showed up for a couple days of education and perhaps a little golf. The weather controlled the golf down to about 4-5 holes. The...
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On Getting Well: Something I Know Nothing About
One hit on the inhaler. Nothing. Second hit. Nothing. I can’t catch my breath, can’t stop coughing. I feel my knees getting weak. Mouth open. Hit number three. Nothing. This is it. I’m gonna freaking...
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Laying Down That First Water: Please Do Not!
I’m gonna keep this short. Don’t. That’s right. Don’t. Keep this word and all of its negative connotations in your head. When you are all excited, sitting at the central controller, ready to hit...
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The Sandpaper Washcloth
(this was published in the Sierra Nevada GCSA Chapter Newsletter this February. In light of some of the current discussions on the TurfNET Forum, I thought it might be good to port over here. Many...
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The Telegraphic Dynamics of a Successful Summer
Here is Spring and that means Summer has the throttle twisted in a pre-run burnout and is headed our way. Summer means all kinds of things to turfgrass managers. Long days, different grass types and...
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The Turfhead Mysteries, Part 1.1
Prologue This next series of Turfgrass Zealot posts is going to be a challenge for me. As much as I really didn’t want to become a “blogger” in the first place, I REALLY don’t want to tackle a series....
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Todays iPhone Adoption
Now look…..some people freak over Football or World Cup or F1 or Dancing With The Stars. That’s fine. Not me. This is the story of a man who embraces his addiction like the trained monkey he is. I...
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Whoa! All The Way!!
What Does It Mean, Man?? If there is one constant in the world of Turfheads, in some way, somehow, summer brings some kind of challenge. Like stuffing in the Thanksgiving Turkey here we Turfheads are,...
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Everybody Wants Some, You Want Some Too
Everybody wants seed! (and Bananas) It’s time to do some Agronomy. This fall, no matter what climate you grow grass in, you are probably going to buy some seed. It’s actually one thing that cool- and...
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Flying By The Numbers: Soil Temp Edition
Superintendents amaze me sometimes at the way they lick their finger, put in in the air and declare the weather is, well, something. If that’s you, Captain Windfinger, then we have some work to do....
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When You Just Can’t Help Yourself
Today, this week and really… all month, I’ve been angry. No, actually, I’ve been pissed off. I usually have what I have come to call “Red October”, where at some point I have a meltdown of some sort of...
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Fescue Be Not Jungle, Man!
Agronomy, you monkeys! Agronomy! One of the things that the “New Economy” is going to bring on is a whole bunch of talk about how to reduce inputs, irrigation, mowing and therefore $’s. Pretty simple...
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When Our Bodies Remind Us
I’ve been a little quiet the last couple weeks….. October was a blur of face melting insanity. If I told you how many hours I worked or how many miles I put on the vehicle, you’d never believe me. And...
View ArticleLast Chance Meetings Lead to Educational High
California Turfheads need the education hours that our wonderful state government requires for being a Qualified Pesticide applicator. It’s not a stiff requirement, a few hours of Laws and Regs and a...
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My Perspective On The Most Important Part
It’s time. Recent forum discussions, people asking me and even Herr Peter have prompted me to get with it and talk about soils. I’m told that this is one of the things that people want to hear most...
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Humus Part 1: Not Dirty, Hairy!
The Difference between Dirt and Soil has to do with this amazing word: Humus. I love humus. I do. I spend time contemplating how it works, what it is about and how it affects everything that we do in...
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Humus Part 2: You Need Fungus, Brother!
When the word Fungus is mentioned, Turfheads often run for the spray rig. Regardless if you want to talk pesticide free turf or not, there has to be a better discussion on Fungi and the resulting role...
View ArticleToday’s Turfhead Poll, March 31
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
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Fairway Stress Conditioning: Primo Edition
I’ve got some definite ideas as it comes to pre-stress and early-stress conditioning of fairways. The first of these ideas is to use a growth regulator. If you’ve never done this or fiddled with doing...
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Flushing the Faux Flush
For the sake of discussion spanning geography, lets just assume that in most climates, at some point, push-up or all sand greens need to be flushed. Today I’m thinking about the word Flush and what it...
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Roll Your Greens, Mow The Clubhouse Lawn
I’m a huge fan of rolling and it’s time, you monkey, to roll! And I think that this time the art of doing something that a lot of us have said was good is actually going to be backed by the Science. At...
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Hats Off To Atlanta Athletic Club In The Race To Beat The Tweeters
My twitter feed started going off and then emails and then texts. All of it about AAC and reports, big ugly reports of big ugly damage. It was this tweet that seemed to be at the heart of it all:...
View ArticleAnother Tip of The Cap Mangum from Feherty
There are times when it is just too much fun to get some credit and by goodness we don’t get enough. When everything and everyone does what they should in event golf, then a lot of people nod their...
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Sometimes You Gotta Stink Up The Joint
I’m convinced that one of the main reasons that Turfheads dont embrace the concept of application of Organic Fertilizers is pretty simple—It Stinks. Seriously. Who really wants to offend the olfactory...
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Spring Symposium, Dr. Frank Wong
I can’t hold it against him. Dr. Wong wanted to be with his wife in the DC area and well let’s face it, The University of California system is pretty much on life support. So now, Dr. Wong takes up...
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Spring Symposium, Joel Simmons
I can’t find a decent picture anywhere of Joel Simmons and it’s too dark to take a good picture, so this will have to do. Joel is on a mission. He’s good at it and he’s taken way to much crap for...
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Of Salts and Trees and Magic BioStimulants
I received this today in my email from a source that shall go unnamed because she/he/it is dumb enough to use the word Doctor around my name. Kind of like using the word Beautiful around Susan Boyle....
View ArticleTonic for Spring Confusion
I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused....
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Time For A Little Transition
Its time for all of us to go through some kind of Transition. For the Turfhead, it usually happens sometime before Memorial Day. Regardless of what sort of climate you find yourself going to war in,...
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There Is A Big White Sandwich-Making Sweater-Folding Elephant In My Truck
The largely unrealized goal this year was to write more blog posts. Inside of that goal has been my deep-seated desire to make Maestro Peter happy. He’d be hog slop happy with more agronomy writing...
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Water Is No Good If It Cannot Get In The Ground
Coming into summer, I’d like to talk about water for a few posts. It’s the thing that I seem to get the most questions about this time of year and it’s the thing that I see the most mistakes being made...
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Vulcan Guide to Soil Testing
Soil Testing. It’s that time of year when most Turfheads are gonna pull some soil tests. My experience is that for many (if not most) this is done as kind of a box check. You know you have to do it,...
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