Introduction
Golf course business in the USA has been under a vicious open surveillance; this has been prompted by the mere fact that most administrative teams have heavily been employing insecticides, herbicides, soil conditioners and fertilizers in meeting healthy turf. On the extreme end environmental groups should relentlessly encourage and enhance massive governments crack-down on courses that employ intense irrigation leading to soil over-use, chemical leaching that drains nutrients into rivers and ground water hence adversely hampering with the ecological systems. Power. et. al (2000).Research findings have indicated that intensive use of herbicides, insecticides and fungicides has been injuring the turf and hence predisposing the plants to infection by plant pathogens. This calls for the implementation of rational solutions in establishment and maintenance of maximum vigour growth of turf foliage and roots (Sullivan, P, 2001).
Regulated irrigation and fertilizer
Research developments have been selected with a central perspective hinging on the fate of pesticides, palm spring irrigation scheme and fertilizers applied to the Californian golf course; the development of alternative methods of pest control and the imperatives of the turf grass and golf courses to human’s, wildlife and the environment. Power. et. al (2000).For the California golf course to meet the CEFA requirements, turf should be grown in a particular soil mixture; thus an amalgamation of high ratio of sand of certain grade and size, with minimal percentages of clay and silt and a variable amount of organic matter in the form of either sawdust, peat, rice hulls. This curtails and eliminates soil compaction, hence enhancing suitable oxygen and water relations, thatch accumulation and salt accumulation.
For stable supply of nutrients, consistent application of moderate liquid fertilizer through injected irrigation machineries would help in containing the over- watering and salinity problems. Power. et. al (2000). The California soil management team should investigate the layering process, and the vulnerability of turf grass to pathogens. Since there is scarcity of information found on the relation of nutrition, balanced or imbalanced, to disease incidence, susceptibility, and disease development in turf grass. Further research should be conducted on the requirements of turf and the seasonal fluctuation in nutrient requirements that is related with season cycles.
Experiments should be sensitized in regard to the growth of roots as well as the growth of foliage and stems. Grass plants with roots close to the soil should be fed more frequently than plants with deep root system. Strategies used in the application of nutrients should be designed in that plants are supplied with consistent supply of nutrients evenly. Power. et. al (2000). The issue of factors that lead to the preservation of a good physical shape and dynamic turf requires an exposition of the truth. This champions the notion where all golf courses should uphold the growth of active and vigorous turf. Findings indicate that most turf roots are not firmly anchored into the soil hence vulnerable to enormous attacks. Power. et. al (2000). A comprehensive establishment of a vigorous maintenance of actively growing turf appears to be the first requisite for disease control, this call for an elementary correlation of myriad attributes that entails the revamping of the declining turf establishment.
The soil management team in California should enhance the development and adoption of concrete models relevant in helping the comprehension of turf disease, this is rather imperative since it helps in administering the right measures of herbicides and also the required ratios of irrigation.
Grass culture and the application of turf are very unique, this system of agriculture is very demanding, and it is entailed to be rather permanent, hence experience has indicated that the monoculture crop system is detrimental to the growth of successive crops. The management team in California should work to combat abuses such as;
- Occasioned removal of a large portion of the photosynthetic area of grass plants by frequent mowing.
- Soil compaction due to human activities, cultivation machinery, auto locomotion and athletics.
- Consistent accumulation of grass remains.
- Irregular watering practices
- Irregular infrequent and sub-optimal fertilization
- Notorious application of herbicides, insecticides and fungicides.
Much more intensified research findings should be conducted with a view to making clarity of the chemical, physical, and microbial characteristics of the turf/soil ecosystem and how they impact on the nitrogen cycling, uptake and movement of phosphorous and pesticide degradation and transport. The impact of pesticides and fertilizers on the golf courses and the ground in general should be evidently evaluated in order for concrete measure to be enhanced in maintaining and regulating the environment in regard to the CEFA requirements.
Integrated Nutrient Management
With the decreasing soil fertility, the concerns about the sustainability of golfing course are an integral topic that is under vicious debates. This calls the need for the California soil management department to institute and canter its focus on the employing the easily accessible resources more resourcefully, successfully, and foreseeable than in the past. Integrated management of nutrients is therefore vital for proper plant growth, in addition to effective crop, water, soil, and land management is rather crucial in sustaining the turf grass and the course industry on a long term basis.
The golf course should integrate nutrient management (INM) for increased turf grass sustainability and also for enhancing an environmentally friendly and safety. This model is agreeable with the demands of the CEPA since it endeavours to integrate organic and inorganic plant nutrients to realise optimum productivity, deter soil degradation hence, achieving the potentials related to the maintenance of the turf grass (Sullivan, P, 2001). The reliance on nutrient relevance and preservation new technologies to increase nutrient availability to grass is an integral component.
Nutrients equilibrium
The use of conventional techniques should be enhanced by the California team. The addition of organic or inorganic fertilizers into the soil is so fundamental since it helps in the conservation of nutrients and reserves of the soil. Oversupply of the nutrients and unregulated irrigation should be put under a heavy check, since it brings about economic inefficiency, environmental degradation and also harms the turf platform (Sullivan, P, 2001).
Attainment of nutrient equilibrium is an essential requirement of the turf grass, consequently the nutrient reserves in the soils are essential for maintaining optimum yield and soil fertility, preventing environmental contamination and degradation and sustaining of the turf grass over along period of time. Under extreme conditions, imbalances can be adjusted through appropriate applications of inorganic and organic fertilizers. Sullivan, P (2001). Integrated Nutrient Management incorporates the use of nutrients upstream more effectively. It has been noted that nitrogen has evaporated into the atmosphere through volatilisation. Innovative performances that comprise the use of profound situation of fertilizers and the appliance of inhibitors or urea coatings can be developed to address this anomaly. Based on the modest techniques, coupled with better timing and centralised nutrient uptake efficiency can be expected to get better (Sullivan, P, 2001).
Biological Engineering
Biological engineering is also elementary in helping turf grass generate most of the required nutrients, alteration and the creation of micro-organisms helps in fixing of nitrogen on the turf plants, hence curtailing the amount of nitrogen used and consequently wasted at the same time. Watson et.al (2002). However this model is rather complex and very involving while it holds promise of the future.
References
Power. et. al (2000). Soil fertility management: Turf grass: California University Press; pp. 112-119
Smillie et.al (2000). The soul of the turf grass; building guide for golf course greening; Chelsea Press. pp. 100-120
Sullivan, P (2001). Sustainable soil management; National sustainable agricultural information. Hopkins press. pp. 334-335
Watson et.al (2002). A review of golf course nutrient management using cyborg culture. Harvard school of agronomy; pp. 26-34