WORD FROM OUR EXPERT

Surviving & Recovering the heatwave

Does your lawn resemble the savanna?

So, rain and lower temperatures have arrived, or arriving, and your grass is starting to recover. Is there anything we can do to help the grass plant?

Our resident tuf expert Andrew Turnbull highlights some tips for you. Read on….

First, we need to understand what happens to a grass plant when under drought and heat stress. Put simply, photosynthesis slows down, or stops, due to damage to the photosynthetic mechanisms caused by lack of water, intense light and high heat. Carbohydrates are the product of photosynthesis and used as the fuel to power the processes involved in plant health and growth. Carbohydrates reserves are stored by the plant during the cooler spring and early summer when carbohydrate production from photosynthesis exceeds consumption. Symptoms of stress, such as slow growth and loss of colour, occur when carbohydrate reserves are rapidly drained in keeping the plant alive and healthy when photosynthesis slows or stops during periods of stress.

read on….

Applying non-ionic wetting agents/surfactants helps water to penetrate the soil/thatch surface and plant roots are able to take up vital moisture. Recovery will be slow and weak, however, if there is no or little available carbohydrates, no matter how much fertiliser is applied. This is where TurfSolv can really help you and your grass. Unlike a  lot of other turf treatments, TurfSolv contains powerful surfactants that are eco-friendly, i.e. soil microbes are not harmed, and also a calculated blend of bioactive ingredients, carbohydrates, amino acids and trace elements. This unique formulation helps the grass roots to: access moisture; to repair the delicate photosynthetic machinery; rapidly transports nutrients into roots for recovery and growth of damaged tissue.”

By Andrew Turbull, MRes.