Sherriff the root to success at Milford GC
A carefully-planned turf nutrition and treatment programme utilising three key Sherriff Amenity products has produced a sustained rise in the health, condition and playing standard of greens at the Milford Golf Club in Surrey.
The programme is being implemented by course manager Tom Smith who joined the club a year ago and set out to make some immediate improvements.
“There is historic data which points to a high level of sulphur and a low cation exchange capacity so I began by looking at various methods and purposes which would improve the situation. I felt it was important to get consistency through the old and the new greens and essential to improve root development. After all, if you get your foundations right then you can build a house.”
As Tom says, the Club has recently built four new greens on land recently acquired by Milford Golf Club’s owners Crown Golf. Milford is one of 22 golf clubs in Crown Golf’s portfolio and was opened in 1993. The course was designed by the famous Peter Allis and Clive Clark duo and was built on the land of the famous Secrets orchard in west Surrey, seven miles from the city of Guildford.
Tom, who started his career as a car mechanic, moved into greenkeeping in 2011 at Wickham Park – which is also under the Crown Golf umbrella. With a newly found passion Tom set about completing his Level 2 and Level 3 qualifications and just last year was deemed the perfect man to take the reins at Milford.
Indeed, Tom immediately got to work and after facing somewhat of a baptism of fire in which he embarked on annual renovations in his first week, his attentions quickly turned to improving the root development on the greens.
Comprising of Sherriff Amenity’s Rootmass Plus, Rapid Root and SeaVolution seaweed, the three complementary products used within the programme are being applied at various times throughout the season.
“I apply the Rapid Root once a month at 15kg/ha and try to fit it in with my feeding and this goes down from May until October. I’ve been using the Rootmass and the SeaVolution all the way through the winter to increase the density of the root.
“The beauty of the Seavolution is that I can use it both with my wetting agent and also with my Rapid Root mix. The plant absolutely loves it and even in hot conditions the seaweed always stays wet. In fact it is probably the most natural product out there. The roots are like babies and if we look after them and use more natural products then the turf is going to be fine – it is going to look after itself.
“Since using these products I’ve definitely noticed more root development. From the top of the profile right the way down we are seeing strong roots. The plants ability to uptake and retain nutrients has improved and they hold a lot more moisture and stay greener longer.”
