Against conventional wisdom

Eric Johnson is managing soil successfully by practicing the opposite of what he learned in school.

The basics of turfgrass science dictate gypsum and sulphur be used to lower a soil’s pH level and lime be used to increase the level.

“Putting lime on alkaline soil is usually considered outrageous,” Johnson says. “You don’t learn that in school.”

But Johnson is doing just that at the 270-acre Rawls Course at Texas Tech in Lubbock, and the results are surprising to some.

Johnson received his bachelor’s degree from Texas Tech and moved to California in 1998, where he worked at Twelve Bridges Golf Club in Sacramento. At his next job, which was at The Ridge, a Robert Trent Jones Jr.-designed course, he learned a new way to think about soil fertility. The method is based on the notion that it’s necessary to manage all four groups of matter in soil: water (25 percent), air (25 percent), mineral matter (45 percent) and organic matter 5 percent), Johnson says.

“Both courses did the same method,” he says. “At the second course, the superintendent was more open and forthright about it.”

This is where Johnson’s knowledge of the soil fertility method took off. He was given the book, “Hands-on Agronomy” by Neal Kinsey to read.

“I was impressed and realized what other golf courses were doing,” Johnson says. “I then read other books, and when I came to Texas Tech, I applied what I learned.”

The university-run course, which is in the transition zone, opened in 2003 and generates about 36,000 rounds a year. To add to Johnson’s challenge, the area has been burdened with drought conditions. Average rainfall in the region is 16 to 18 inches. Last year, there were 100 consecutive days without rain.

After looking at soil reports and determining the pH level should be lower for optimal performance, Johnson did the opposite of what people normally do – he dumped more lime on the area. In 2002, Johnson used 3 tons per acre in and saw the pH level drop by one. From 2002 to the present, he estimates 8 to 10 tons of lime have been added to each acre of soil.

“In a roundabout way, it helped us manage salt loads in soil with gypsum, and it kept water levels down,” he says. “The water quality is terrible, with 17-18 parts per million of dissolved salt.”

Part of course is native, and the other part is pure farm – it used to be cotton field. The difference in the soil between the two was evident when Johnson took on the project, he says. The soil on the farm side was destroyed, and he has been nursing it to be similar to the native side.

“After three years, I didn’t do anything but water the native side,” he says. “It was losing its nutrient load from just watering and the soil on the farm side was catching up. I use the native side as the control side to show what happens if I don’t make the adjustments.”

Johnson takes a minimalist approach with nitrogen. The fairways probably get 3 pounds of it per year, he says. And then there’s the water usage aspect.

“They’re seeing a major water savings,” says Larry Rodgers, an irrigation consultant with Larry Rodgers Design. “With more than 250 acres, they’re using three-quarters of a million gallons of water a night, where the nearby golf course has 100 acres and is using 1 million gallons a night.”

Not only does less water usage help to conserve water in the drought-stricken region, it helps to reduce salt load in the soil. But it wasn’t always this clear to Johnson that this method would work. When he first read about this soil fertility method, it gave him a headache.

“I came out of organic chemistry, and this is backwards of what I was taught,” he says. “But it made sense. I was working with an agronomist who thinks the same way as these books. People from the area thought we were nuts.”

Johnson explained the method to a turf professor, who’s now sold on the approach and uses it at the school’s football field.

Soil smarts

Johnson says the important part of the process is the ability to maintain and interpret soil data.

“I used to work in research, so I know how tedious it is to keep records,” he says. “I’ve had a lot of superintendents tell me soil reports don’t teach them anything. That would be the biggest sin I’ve ever heard. That’s like saying you don’t know how much gas is in a car by looking at the gas gauge.”

It’s also imperative to know the whole process of the organic soil treatment approach.

“You can’t just go out there and throw cattle manure out there and expect it to work,” he says. “You’ve got to do all these steps. It will be more cost efficient over the long haul. You’ll be reducing water, reducing electricity and using fewer pumps.”

Johnson is trying to convince those who are skeptical about organics.

“It doesn’t work if you only do one step out of whole process,” he says. “My mentality is that you didn’t do it right because I’m doing it and it works. And I’m not just doing it on small plot. I do it on 270 acres.”

Also, while he works toward a suitable pH number, that isn’t the only aspect to monitor while promoting soil health, he says. There are other factors, including salt and potassium levels, to consider as well.

“I probably have another year or year in a half of adding lime and other nutrients,” he says. “I’ll perform practices like deep tine aerification and a fertilizer regime to get the soil the way I want it.”

For more information about the Texas Tech golf course, visit http://texastechgolf.ttu.edu/. GCN