Is your turf okay with K?

Consider everything your turf undergoes during your typical season -- frequent irrigation, clipping removal, close mowing, drought, wear ... the list goes on and on. However, what turf managers may not realize as that all of those practcices and stressers may be depleting potasium levels in your turf and your soil profile

Potassium (K) is essential for healthy turfgrass to thrive and survive. It activates more than 80 plant enzymes that support the turf's physiological development.

Potassium plays an important role in turfgrass health because it increases turf's tolerance to extreme temperatures, drought and high-traffic wear. Take, for example, the recent irrigation restrictions and spikes in water costs. With most of the country closing in on the fourth consecutive year of drought, golf course superintendents are feeling and seeing the impact in their turf. And, while no one can control the rainfall -- or lack thereof -- superintendents can better manage drought stress through adequate potassium supply.

Potassiuim is a major solute in the "hardening" of turfgrasses for drought and high/low temperature tolerances. Without sufficient K, plants cannot maintain adequate turgor pressure in vegetative tissues; the leaf water potential declines; yet, stomata remain open, causing high transpiration.