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ALL TREAT FARMS LIMITED PREMIUM TURF COMPOST
All Treat Farms Limited has developed a premium, value-added compost to meet the strict demands of the turf industry for a quality organic soil amendment. The compost is derived from select feedstocks and uniquely processed to ensure consistency in performance. Highly variable and generic materials such as yard wastes have not been used.
The compost conforms to Canadian “Type AA” standards which denotes the highest quality compost available and is characterized by:
- High organic matter content (> 50%)
- Stability and maturity
- The non-presence of harmful pathogens
- The non-presence of inert contaminants such as plastic and metal
- The non-presence of heavy metals
- Low salt level (electrical conductivity)
The compost has undergone extensive testing at the Guelph Turfgrass Institute
(GTI) and has proven to be suitable for rootzone, topdressing blends,
and divot mixes. The material is screened to the appropriate mesh size
(3mm-minus - 6mm-minus) depending upon application and is available in
bulk or bag.
ROOTZONE BLENDS
Performance data have indicated that compost is a superior alternative to peat when used as the organic amendment in sand-based rootzones. The 80:20 sand to compost mix met and exceeded USGA guidelines and recommendations. In all cases, the compost significantly out-performed the peat-based mix. The data included:
- Turf establishment
- Turf quality (colour, density, uniformity and cover)
- Weed suppression
- Root systems (depth and mass)
- Infiltration rate and water holding capacity
- Tissue and soil analysis (N, P, K, micronutrients, cation exchange capacity)
- Disease suppression (dollarspot and take-all patch)
For the turf manager, the addition of compost optimizes those windows
of opportunity available for seeding and subsequent turf establishment.
Greens and tees constructed with premium compost can be opened for play
sooner and healthy turf can be maintained with reduced product (fertilizers,
fungicides and herbicides) and labour inputs.
TOPDRESS BLENDS
Field trials at the GTI indicated that when compost was applied at regular intervals as a topdressing (both alone and in combination with sand), turf quality (especially colour and cover) and water retention was enhanced. The incidence of moss was also less on those plots treated with compost. There has been no observable incidence of layering to date and this situation will continue to be monitored.
The compost demonstrates a key ability to supplement fertility programs and this is of advantage to the turf manager in terms of product and labour savings.
Field trials were also conducted to evaluate the disease suppressive
capability of the premium compost versus dollarspot and snow moulds (pink
and grey).
RESEARCH
For Research information click on the below links and choose the study.
www.uoguelph.ca/GTI/98anrep/tofc98.pdf
- Compost as an Amendment for Sand Rootzones for Turfgrass I. Greenhouse Trial
- Compost as an Amendment for Sand Rootzones for Turfgrass II. Construction of USGA Rootzones
- Compost as an Amendment for Topdressing Creeping Bentgrass Putting Green Turf
www.uoguelph.ca/GTI/99anrep/toc99.pdf
- Compost as an Amendment for Sand Rootzones for Turfgrass
- Compost as an Amendment for Topdressing Creeping Bentgrass Putting Green Turf
www.uoguelph.ca/GTI/00anrep/contents.pdf
- Evaluation of Divot Repair Mixtures
- Suppression of Dollar Spot Disease of Creeping Bentgrass with Compost
- Suppression of Pink and Grey Snow Moulds of Creeping Bentgrass with Compost
For more information whether technical or sales-specific, please send inquiries to alltreat@alltreat.com