Green Space Cultivar and Nutrient Focus at Saltex

PRESS RELEASE

26 August 2016

Green space cultivar and nutrient focus at Saltex

Turf care specialists, Germinal, will this year be focusing on two key areas of green space maintenance at this year’s Saltex exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham on 2nd and 3rdNovember: maintaining a healthy soil profile through the use of self-sustaining cultivars, and examining the efficiency of soil nutrient programmes.

AberSustain – self-sustaining seed mixture for green spaces

AberSustain is a self-sustaining grass seed mixture that is perfect for open parkland areas, domestic lawns, roadside verges and green roof spaces. Featuring five UK-bred varieties, AberSustain creates a sward which is tolerant of low nutrient and drought conditions and which can actively bind and improve the soil’s structure. The inclusion of a white clover cultivar enables AberSustain to generate the majority of its nutrient requirements, making it the ideal option for landscapers and landscape architects looking for an environmentally and economically sustainable grass sward.

AberSustain contains the following cultivars, all of which have been bred for UK-specific conditions at Aberystwyth University’s Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS):

1. AberAce (5%) White Clover: with an exceptionally high stolon density, AberAce is able to fix 150kg of nitrogen per hectare per year. This eliminates the requirement for additional fertilisers in amenity areas with a low to medium intensity usage and helps to reduce overall maintenance costs. AberAce is also able to improve soil structure by putting down extensive roots which not only bind the soil, but also increase porosity and decrease soil bulk density. This in turn can improve the movement of nutrients within the soil profile, thereby enhancing overall sward health.
2. AberNile (20%) Perennial Ryegrass: the unique ‘Stay-Green’ quality of this cultivar ensures the sward maintains a good visual appearance throughout the year. This deep rooted variety also displays exceptional drought tolerance.
3. AberFleece (45%) Sheeps Fescue: as the foundation of the AberSustain seed mixture, AberFleece exhibits a very short vegetative growth and will not exceed 140mm when left un-mown. It also produces a dark green, year-round colour and is tolerant to low nutrient and drought conditions.

1. AberCharm (20%) Slender Creeping Red Fescue:produces a very dense, compact sward with exceptional summer and winter greenness. Inherently fine leaved, drought and disease tolerant, AberCharm helps to bind the sward together.
2. AberRoyal (10%) Browntop Bent: gives exceptional shoot density to help bind the sward and adds to the overall visual appearance with good winter and summer greenness.

Slow release fertilisers – the Activity Index challenge

As well as focusing on cultivar choices, Germinal will also be challenging visitors to this year’s Saltex exhibition to examine the nitrogen efficiency of their current turf nutrition programme and to reconsider their fertiliser choice.

“The key remit for any amenity nutrient plan is to ensure that the fertilisers used provide a consistent and long-lasting supply of readily available nutrients to the rootzone with the minimum of losses,” explains Richard Brown, Amenity Sales Manager for Germinal.

“Whilst an increasing number of groundsmen and fine turf managers have moved away from conventional quick release fertilisers in favour of more technologically advanced slow release products, it would be wrong to assume that all slow release fertilisers are equal.”

Mr Brown warns that, at best,the slow release fraction in methylene urea (MU) based fertilisers only actually contain around two thirds of ‘true’ slow release N, whilst many contain less than half. “Put simply, that means that the remaining N in these products is either quick release and therefore no more value than standard fertiliser or so insoluble that it may take years to be released.”

“In contrast, fertilisers which provide nitrogen in the from of isobutylidene diurea (IBDU) have an ‘Activity Index’ or efficiency rating of around 96%, meaning that almost all of the N supplied will be slowly and steadily released into a form which can be taken up by the sward for a period of around 12 weeks.”

In IBDU based fertilisers, the nitrogen is organically bound and therefore has a very low cold-water solubility rate. As such, it cannot be displaced from the rootzone by leaching or volatilisation to the atmosphere. This ensures that a single application of an IBDU slow release fertiliser, such as Floranid Turf or Floranid Permanent, is able to deliver a consistent supply of nitrogen over a period of up to three months.

“IBDU fertilisers produce a moreeven growth pattern, with none of the intense bursts of growth associated with regular applications of granular compound products,” Mr Brown continues. “Unfortunately, not enough green space managers are aware of the differences between the various types of fertiliser available, so we are inviting attendees to this year’s Saltex event to visit the Germinal stand where we will be challenging them to learn more about their current nutrient plan’s ‘Activity Index’ and to find out how they can improve the efficiency of their sward feeding regime.”

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® Aber is a Registered Trademark of Germinal Holdings Ltd

Notes to editors:

• Germinal Amenity is a wholly owned subsidiary of Germinal Holdings Ltd - the largest family owned British and Irish Forage & Amenity Seed Company.
• Germinal Amenity provides a range of grass seed products and services designed to meet the specific requirements of the amenity industry. Customers include professional greenkeepers, turf growers, groundsmen, landscape contractors, golf course constructors, architects, agronomists and ecologists, all of whom deal directly with the only company selling British-bred turf grasses direct to the end user.
• Buying direct from Germinal Amenity gives our customers access to first class technical advice and great value specialist turfgrass products through the “Grade A” grass seed mixture brand. Customers can also purchase from a range of fertilisers and adjuvants as well our extensive range of UK Native wild flower seed mixtures.

Further information:

Follow @wearegerminal for regular and topical information from our amenity and agricultural divisions.

Issued by Paul Jennings, Agribusiness Communications Ltd
Tel: 01694 731777E-mail:

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