Tuesday, 11 July 2006 - 10:00 AM

Fertilizing Golf Course Fairways with Pelletized Poultry Litter.

Amy Sprinkle, Gregory Binford, and Dave Hansen. University of Delaware, 152 Townsend Hall, Newark, DE 19717

Golfing is a favorite pastime of numerous people in the United States, and this country has seen tremendous growth in the number of golf courses during the last two decades.  To maintain healthy turf on these golf courses, significant amounts of fertilizers are applied each year.  There is a belief among some that natural organic fertilizers (e.g., manure or compost) are “better” fertilizers than synthetic fertilizers.  The objective of this study was to evaluate the value of pelletized poultry litter (i.e., natural organic fertilizer) as a fertilizer on an active golf course fairway.  Three types of fertilizers were evaluated as N sources for turf: pelletized poultry litter (4-2-3), milorganite (6-2-0), and a commonly used sulfur-coated urea fertilizer (32-5-7).  This evaluation included monitoring turf growth, turf color, and nutrient concentrations for a period of two years.  The fertilizers were applied at multiple rates in both the spring and fall of each year.  Turf clippings were collected after each mowing, weighed, and analyzed for nutrient concentrations.  The results showed that the pelletized poultry litter resulted in a similar turf response as milorganite when applied at the same rate of N.  The results also showed that it took about twice as much of the pelletized poultry litter and milorganite fertilizers to get the same N response as the synthetic fertilizer.  There was no evidence that nitrate was leaching through the soil with any of these fertilizers, but some evidence that soil test P was increasing from using the pelletized poultry litter.  Overall, these results indicate that the synthetic fertilizer would be a more economical fertilizer than either the milorganite or pelletized poultry litter fertilizers.

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