PACE Turf is well known for providing sound agronomic advice, and at their Answers on the Hour session on the GIS trade show floor, they gave up some of the tricks of the trade -- a list of their top 10 monitoring tools. Their top 10 was closer to 15, but the list is a product of PACE Turf's years of helping golf course superintendents solve turf puzzles and problems.
No. 1 in the top 10 (no, we're not going backward like Letterman) is a plastic shoebox priced at approximately $1.79. The PACE duo (aka Wendy and Larry) suggest using plastic shoeboxes (www.container.com) for irrigation audits. The boxes are less expensive than regular catch cans and collect water from a larger area. Just collect the water and pour it into a graduated cylinder. Add a moist paper towel and a turf sample to the box, put a lid on it for 24 hours and you've got an incubation chamber. They also come in handy for storing shoes.
2. A golf flag will indicate whether a green has good air movement or no air movement. For a more precise measurement, the Turbo Meter 271 from Davis Instruments (www.davisnet.com) will accurately and electronically measure wind speed.
3. A Seiko DM-50 metronome (www.amazon.com) will help a technician making a spray application maintain that natural sense of rhythm and keep a constant pace. There is no additional cost if you borrow the metronome from the music student in your family.
4. An inexpensive way to measure water and soil pH -- or the acidity of your saliva -- is to buy a small container of pHydrion pH paper (www.amazon.com).
5-7. Three handy itemsThe Ben Meadows Co. (www.benmeadows.com) -- and other companies. One is a hand lens on a lanyard for magnifying insect and plant parts and fungal structures. Be sure to hold the lens close to your eye and move the item you are looking at closer and farther away until it is in focus -- move the item and not the lens. Ben Meadows also sells the 6-inch Reotemp soil thermometer. You might also be interested in an infrared thermometer to measure the temperature of the turf canopy so you can be aware of impending heat stress.
For many more tips on monitoring tools, go to www.paceturf.org.
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