The Biological Approach to Sports Turf Management

Heavily used golf and bowling greens, tennis courts, criket pitches and football and rugby stadia are quite unnatural places to grow grass yet the very success of the venue depends upon the quality of grass and the Greenkeeper or Groundsman that look after it.

At Symbio we know how hard it is to produce a good playing surface 365 days a year.

Symbio first launched its Biological Approach to Sports Turf Management in 1992. Since then we have developed solutions to all the main problems facing sports turf managers and a range of products that allow the maintenance of excellence.

How does it work?

Central to the effectiveness of Symbio's product range is the patented process of Biofixation Procede CORTM. Symbio identify and culture the best microbial strains for a range of tasks. The selected bacteria and fungi are fixed to engineered mineral supports and micronutrients to give them their own "survival suit" so they can flourish in hostile environments. The process protects the microbes from ultra violet light and locks up heavy metals while providing the correct nutrients for rapid reproduction.

Most greens and sports pitches have to be built or maintained on fast draining sterile soils. Analysis shows that the average golf green supports less than 1% of the bacteria and fungi, found on ordinary grassland.

Rootzone bacteria and fungi are essential for the uptake of nutrient into the plant and to prevent the establishment of turf grass diseases. Without these beneficial microbes, excess fertiliser must be applied, this results in soft top growth. Weaker grass is susceptible to diseases like fusarium, fungicides are applied which further reduce the beneficial microbes, thatch builds up, more fertiliser is used and the cycle repeats itself.

Break the cycle with Symbio Green Circle

We have split our products into three groups for ease of Problem Solving, Problem Prevention, and Maintaining Excellence.

Problem Solving

Symbio Thatch Eater. Our best selling product. Applied just once in spring or early summer it breaks down thatch and feeds nutrient to the rootzone. With less thatch you will get firmer, faster greens, less disease, and use less fertiliser. Guarantee - We are so confident that Symbio Thatch Eater will give you the results you want that if you aerate at least once per month and do not see a reduction in thatch we will provide Symbio Thatch Eater free of charge for up to a year until the thatch starts to degrade.

See what independent journalists have found out about Symbio Thatcheater.

Independent reporting by Horticulture Week April 1999

"Five years ago most of Sheffield City Councils 52 bowling greens were in very poor condition and, for a while, it looked as though re-turfing was the only answer. … The problems were many but most notably a layer of thatch, some six or seven centimetres deep was preventing water getting down to the rootzone. Unwanted Poa annua was all that survived in the squelchy thatch. An extensive turf culture operation of scarification, hollow tinning and overseeding gave good results initially but with in a matter of weeks a mycelium culture had developed throughout the thatch, turning it white, sealing the surface again and killing off the new grasses. It was basically a slimy mess. Ernest Brewin, parks manager decided to try Symbio's programme of treatment. The results were dramatic. "I was amazed at the speed with which it worked," he says. "It began degrading the thatch and quickly allowed the water to percolate. New grasses came through and the original grasses began to be sustained. By August they looked like brand new greens." Fusarium did show itself in the autumn, but it was less serious than previously. Symbio Resister is now used as part of a maintenance programme and no further treatments for fusarium have been necessary. Fertiliser applications have been reduced by 50 per cent.

A similar experience was shared by Radcliffe-on-Trent Golf Club in Nottinghamshire. But there, as well as a five centimetre layer of thatch, the greens were also suffering from black layer. The club tried a Symbio programme on three greens initially. "After three weeks the fifth green was transformed," recalls club secretary Les Wake. "Obviously the thatch layer was still there, and the root growth still wasn't very good, but the health of the green was greatly improved." The programme was extended to all 18 greens. "It has taken three or four years but the thatch has gone and so has the black layer. Root growth on average is twenty three centimetres," says Wake. Prior to using the "bugs", the club has a budget of just £5,000 just for fungicides to control fusarium. "If we saw fusarium, we sprayed it. If we saw it again we sprayed it again", admits Wake. To treat the greens the first year cost £5,000 but Wake says savings are now being made by not needing to spray. "We are now in profit with Symbio." He says. "And most importantly, we give our members value for money and they can play every day of the year."

Symbio MycoForce Mycorrhizal Inoculant. Available as a seed coat for existing greens and a complete mix of mycorrhiza and rhizobacteria and fungi for new builds. Grass grown with Mycorrhiza can double growth rates in the initial stages giving vastly improved results when overseeding and reducing the time to grow in new greens.

Click here to download testimonials and case studies.

Help Control Poa Annua. Research conducted for Symbio by the School of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway College shows that mycorrhizae are antagonistic to Poa Annua and that the percentage of Poa Annua decreases in favour of fescue and bent grasses.

e-mail us for research by Alan Gange School of Biological Sciences Royal Holloway College

Symbio Black Layer Treatment. Provides a quick solution to Black Layer when you cannot do the continuous aeration required to oxidise the layer away.

Symbio Oil Remover. Keep a tub on hand to break down and remove hydraulic, lubrication and engine oil spills on your grass or in the sheds.

Problem Prevention

Symbio Green Circle Contains 11 different species of essential rhizobacteria and 4 species of essential fungi, fixed to our patented mineral support plus a rich seaweed meal. One application works in the rootzone for up to six months. Green Circle ensures that the nutrient cycles that make nutrients available for plant growth, degrade dead grass and convert it to available nutrient and ensure a healthy biomass to keep out unwanted diseases are present in your sward.

A healthy microbial population means you use less fertiliser, fungal pathogens are out-competed, and when grass and roots die they rapidly degrade instead of forming a thatch layer.

Click here to download case studies of customers that have halved their fertiliser use when applying Green Circle

Green Circle is available nutrient free or ready mixed with Nitrogen & Potassium to save on spring fertilisers

Symbio Resister Help build up natural disease resistance in your turf. Applied in autumn or early spring, Resister contains all the vital ingredients in Symbio Green Circle for strong healthy turf, plus strains of bacteria, that utilise available nutrients to strengthen the rootzone against fungal pathogens. Resister promotes good strong growth at either end of the growing season while helping your sward fight off disease at this vulnerable time.

Symbio Phytogro A special formulation of fruit acids, vitamins and penetrants, is a growth promoter, which stimulates the plants natural defences, called phytoalexins. This allows the grass to fight back against common turf diseases especially fusarium and take all. Phytogro is non-toxic and can be sprayed by anybody taking the usual precautions.

NB Phytogro is not a fungicide and only works when the grass is growing.

Once you have established a beneficial microbial population on your greens providing a healthy swad the disease causing fungi will either die out or only appear for a short time. However it can take one or two years for natural resistance to build up. Spraying Phytogro as a preventative, or at the first sign of disease gives you peace of mind.

Maintaining Excellence

So now you have disease free, deep-rooted, quick draining, fast playing swards of the finest grass, what next?

Every turf professional with greens like that knows - Lots more hard work, but Symbio can help make it easier.

Aeration is the best biostimulant. Biological processes work up to ten times faster in the presence of oxygen. However there are limits to the number of holes golfers and bowlers will tolerate in their greens.

We understand this problem and have worked hard to develop a complementary nutrient regime, which provides nutrient to the grass without too much demand on the limited supply of oxygen while nourishing the bacteria and fungi added in the spring and autumn.

Tank Mix and Match

All our liquid growth promoters can be tank mixed and matched.

Symbio Bug Booster. A mix of liquid yeast and carbohydrates plus the most concentrated seaweed extract we could find. It provides a powerful blend of food for the grass and the microbes in the rhizosphere. It is such a powerful biostimulant that we have to sell the ingredients separately, when mixed it gets bacteria to grow so fast that the reaction can make the container explode.

Symbio HydroAid. A natural wetting agent with Yucca, which helps water penetrate the plant. Grass and grass roots do not take up water for a number of reasons, e.g. dry patch, thatch, a waxy substance can form around the basal stem, or the soil becomes hydrophobic. All these events are symptoms of lack of microbial activity, so if you solve the underlying problem with Symbio you may not need a wetting agent. But if you do you can be confident that HydroAid will complement you programme to re-establish the microbes in your green.

Symbio Oxyfeed. A 12.0.4 liquid fertiliser in Nitrate form that is taken up immediately by the plant without the oxygen requirement of ammonia or slow release fertilisers. Oxyfeed is ideal for use with a thatch reduction or black layer removal programme. Ask us about our soil and tissue analysis and tailor made fertiliser programme.

Symbio Liquid Seaweed. The same powerful extract of seaweeds as used in Bug Booster plus a small quantity of NPK to feed and nourish your grass.

Symbio Seaweed Meal. Harvested from renewable kelp beds South of Cornwall and off the coast of Brittany. Our seaweed meal is ideal for increasing the organic content of sterile rootzones. It contains a complex of the trace elements, proteins and plant growth promoters often lacking in sterile topdressings and sandy soils.

Back to Basics.

When you use our biological approach to sports turf management your grass will take up nutrients and fight off disease the natural way. Heavy doses of fertilisers and fungicides will no longer be necessary.

However, you will still need to feed the sward and we have put together a package of fertilisers designed to provide the right feed for all times of the year. Email us for a list.

Take the guesswork out of your nutrient and trace element programme. Too much nutrient leads to soft growth and disease, too little gives poor cover and uneven surfaces, and nutrient deficient diseases. Symbio provides a comprehensive soil and tissue analysis service. We can analyse for a full range of nutrients and trace elements and conduct a bacterial count to show just how well our products improve the biological efficiency of your rootzone.

If you want a second opinion or independent practical advice on nutrients Symbio has arranged a facility with Robert Laycock an independent sports turf agronomist with over twenty years experience of formulating tailor made fertiliser programmes to get the best results from heavily used turf. Our local distributor or technical advisor will collect the samples (or they can be mailed direct) and within seven days you will receive a report from Robert.

E-mail us for prices and more details