Gutta cavat lapidem, consomitur annulus usu.

NEXT..... The Main Event...

16 Cores taken from 1 Green and close proximity to try and get as much original consistancy as possible, 1 a 'spare' for tests by me, one for testing as a Control at our chosen Laboratory, 14 to be abused and tortured until they beg for mercy. Will run for approx 8 weeks.

 A nice 2 tier Green that had the lower half rebuilt around 18 odd years ago to the common UK modified USGA spec so higher amendment % than you ol US boys would expect over a Gravel Carpet

Sward is Poa dominant but considering all non to shabby

Purposely they have been taken close together to ensure minimal variation at the start.

Right I must say a big Thank You to Phil, the Course Manager here, a BUSY busy PAYP Course in South Londoninium, for allowing me to 

a: Take more soil from his Course

b: Abuse it fully...

c: Keep harassing & haranging him all the time

Top Banana... Fat one ... but Top all the same

Okay lets have a little look shall we.......

So you can see a Rootzone, probably a 70:30 Sand : Fensoil as was common back then, a little bit of Thatch but not excessive compared to others. Of the 180mm core rooting was only down to around 75-90 for all the cores, a crusted zone for the next 60mm or so and then friable Rootzone beneath that that falls away.

All is sieved to 2mm, sorted to 'Zones' of Top, Mid & Base for future 

Here the first one is all seperated an all...

Turf Cap is being saved for another one of Mike's theories to test... Tsk

   

Right, the 'Plan' for this is to take 14 Cores, support for duration and grow on under individual 

'Chemical Abuse Regimes' 

To help keep them each will be sat in a sand bed, 2 theories to this, if I want to see whats pushed out later I can and it allows an easier way of moisture management.

First few going in, I used a Perforated Plastic Drain Pipe as a 'sleeve' to support then taped these up to prevent leakage or slumping. With only the top half of the cores remaining intact I end up packing the crumbled rootzone into the base to fill and consolidate

Eagle eyed will note that some above were black, then I ran out of tape and suddenly realised this may affect as there would be massive variation in temperature with the darker ones absorbing more heat... all Gaffered now.

The 'idea' to this is the Pipe Sleeve is only partially around the Core so I can just cut the tape open and grab bits of core later without dismantling... smart eh...

Location is South facing area BUT gets morning and evening sun only as I do not want the cores to cook in the day or sit in shade, seemed a compromise

And finally, as I have pets and a garden that attracts Hedgehogs, Foxes and apparently every local Cat something to stop unwanted outside influences.

So... while this is all going on I am also having a look at both the sand bed & one of the cores, just to get some 'base' readings to compare. One of the Cores is also being sent to a Independant Lab for some Physical & Biological analysis to compare back to later.... YES! Proper testing I know..

So the test as set up last Weekend, cores taken on the Saturday, sorted, supported and 'planted' on the Sunday, left for couple of days just watered then on Tuesday 29th the abuse began.....

And here they are on Thursday, couple of days later, no pics of the first day, was dark under lights  but hey thats boring anyway we want to see whats happening...

So there they are........

Core 1 - Just H2O - Control

Core 2 - Sugar (Tate & Lyle finest) Solution

Core 3 - Liquid Calcium Sulfate

Core 4 - Penetrant

Core 5 - Oxygen Booster (inc a bit of N apparently!)

Core 6 - Liquid Feed

Core 7 - Iron Sulfate

Core 8 - Mikes Favourite - Marmite

Core 9 - Granular 20:10:10

Core 10 - Coated Slow Release Fertiliser

Core 11 - Worm Suppressant

Core 12 - A'Curative' Wetting Agent

Core 13 - The 'Lucky' mix of 3 of above (4 if you count H2O)

Core 14 - Toxic Hell of most of the rest

Only one factor was important to decide the 'dosage' for each....

EXCESS

I literally threw as much on as I dared to try and OD without killing the core.

And as you can see here with No. 7 it was a close call..

I knew I had overdone Core 9 so I did water it on a little bit more than the others to prevent scorch

What I didn't know was I needed to worry about the 'premium' Coated Product behind it more, burnt the hell out of the Cores so I am working on keeping these back a little

These all look a little dandy for now... will take netting down next 'peek'

And these doing fine..... so far

The lil one on the left is my first core I grew on at Christmas, still going strong, Poa air rooting and thatching like mad...

So thats it for now, will give them all (other than Coated Fert) another little 'dose' ... OK big dose... laters

Just for now its more Observation time.....

TTFN

Ne supra crepidam sutor iudicaret.

Yes, yes I know..... I should finish the other thing off first... BUT I need to let the 'participants' know what it was all about first so you will just have to wait... that takes time all that writing thing...

SO.. in the mean time the first of 2 or 3!! NEW SHINY EXCITING.. Ok exaggeration, more lil looks at things to contemplate as part of the big picture..

This one is actually ALL down to a guy called Jon a fellow poster/reader on Pitchcare and a damned good mate of mine called Mike at King William College, Isle of Man who both had some very interesting thoughts on the ol Hydrophobicity thing.
Jon asked if I had tried to get rid of the hydrophobic coatings, I hadn't thought that far ahead in terms of actually seeing what gets rid of it and he mentioned using some form of Solvent so last weekend I broke out the Brake Cleaner..
Mike is one of those canny Groundsman who will research and look into all sorts see if it can help him produce better surfaces, even knows how much Marmite to put on a hectare! Well his suggestion was Chlorine so not wanting to leave that out I dug out the Pool Shock treatment and wetted a little up.

For this one then I took 5 further samples from one of the most hydrophobic Green Cores I had, all from the top 'zone', sorted these to 30ml batches and the first one was just left as is, air dried.
Next I took one, added some distilled water, stirred it round a little and then just nuked it in the microwave until it was totally dry..
Third one had the ol Brake Cleaner treatment, blasted until all was soaked, excess poured off and allowed to evaporate.
Fourth had the Chlorine soak added, a very strong mix like always poured on and stirred, this was then flushed out using a simple cut plastic bottle and filter to hold the soil whilst water was flushed through, the picture shows what was shifted off..... interesting that..

Now it may look like I have 'provided a sample' but this is what was the washed off 'residue' I did three lots as the mix I used was VERY strong and I wanted to remove as much Chlorine as possible, 

YES I KNOW not very soil healthy BUT seeing as I have NONE of the proprietory 'cleaners' available to compare this is a needs must thing, will be looking into using an easier to manage source next time, considering Baby Sterilising Fluid, again, easy to get hold of, simple to adjust strength, just have to work out what point to treat up to, when to 'flush', how much Gypsum to use to push out etc etc.. I feel another little 'play' coming along there..... Another post maybe?

Some Science there to get right, Maybe I should just go for the ol Barry Scott Method

Maybe even a new potential Sponsor for this madness....

Oh yes and lastly I just did a water flush, took the soil and wetted it up best as it would go then using same method above washed the grime right out... 

So as you can see the water flush DID get a bit of stuff out (some implications there i can tell you!) but not to the degree that Chlorine stripped soil goo as can be seen with the left jar..

So now it is the usual waiting game.. let it all dry properly then compare...

Next on this 'tack' I will be trying to get a 'Curative Wetting Agent Gladiators' underway BUT I am not having much luck sourcing any at the moment..

Scrub that last comment, since starting writing this post I have had one kind Northern based Gentleman offer me some of his wares.. I told him to piss right off but could I pinch a bit of his 'Curative' product.. .. SO, 1 down lots more to ask/borrow/steal to compare.

Will do as an equal protocol test, same source sample, soak sample with product at FULL recommended rate and equally flush to compare the wash out and then dry and test.... 

BUT thats another day and one to set up, the matter in hand.. have I made any difference to this soil.

Notes to remember:

Same sample

Nasty stuff like Solvents and Chlorine

Nuked in Microwave

Original Sample has been dry for over 6 weeks 

Protocol is the air dried soil will be placed side by side and a 5 Drop Droplet timed until absorbed, staggered start, 10 secs apart, replicated 5 times to get an average.

So here they are all ready to soak up

One Droplet is made of 5 drops

 And 5 runs are done to get an average 

This one!, no soak up going on there I can tell you... 

Not a drop went into the soil

In fact I got bored but it didn't matter how much I put on was like some freaky sand thing

So.....

RESULTS:

	COATING TESTS
No	#Uks FINEST	5 Droplet 1	5 Droplet 2	5 Droplet 3	5 Droplet 4	5 Droplet 5	Average
1	CONTROL	Start 0.00	Start 0.00	Start 5.00	Start 10.00	Start 15.00
	AIR DRIED SAMPLE	10.20	11.00	16.00	21.20	26.55
		10.20	11.00	11.00	11.20	11.55	10.99
2	SOAK & NUKE	0.20	0.10	5.10	10.10	15.10
	WATER SOAK &	3.30	2.30	9.30	13.50	19.05
	MICROWAVED DRY
		3.10	2.20	4.20	3.40	3.55	3.29
3	SOAK & FLUSH	0.40	0.20	5.20	10.20	15.20
	WATER SOAK &	2.25	2.00	7.00	12.30	17.10
	FLUSH OUT
		1.45	1.40	1.40	2.10	1.50	1.57
4	CHLORINE & FLUSH	1.00	0.30	5.30	10.30	15.30
	CHLORINE SOAK &	4.40	3.30	8.30	14.10	19.40
	WATER FLUSH
		3.40	3.00	3.00	3.30	4.10	3.36
5	BRAKE CLEANER	1.20	0.40	5.40	10.40	15.40
	BRAKE CLEANER	Gave up	Gave up	Gave up	Gave up	Gave up
	SOAK & EVAPORATE	30 mins +	25 mins +	20 mins +	15 mins +	10 mins +
							Loads

CONCLUSION

I will run this again, some minor adjustments just to make it a cleaner comparison, but I am surprised.

From the Air Dried Original what you would expect to be the most supposedly obvious improvement actually made things worse so I will flush this sample next time to see if that chamges anything.

Just a water flush made things better!??! How? This I expected to come out mid at best.

The Brake Cleaner may have freed stuff off but if it did it glued it back even stronger and smoother making it worse...

Hmmm, a couple of things there are making me think BUT replication is all in this game so run again to get similar and go with that....

Ok peoples thats one down for now.....