| AgriBoostTM
Soil Amendment:
A Multitude of Benefits for Golf Greens and the Environment
AgriBoostTM is an all-natural mineral soil amendment
that provides many benefits to turf, turfgrass managers,
and the environment. It is ideally suited as a component
of root zone mixes for golf greens, where it has proven
benefits for the management of nutrients & water
for turf. At the same time, AgriBoostTM helps in reducing
the environmental impact of fertilization, and conserves
natural as well as economic resources.
Qualities and Benefits
AgriBoostTM is a mineral material crushed to approximately
medium sand size. Unlike plant-based amendments like
peat or compost, it will not shrink or decompose over
time.
AgriBoostTM has a high water holding capacity, and
most of this held water is plant-available. In a study
of soil amendments for golf putting greensby Dr. Wayne
Kussow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, only
peat moss held more plant-available water in the root
zone mix than AgriBoostTM. This water retention helps
to prevent leaching and increases plant water use efficiency.
This has already been proven with tomato production
in regular soil, where AgriBoostTM reduced the amount
of water needed to grow 1kg of tomatoes by over 27%.
This translates into a big savings in irrigation water,
or an increase in the area that can be irrigated with
a given amount of water.
AgriBoostTM has a very high cation exchange capacity
(CEC): 20 cmol kg- 1 for divalent cations like calcium
(Ca) and magnesium (Mg), 93 cmol kg-1 for potassium
(K) and ammonium (NH4+). Sodium (Na), which is detrimental
to plants, is retained very little. CEC is the ability
to hold certain plant nutrients in a plant available
form but protect them from leaching. AgriBoostTM’s
CEC is double that of a competitive, clinoptilolite
-based material (GSA, see Fig. 1 & 2 below). Most
zeolitic products get their CEC from the mineral clinoptilolite,
which in pure form has a CEC of 254 cmol kg-1. AgriBoostTM’s
zeolite is phillipsite, with a much higher CEC of 387
cmol kg-1. It also has high ion selectivity for K+ and
NH4+ over Ca2+ and Mg2+ (see Fig. 1 compared to Fig.
2). This selective and very high cation exchange capacity
is the basis for increased fertilizer efficiency with
K and N fertilizers. Water-soluble potash and ammonium
fertilizers essentially become slow-release nutrient
reservoirs once they are absorbed by AgriBoostTM. In
addition, the selective retention of potassium and ammonium,
even if excesses of calcium, magnesium, or sodium are
present, allows the use of irrigation waters high in
soluble Ca, Mg, and Na, such as water from sewage treatment
plants or diluted seawater.
Figure 1: CEC for Calcium
and Magnesium of Root zone Mixes (10% v/v amendment)
and Pure Amendments
Figure 2: CEC for Potassium
and Ammonium of Root zone Mixes (10% v/v amendment)
and Pure Amendments
AgriBoostTM provides a reservoir of micronutrients,
especially iron, due to its unique mineralogy. Aside
from the zeolite phillipsite, it contains palagonite,
olivine, hematite, and other minerals that slowly release
micronutrients over time. This is an advantage specially
in highly weathered and/or sandy soils that are very
low in soil organic matter.
AgriBoostTM is an unprocessed (except
crushing) and unadulterated natural, non-toxic Jordanian
product. It is recovered through environmentally friendly
mining without the use of scarce water resources. These
facts have been honored by the Organic Materials Research
Institute in the US by certifying certifying it as “organic”
(OMRI Listed).
AgriBoostTM Advantages for
Intensive Turfgrass Management
The composition of the root zone medium
for high-quality, intensively managed turfgrass becomes
increasingly important because of concerns for environmental
impacts and resource conservation. This is especially
true under fully irrigated conditions and/or on highly
permeable subsoils.
Once in the root zone, irrigation water
should be prevented from draining away but held lightly
enough for uptake by plant roots. AgriBoostTM has a
high water holding capacity, and plant roots can easily
access this held water. This results in higher water
use efficiency, saving irrigation water, time needed
for irrigation, and reduced leaching potential. However,
this high water holding
capacity does not come at the cost of slow water infiltration.
Unlike clay-based soil amendments, AgriBoostTM has a
mostly sandy texture that does not clog pores to impede
infiltration, nor does it swell and shrink with wetting
and drying. A sand-based root zone mix for greens containing
= 20% (by volume) AgriBoostTM will meet USGA specifications
for root zone mixes. Dr. Wayne Kussow at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison is testing a root zone mix with
10% v/ v AgriBoost. Its texture was found to be 98%
sand, 1% silt & clay, and 1% gravel, exceeding the
1993 USGA recommendations of sand > 92%, silt &
clay < 8%, and gravel < 3%. AgriBoost can be used
in new construction or for upgrading existing greens.
A golf course in Bethesda, MD has confirmed that topdressing
with sand containing 10% v/v AgriBoostTM is no problem.
The ability of AgriBoostTM to selectively
hold potassium and ammonium- N dramatically reduces
the chances for these nutrients to leach out of the
turf’s root zone. AgriBoostTM added to a sand
root zone mix at the recommended rate of 10% by volume
can reduce the leaching potential for ammonium-N by
90% (MacKown & Tucker, Univ. of Arizona, 1985).
More nitrogen will be available in a slow-release form
for the turf, and less will be lost to the environment.
The same is true for potassium (K).
AgriBoostTM Questions?
Additional technical information, the
actual results of the studies mentioned, and recommendations
for the use of AgriBoostTM for specific crops and applications
are available on request. Please do not hesitate to
contact ASI Specialities’ Director of Research
with any questions regarding AgriBoostTM:
Sebastian Braum, PhD
Tel: 816-668-7705
Email: sebastian.braum
@att.net
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