I think that there are good biological products that supply the nutrition and protection that the plant needs. But I don't see how they are any more GREEN or environmentally better than adding simple ag-grade soluble nutrients to your fungicide applications.
In fact I think the biological programs are less GREEN than soluble feeding because those programs typically require way way way more product, labor, and fuel to apply.
One of the few truly chemical-free golf courses I know of sprays the golf course almost every night with fungi-killing bacteria. How is that more GREEN than spraying your golf course with a basic fungicide and a tenth of a pound of urea every 10 days or so?
And you still don't have an effective way to control weeds or insects without some use of chemicals. A couple years ago I called up one the top chemical-free superintendents and he was spraying a bunch of chemicals, and way more often than I do.
In a sense this is what bothers me about the turf industry. I only use all organic and biological products and there is nothing about them that require repeated applications over and over and over for them to be effective. So I very highly doubt a superintendent is spraying, for instance, his greens every night with the same product going after the same problem for his product to be effective. And I also highly doubt a superintendent that is environmentally conscious and choosing to go organic is doing such while watching his fuel budget go 1000 times higher than his neighbors because of it.
For one, the fact that if he HAD to spray every single day for the product to be effective....all of those applications would STILL be 1000 times less toxic than the ONE application a super does with synthetic fungicide. And it is completely common for a golf course operation to have a dedicated, full time spray technician...or two that spend their weeks spraying. And after they do their weekly greens spray for foliar fert, then they go back out to spray a systemic fungicide on the greens, then they go out and get tees, then they go out and get 30 acres of fairways. And when thats all done they're out cleaning up the courses weeds with herbicides to take up time. Then 10 days later it gets done all over again.
There is no such thing as a "
BASIC" fungicide. Its all complex chemically engineered toxic substances that are meant to kill pathogens, weeds and living bugs systemically and by contact. There's nothing basic about that and there's nothing basic about its effects on the environment.
The problem in the turf industry is the clubs expectations for immaculate conditions and supply the super with big budgets to be able to utilize any and all types of pesticides at their disposal. And supers have been using these pesticides for years and years and I believe their perspective on just how dangerous they can be has been lost to an extent. Ive worked at Top 100 clubs that don't even hesitate for a split second to go out with cocktail mixes of multiple fungicides because of a little disease. And the catalyst for it is big budgets and the pressure to maintain immaculate conditions in order to keep their jobs.
Just like America's addiction to oil. I think the American golf course is addicted to pesticides. America uses 21 million barrels of oil a day and the closest country behind us is China at 7 million. Im going to go out on a limb here and say that the ratio is pretty similar when it comes to pesticide use compared to other countries. Just like it is important for everyone to try and reduce their use of single use plastics in their life I feel it is important for each super to reduce pesticide use, and actively seek out alternatives to synthetic pesticides.
The problem is not the single superintendent or golf course. The problem is in the collective of the American turf industry. Supers in general are just as quick to go out with a pesticide just as the average lazy American is willing to get in the car and drive 2 blocks to get their super sized value meal at McDonalds.
I commend the guys that have the interest and motivation to go organic and are able to communicate to their clubs about the lower acceptable threshold of disease, insects or weeds. There needs to be a paradigm shift with this and it will never start until the industry as a whole is able to communicate to memberships that golf can still be fun and their golf course will still be better than their buddies. And just like big oil, I feel like we are a generation away from truly implementing alternatives.