Functions of the Three PlantFood Elements

BY A. E. GRANTHAM, DirectorRead at the Fourth Annual Convention of the National Association of Greenkeepers of America at Jefferson

County Armory. Louisville. February 4-7. 1930

THE food of plants comes from translocation, respiration and me-three sources, water, air and tabolism, are essentially chemical insoil. Those from the water and character. Protoplasm is made up

air are in such abundance that they of complex compounds, whichare always present for the full needs differ from non-living matter; first,of plants. The mineral elements. in chemical composition; secondor those derived from the soil its power of waste, repair andmay be divided into three classes: growth; and third, its reproduc-

First, the non-essential, which, tive power.although they are absorbed by Living matter is constantly un-plan ts, are not considered to de~going change-the result of thehave a vital function. and has breaking down from its activitiessilicon, aluminum, sodium and and by making good this loss bypossibly manganese: the manufacture of new proto-

Second, the essential and abun- plasm out of simple food mater-A. E.GRANTHAMdant-in this class are iron. cal- A~,.icJ{ltllral Service Bureau, ials. Here is where the elements of

Virgilliu.Carotiliu Chemical Corp.,cium, magnesium and sulphur: Richmond, Va. plant food play their part. With

Third, a class which may be considered surplus protoplasm it makes new cells, morecritical, including nitrogen, phosphorus, tissue and organisms. It produces new massespotassium and possibly sulphur. of living matter contained in J:he seed or fruit,

More recent investigations, however, lead us which when deducted from the parent massto believe that manganese and magnesium are eventually begin a separate existence.deficient in some soils and are performing a more Let us consider the functions of each of theseimportant function than was formerly consid- three elements. Nitrogen is a constituent off:red. However, the purpose of this paper is to all proteins, compounds which are found as thediscuss the functions of the three principal in- active components of all protoplasm. Proteingredients of plant food; namely, nitrogen, is from the Greek, meaning pre-eminence, or ofphosphorus and potassium .. first importance. The protoplasm of the green

The use the plant makes of these elements portions (leaves) of the plant permits proto-,has been carefully studied by chemists and synthesis of the carbohydrates. the synthesis'physiologists for a number of years. The use of other tissue-building materials and theof plant food by grass does not differ widely formation of reserve food substances.from other groups of plants, although little What Nitrogen Doesdirect investigational work has been carried on THEREFORE, nitrogen is of the greatest im-along this line-the atten tion of the agricul- portance to a plan t. It promotes leaf andtural experiment stations 'in the past dealing stem growth and gives the plant a dark greenlargely with field-grown crops. color and vigorous appearance. The lack of

Plant Cell is Unit of Growth nitrogen is shown by pale green or yellowishTHE plant cell is the unit of growth. The leaves. Excess nitrogen gives rank growth and

principle of life in the cell is protoplasm; it retards the ripening process. Excess nitrogenis the laboratory in which all the changes, which produces a soft plant tissue. due to the weakconstitute the changes of the plant, take place. cell wall, which is in turn subject to plant dis-The vital processes of plants-assimilation, eases.

PAGE ELEVEN

PAGE TWELVE The National Greenkeeper MARCH, 1930

If we turn to field crops, on which moststudies have been made with reference to nutri-tion, we find that wheat and oats, when sup-plied with heavy applications of nitrogen, haveweak stalk growth, which makes the plantssubject to lodging and to such diseases as rustand others. Wheat and oats belong to thegrass family, although they are annuals. Thesame results are found with such crops as to-bacco. While excess nitrogen produces largeplants and abundant leafage, the tissues are notfirm and fail to mature properly and the plantis much subject to disease. In the early growthof plants nitrogen is largely in the leaves-laterit is transferred to the seed.

Phosphorus Stimulates Root Growth

THE second elemen t, phosphorus, while di-rectl y essen tial to plant growth, the effect is

not so visible in the general appearance or color.Available phosphorus in early growth stimu-lates root development, an important featureof grass growth. It hastens the developmentof adventitious buds or rootlets on plants thatreproduce themselves by tillers, root-stalks orstolons. Most plan ts send out a secondary setof rootlets after those that have been produceddirectly with the seed. It is with these sec-ondary rootlets that the phosphoric acid seemsto have very active effect.

Farmers well know that wheat, seeded in thefall and fertilized with phosphates, makes amuch better root system and is less subject toaction of frost during the winter than wheatnot so treated. This is evidence that more ex-tensive root system is produced by the phos-phates. Phosphorus hastens maturity. Inother words, it acts in the opposite way fromnitrogen and when applied with nitrogen tendsto counteract the effects of over-feeding of ni-trogen. Phosphorus is indispensable to plantgrowth, as it is the essential constituent of thenucleus of the cell. I t is said to determine therate of chemical changes in the cell.

Large amounts of phosphates are taken upby the plant in its early stages of growth.La ter it is transloca ted to the seed or grain,which contains large amounts of phosphorus.Since phosphorus is a constituent of every plantcell, and cells form the tissues of the plant. it

must be looked upon as one of the very im-port an t elements of plant food. I t has been re-marked that since grass on the golf course orgreen is not grown for its seed, then why usephosphorus. I t should be kept in mind thatphospha tes are necessary to the growth of allplants and whether the plant is deprived of theopportunity to produce seed or not, the livingtissues (the blade of the grass) must. havephosphorus.

Potash Forms Sugars and StarchesIT is generally stated that potash forms the

sugars and starch in plants. We know thatpotatoes, beets and sugar cane require and uselarge amounts of potash. However, all plantsrequire potassium, as it is needed in the cell sapto effect necessary changes in transloca tion ofplant food. Plumpness and size in tubers andgrains are dependent on plenty of availablepotassium. Potash hungry plants are moresubject to disease. This is particularly notedin corn, tobacco and cotton, all of which aresubject to particular diseases when the soil doesnot furnish enough potash.

The fact is well known tha t in general crops,excess potash retards maturity. This point maybe of value in the mail1tenance and keeping ofgrass more luxuriant during the season. Thisis probably due to the fact that potash main-tains the tone and vigor. of the plant. Thescarcity of potash is not shown so markedly inthe case of plants, except by rather retardedgrowth and the tendency to be more susceptibleto disease.

Each of the three elements, therefore, plays(; special part in the growth of all plant life.'While it is true some plants use more of oneelement than another, nevertheless nitrogen,phosphorus and potassium are found as a con-stituent of all living plant tissues.

The growing of grass under golf conditions,particularly on greens, presents a problem un-like most in the agricultural field. Until veryrecently little experimental work bearing di-rectl y on the fertilizer practice for greens hasbeen conducted. Of course, for many years theagricultural experiment stations and the U. S.Department of Agriculture have carefullytested out the fertilizer requirements, particu-larly the functions of the various plant food

PAGE FOURTEEN The National Greenkeeper MARCH, 1930

elements, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassiumin producing the various crops. Under suchconditions it is now pretty well known howeach of these react in the growing of the crop,and particularly the part they seem to play un-der various conditions of soil and at variousstages of plan t growth.

Golf Course Has Artificial ConditionsON the golf course we have very artificial

conditions. The plant cannot be culti-vated and on greens it is cut close, perhaps everyday in the growing season. It is heavily wat-ered and, to maintain the proper physical con-dition on the surface, repeated additions ofcompost and sand are made.

Heavy watering almost daily in hot weatherproduces a condition of soil tilth or structurethat may be favorable or not to the best growthof grass, particularly since this greatly dependson the drainage and aeration of the soil. There-fore, there are no other conditions quite com-parable. It is true with pasture environment,where cattle graze regularly, we have a condi-tion more or less similar. However, the tramp-ling action of cattle on grass is far differentfrom the effect of footprin ts made by humanbeings. Further, the treading of the grass\vhile the soil is quite wet furnishes anotherfactor that is not at all favorable. These aresome of the conditions confronting the green-keeper.

At the same time the continued clipping ofthe grass removes plan t food and in time thesoil is bound to be depleted of one or more ele-ments. The practice in many quarters has beenbased on the idea that grass needs nitrogenchiefly, if not entirely. This has resulted in re-peated applications of nitrogen in the form ofsulphate of ammonia or other quickly assimil-able ni trogen carriers. This has resulted inforcing the grass, and without question resultsin a weaker and less resistant turf.

The prevalence of brown patch during thepast few seasons seems to be somewhat asso-ciated with the practice of excessive applica-tions of nitrogen. While this has not been defi-nitely proved, there is such a close correlationbetween the practice and the prevalence of thisfungus that the relation is hardly to be ques-tioned. Then too, the soil on greens particu-

larly is being constantly modified, due to theadditions of sand, compost, ete.

Most Soils Need PhosphorusMO~T soils in the United States are deficient

in phosphorus. In other words, undernormal field conditions there is not enoughavailable phosphorus to give a full growth toman y crops. This should be borne in mindin building greens, that sufficient fertilizer,carrying all three elements of plant food, par-ticularly phosphates and potash, should be ap-plied to the soil before the greens are seeded.The same applies to fairways. The reason forthe objection to the use of phosphates andpotash in fertilizer often lies in the idea thatthese ingredients of plant food promote thegrowth of clover. It is probably true on soilshungry for these elements that clover will comeIn to some extent. However, the association ofclovers with blue grass is one that is constantlychanging.

Where land is made suitable to grow clover,blue grass is likely to follow rather than thereverse. l~he best blue grass lands of Kentuckycontain many times as much phosphorus asthey do nitrogen and these are almost pure bluegrass lands. In other parts of the coun try,western Virginia, southern Wisconsin andnorthern Illinois, we find some of the mosttypical blue grass, but it is noticeable that theyare on soils that are rich in phosphates and pot-ash. It is a noticeable fact that stands of le-gumes, such as sweet clover, alfalfa and evenJapanese clover, are followed by blue grass,which tends eventually to crowd them out.The ni trogen gathered by the legumes seems tofavor the spreading of the true grasses.

Some of the best stands of blue grass I haveever seen followed, wi thou t seeding, fields ofalfalfa where the alfalfa was gradually crowdedout by the encroachment of the grass.

Recent experiments conducted at the NewJersey Experiment Station, and reported in theDecember issue of the National Green-keeper, offer some very good evidence alongthis line. These tests have been running forseve,ra,lyears. It was found there that the platsreceIvIng a complete fertilizer showed the leastamount of white clover, the most white cloverappearing on the check plat. Likewise, tests

PAGE SIXTEEN The National Greenkeeper MARCH. 1930

with lime, against which considerable prejudicehas been aroused in recen t years, showed thatlime did not increase weeds where ample plantfood was added in addition, and it was alsonoted that lime plus fertilizer gave the best andmost uniform growth.

These points are merely brought out to showthat perhaps there is not as much danger to befeared from the use of fertilizer carrying phos-phates and potash, and perhaps the use of lime,as is generally considered. It is true that bentgrass is largely used on greens proper. Thebents in their native states grow on soils thathave a good supply of potash-blue grass par-ticularly where there are abundant phosphates.

Tests on Pasture GrassesDURING the past two years The National

Fertilizer Association has conducted alarge number of tests on top-dressing pas-ture grasses in various parts of the easternstates and New England. These tests con-sisted of comparing results secured with the ap-plication of phosphates, potash and phos-phates, and nitrogen, phosphates and potash.Most of these pastures had. been down for yearsand many of them were on native foundation.It is interesting to note that while the completefertilizer gave the greatest returns in growthof grass, nevertheless phosphate and potashcombined made as much yield as the nitrogen.In other words, phosphates produced 341pounds, potash 302 pounds and ni trogen alone650 pounds. Of further interest was the factthat the plat receiving all three elements ofplant food maintained a more vigorous growthduring the hot summer weather than wheresingle elements were used.

The fact that potash tends to delay maturitywhen applied in liberal amounts may havesome bearing on this poin t. In these tests itwas found that phosphates and potash did in-crease the amount of clover, but where nitrogen\vas applied in addition the grass was furtherstimulated and became a very strong competi-tor of the clover. Subsequently it may appearthat, due to the greater growth of clover, thetrue grasses will grow more luxuriantly as hasbeen observed elsewhere.

It is worth while remembering that otherplan ts, such as lettuce, spinach and plants

grown for their leafy tops are fertilized notonly with nitrogen but with large amountsof phosphates and potash also. With grass,we have been trying to keep it growing inmany cases by the use of nitrogen alone.Some green keepers have found already thatthey can well afford to apply some com-plete fertilizer to greens, even during thesummer, if applied in very small quantitiesalong with the compost that is usually put on.Of course, this has to be done with care, butwhere greens seem to be lacking vigor and toneundoubtedly fertilizer carrying phosphates andpotash will be of much benefit.

Apply Fertilizers Early in SeasonWHERE complete fertilizers are applied it

seems from all evidence obtainable atpresent that it should be applied very early inthe growing season, as soon as grass showssigns of renewed growth in the spring. Thetest conducted by The National Fertilizer As-sociation, referred to above, showed that wherethe top-dressing was made early that there wastw:ice as much grass produced as where it wasapplied 30 to 50 days later.

The early application of top-dressing meansmore vigorous and better turf earlier in theseason and a very much better established grassduring the late summer. Golf courses thatformerly applied fertilizers in the usual man-ner-after the grass is well established-havefound upon changing methods and applyingthe fertilizer very ear Iy tha t they have receiveda much more permanent growth of grass.

Much of our knowledge of growing grass isempirical. What we need is some definite ex-perimental work to establish the factors mostfavorable to growing grass under the very arti-ficial conditions now obtaining on greens andeven on fairways. One of the lines of workthat might be undertaken is a study of the rootsystem developmen t as effected by the repea tedcutting.

Does frequent cutting weaken or tend tostrengthen the root system?

Does the heavy watering during the summerkeep the feeding roots near the surface or doesit cause them to go down?

These factors have a de~nite relation to the(Continued on page 50)

High Spots of the Convention-(Frompage9)

PAGE FIFTY

T oro's Complete LineAs usual the handsome illustrated

catalog of the Toro Mfg. Co.,3042-3160 Snelling Ave., Min-neapolis, Minn., carries within itscovers photographs and descrip-tions of its complete list of golfcourse equipment. The policy ofthis company is to keep abreast ofthe times and every year sees some-thing new added to its already ex-tensive line, based upon the exper-ience of the previous season.

The Toro catalog this year dis-plays the new power putting greenmower with its light weight, 4-cyclemotor and eight-blade cutting reel.It is built in one size only-19!4-inch cut-with full length rollersfront and rear to prevent scalpingon undulating ground. The ma-terial and workmanship is fully upto the Toro standard.

Another new item is the ToroJunior tractor with dump boxbody, which is equipped with aFord 1930 Model "A" Heavy Dutyengine and gives speeds ranging fromfour to twenty miles an hour. Thewheel base is 98 inches and the totalwidth is 78 inches.

The T oro Junior tractor is anexcellent supplementary machine foreighteen hole courses and as an all-around general utility machine fornine hole courses, because it has sucha wide range of usefulness. Field

the Annual Convention in tokenof the remarkable services theyhave rendered for them. Both Mr.Morley and Mr. Burkhardt wereamong the original organizers ofthe Greenkeepers Association atthe first meeting held at the Syl-vania Country Club, Toledo in Sep-tember, 1926.

John Mo..ley, p..esident of theAssociation pronounced the An-nual Banquet at Louisville the bestever held by the Association.George Davies, chairman of theEntertainment committee and hisassociates were highly praised forthe efficient work they did not onlyat the Banquet, but throughout theentire week.

Ha ....y Bu..kha ..dt, chairman of theRegistration committee reported aconsiderable increase in attendanceover last year's Convention in Buf-falo. He sprung an innovation thisyear by issuing three sets of badges-one for members of the Associa-

The National Greenkeepertests have proved that the newToro tractor will climb a 30 percent grade with a full body load.

The Toro catalog is really worthwhile and should be in the files ofevery greenkeeper and Green com-mittee chairman. It will be sentfree upon request.

Seeds of SuccessEvery year brings a new catalog

from J. Oliver Johnson, Inc., Mor-gan-Huron-Superior Streets, Chi-cago, Ill., under the title, "Seeds ofSuccess". This catalog not onlydeals with grass seed, but covers acomplete line of golf course equip-ment of every description, as well asfertilizers, top dressings and diseasekillers.

Functions of the three plantfood Elements

(Continued from page 16)

permanency of the turf. Further, ahistological study of the cell struc-ture of grass should be made undervarious fertilizer treatments. Dorepeated applications of nitrogenweaken or strengthen the cell wall?This information is of value in de-termining the relation of fertilizertreatment to resistance to disease andattacks of brown patch. I thankyou.

tion, one for Exhibitors and one forGuests.

"Bill" Fa ..nham, sports writer ofthe Herald Post, Louisville after-noon newspaper who handled thenewspaper publicity for the Green-keepers' Golf Show and Conven-tion has been appointed Publicityrepresentative of the National As-sociation of Greenkeepers of Amer-ica. The appointment was madeby President Morley.

George Davies, the Louisville Jivewire, sprung a unique surprise onthe greenkeepers with his repro-duction of a one-shot hole in oneof the booths of the Golf Show.It was completely turfed from teeto green with grass which he grewin a greenhouse, had a creek withwater in it running across the fair-ways between the tee and thegreen, and was dotted with treesand miniature figures to give it arealistic appearance. This uniqueachievement was one of the highspots of the week.

MARCH, 1930

A Live WireBy Robert E. Power

THIS is the first picture we haveever seen of "Lew" M. Evans

sitting down. Just how the photo-grapher kept him quiet long enoughto get this photo is indeed a mys-tery. For "Lew", let it be known,is a live wire and about the busiestboy in the "Big League" of green-keepers.

Some months back wise old JohnMorley made him National Organi-zer of the National Association ofGreenkeepers of America. He hadJohn Quaill buy him some postagestamps and a couple of new pairsof shoes. Since that time Lew hasbeen burning up the trails leadingto the lairs of languid greenkeepers.And how he has preached the N. A.G. A. gospel to them is nobody'sbusiness.

So here's fair warning, one andall. If Lew Evans gets on your trailyou better join up because you willnever get a minute's rest until youdo. And you will be glad of it someday and will thank Lew for makingyou do i1. Your club will than k youtoo because golf officials generallyare fast becoming convinced that theNational Association of Green-keepers of America is doing moregood for golf in a constructive waythan any other agency in the world.