We all have different reasons as to why we got started in the lawn and ornamental business. For me, it was a pure love of the outdoors and all growing things. When I looked at a lawn or a park with beautiful green grass, it filled me with joy. I didn’t see weeds and disease back then, it was just beauty. Trees were always a wonder, forests and groves are majestic, I would take long hikes in any season and rest beneath the trees just to listen to their songs in a breeze. These feelings are what drove me to do what I do today. I didn’t want to be a fertilizer manufacturer or a self-educated soil scientist, I wanted to be outdoors and not under fluorescent lights. The thought of a desk terrified me. So now things have changed, I do have to stare at a screen and sit at a desk (occasionally) but as I’ve grown in my business, my needs and responsibilities have evolved.

By now you may be wondering what the point of that paragraph was. Such as we are in our age and development, so are plants. The interesting thing about doing what we do in our business is that the functional needs of all inputs for plants change over time. In biology this is called senescence. Much the same as human beings diets change throughout the course of a lifetime, plants will require less of some things and more of others when they have gone beyond the useful reproductive stages of life. At some point or another, we have all had lawns like this. Grass that was planted from seed 50 years ago that just doesn’t stand the rigors of growing year after year can be found in many old neighborhoods.

I had one client in Reno that had one such lawn. She was near 80 years old and her husband had done the landscaping in the 1950’s. He passed away unexpectedly at a young age and she never changed a thing on the property. The turf was tall fescue which had long since been voted out as the preferred turf for dry desert climates and was a struggle to keep active once may hit. Now, for those of you who deal with fescue, we know that summer months can be challenging, this was not the case in this instance. This grass essentially ran out of energy and laid flat on the ground until next spring. There was no seeding or seed heads, no disease pressure, just grass that imitated an old basset hound on a hot summer day.

So what do you tell this client? Me, (being young and not understanding plant physiology at the time) figured that this could be snapped out of its state. After a few apps though, the reality sank in… this turf had lived beyond its useful time on earth. I spoke with the owner and explained that it was time to let it go. We agreed on a hybrid style of overseeding rather than just replacing, and by the fall, the lawn was gorgeous.

There is very important information to take away from this, and its time that the green industry pays attention. First some observations; has anyone ever noticed that sod or grass from seed seems to hold color longer? Respond to treatments faster? Have less weed and disease pressure? Why is that? It’s the same soil as everything else, theoretically, it should react the same. But…. It doesn’t…. Here we have relatively young plants that have not been subject to loads of herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, fertilizers, they’ve just been introduced to the “growing life” that they will be either enjoying or suffering through.

In biology, generational evolution is common. Plants, animals and humans all have the ability to survive and adapt to environmental changes as time and surroundings also change. Chemical inputs are clearly showing this on an exaggerated scale. Weeds, bugs and other pathogens are becoming more and more resistant to chemical controls with each passing year. Glyphosate was only brought to the market 40 years ago and already plants are resisting.

So here’s the kicker; as an industry, we over fertilize and over apply everything, way beyond the needs of the plant. So the plant has to use and transfer as much of that energy as possible. So what does that mean? The plants we are getting paid to take care of are getting stabbed with a butter knife every time we are out there. Meaning, they are experiencing a “Killing with Kindness” slow death rather than being allowed to thrive. A lawn would rarely have a nutritional or age-out die-back if it were allowed to seed and regrow naturally year after year.

I want you all to really let this sink in.

We all know that we can’t just let lawns grow willy-nilly and do whatever they want, we have to properly manage them and give the client what they want. So how do we do that? At this point, everyone who reads this knows exactly what to do. You already know that we feed less nitrogen, rely on more common and natural cycles or the soil food web, provide a platform to augment the soil ecology for the benefit of the naturally occurring microbial populations and we boost hormonal inputs to manipulate cells as to prevent expedient aging. Wait… what was that last one?

We don’t get into this very often, so this is an excellent platform to talk about one particular plant hormone called cytokinin. Here is the exact dictionary definition:

noun, Biochemistry.

1. any of a class of plant hormones, produced by the roots and traveling upward through the xylem, that promote tissue growth and budding and, on application, retard plant senescence.

Interesting, right? Now, this plant hormone exists in all plants. It is a triggered hormone that is a derivative of the RNA purine adenine. This hormone is a truly incredible one that dictates overall plant growth more than anything. Cytokinins are being manipulated and isolated for plant additives and are used in many turf and forage production methods. Typically, the result of an application is hyper elongated shoots with very little stability. Cells are far apart and strength is all but gone. While this attractive to growers who want tonnage early, the long-term effects, and the phytotoxicity are always a concern.

As many of you already know, cytokinins are present in sea kelp. The count and availability of said cytokinins are based on

1. What variety of kelp is being used
2. What the processing method is to preserve live cells (i.e. exploding cells with heat or a cold press process)
3. And final concentration after evaporative techniques.

The benefits of using kelp have been known for centuries, English gardens were often tilled with kelp to increase fruiting and flowering. The technique of concentrates and foliar feeding though has really only been around since the 60’s. We use kelp in low concentrations on a regular frequency. This is not a common use for kelp based on its ability to burn plants in the heat. The reason we do what we do and why it’s so good, is that the kelp is cooled against other carbon materials in our mix. This gives it something to cling to and ultimately detach from to enter the plant cells upon application. The desired effect of 70 trace minerals and 3 concentrated plant hormones are achieved without burn, forced shoot growth which effectually lowers stress levels in any season. We may not be able to stop time for plants, but I know we can keep them productive, healthy and more beautiful longer as we care for them.

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