Sweet Heart Winery Project.....

I was extremely excited when the owner of Sweetheart Winery in Loveland, Colorado, first contacted me concerning some agronomic consulting of the property.  Having been to the winery on a few occasions, I really loved their grounds. I always looked at the lawn areas thinking they could be something really special with the correct agronomic program.

After a meeting and walk-around with the owner, I was hired to do the exact thing I had thought about - come up with an agronomic plan for the property! So, I went to work on the perfect plan.  When you work as an agronomic consultant, there aren’t many times when someone tells you to do whatever it takes to get turf areas where they need to be. Starting with a blank canvas is always a good way to start. 

The winery sits on the Big Thompson River and is a very environmentally sensitive area.  In 2013, the river flooded and caused some major issues. The river restoration was just completing in the area at the time of my involvement with the property. Knowing the entire situation, the owner requested the use of an organic fertilizer source. It didn’t take me long to realize that one of my favorite fertilizers, Milorganite, would be my choice for this project. Milorganite is a natural slow-release fertilizer that I had used for some 35 years during my career as a golf course superintendent, and always was the mainstay of my nutritional program. Being a natural slow-release, Milorganite would offer the characteristics we would need. With the Big Thompson River flowing along the property, we wanted to protect the water quality and have no leaching of nutrients into the water. With the nitrogen in Milorganite, I knew there would be no leaching. We also wanted to build the soil structure and I knew that with the nitrogen from Milorganite, soil microorganisms would start to proliferate during the breakdown of the nitrogen. This would help build soil health quickly. With the winery only being open for two years, with minimal professional turf management, building long-term soil health was a goal of mine for the property. The iron in Milorganite would also be a big plus, as we could get some instant greening of the turf. Even though the use of Milorganite would be the mainstay of the overall fertility plan, there were other items to address as well.

The Winery is located on the Big Thompson River.

Although the property was not that old, the irrigation system certainly needed to have an audit performed. No matter what the nutritional plan was, if the irrigation coverage wasn’t good, the turf health would be the same. So, I performed a complete audit of the system. This audit identified many fix-its which would make the system perform more efficiently. Items such as crooked heads, broken/clogged nozzles, minor leaks, and programming were all evaluated and fixed. Once the irrigation was working well, I new we were ready to get the turf in great shape.

With the turf condition very thin and weak, I decided to also include a small amount of urea (0.25#/N/M) as a jump-start for the turf. I also incorporated some humic acid as part of the nutrient program. I have now termed the program “The Hybrid Method” which means a small amount of synthetic plus a larger fraction of organic.

There was one more item to address at the winery and that was watering. The owner had asked me to do whatever we could to save on the water bill. Domestic water in Colorado is very expensive, so anything would be helpful. Colorado also experiences some very consistent dry weather with very low relative humidity. It’s not uncommon to have ET (evapotranspiration) rates run as high as 0.35” + per day. So, I knew that there was no doubting the fact that the use of a wetting agent would make perfect sense for these issues. Although there are many manufacturers’ claims of what wetting agents do, the research tells us there are two definite benefits - they reduce surface tension and produce better soil moisture uniformity. Needless to say, I decided to incorporate a wetting agent as part of the overall management plan.

Before Photo.

At six weeks after irrigation audit and product applications.

I’m very pleased to say the results have been truly fantastic. The grounds at the winery have improved tremendously since the initial applications.  Going forward,  I believe regular Milorganite and wetting agent applications will be the backbone of turfgrass health at the Sweetheart Winery. Stay tuned to the blog for future updates.