Swardwrightparameter bench10/24 entries released
Swardwright parameter bench
Species profiles, operations and field symptoms, all reduced to numbers you can measure: cutting height, nitrogen rate, tine spacing, irrigation.
Two axes, set the numbers first
Species × cutting height
Three ways in
Grass profiles
One species per page. Cutting height, nitrogen, tine spacing and irrigation, plus the parameters those four are derived from.
Operations
One job per page. Working depth, spacing, the window it belongs in, and how to calibrate your own machine to it.
Symptom reading
A symptom read back to the parameter that produced it. If the reading does not fit, the parameter is what changes.
Four readings
Most recent releases
Nitrogen: split ratios, single-application caps and the soil temperature trigger
Nitrogen is the only nutrient you will apply every year, and the only one where the timing matters as much as the total. The method is an annual budget per species, a split ratio that puts the weight…
Zoysiagrass Empire: half the nitrogen, twice the patience
Zoysia sits between the bermudagrasses and the fescues: it holds a 15 to 30 mm cut, runs on 10 g of nitrogen per square metre per year, and survives drought on a 150 to 250 mm root system. It also…
Thatch over 15 mm: reading the mat and correcting the parameters that built it
A thatch layer above 15 mm is a structural problem, not a cosmetic one. It sheds water, lifts the crowns above the soil where they dry out, and harbours the fungi that cause patch diseases. The…
Creeping red fescue: the low-input shade grass that hates being fed
Creeping red fescue is the only species in this set that gets worse when you fertilise it. It takes full shade, survives on 6 g of nitrogen per square metre per year, and keeps colour on 15 mm of…
Hollow-tine aeration: depth, spacing and the two-pass method
Core aeration removes a plug of soil and thatch, and that removal is the whole point. Depth 75 to 100 mm, spacing 50 to 100 mm, two passes at right angles. Doing it at the wrong soil moisture wastes…
Perennial ryegrass: fastest to cover, first to suffer in heat
Perennial ryegrass germinates in five days, holds its colour through winter, and takes wear better than any other cool-season species at 30 mm. It also roots no deeper than 150 mm and is the first…
Hybrid bermudagrass Tifway 419: the 15 mm sports surface
Tifway 419 is a sterile hybrid, so it cannot be sown from seed at all: it goes in as sod, plugs or sprigs. What it buys is the most wear-tolerant, most self-repairing surface in this profile set at a…
Mowing: setting the height and holding the one-third rule
Cutting height is the single parameter that decides which species can live in your lawn. Set it wrong and no fertiliser programme or irrigation schedule will compensate. The method is a fixed target…