The EarthWorks Podcast

Understanding what your water report is telling you may be the key to your success. In part three of “The Art of Balancing Soils” author and Logan Labs Agronomist brings all three sectors of the soil tests together by talking about the water report. Your irrigation water can affect every aspect of your fertility program and in this installment we talk about how your water can be managed.

What the heck is in this bag of seed? Jerry Pepin, the Director of Research at Vista Seed Partners LLC has a wealth of experience when it comes to breeding grass seed varieties for the turf grass industry. We talk about how and why they select certain varieties that are popular in the industry today and some history on the grass seed industry in this country. Understanding the process by which the...

The Art of Balancing Soil Nutrients - Part II, The Water Soluble Paste Extract Test. Bill McKibben, Kevin Hicks and Joel Simmons discuss soluble nutrition using the paste extract as a tool. Bill is an expert at explaining how you can discover just which nutrients are and are not soluble in your soil and how you can build a program to assure that your plants are getting all the nutrients they need.

Humic Acids are everywhere these days but so few of us really understand what they do and what benefit they may bring to a turf program. Joel Simmons talks with chemist Lawrence Mayhew on the subject of humic acids. Lawrence helped write the testing protocol used by the Humic Product Trade Association (HPTA) to determine what is and what is not a humic acid. Learn from the best in business.

Join Kevin Hicks and me as we talk with Bill McKibben, agronomist extraordinaire, author and friend as we start a series on how to read soil, paste and water tests. Bill is the the agronomist at Logan Labs and has been a big piece of the EarthWorks agronomy team for years. We talk about how a soil test report can be interpreted and how the Albrecht model of base saturation can and is used.

In a slight departure from the format, this week’s podcast starts with some mid-season musings, thoughts about our industry in 2020 - year of coronavirus. But stay tuned (or fast forward to) a great conversation with Brian O’Malley of River Vale Country Club. Brian shares some of his strategies of how to do more with less!

Today’s guest on the EarthWorks podcast is Gerry Flaherty, CGCS. Gerry is the superintendent at the prestigious Valley Club in Hailey, ID. We’ll talk a little about his time as a welder in the Naval Shipyards in NJ, casino employee in Atlantic City to his early career in golf course management. We’ll also talk about the recent renovation project at the Valley Club and take a little time to discuss...

Jerry Brunetti was a founding partner in EarthWorks and a world renowned speaker and author. In this second version of this series we are still learning with Jerry. Hear Jerry talk about the importance of re-minealizing soils, a foundation of the EarthWorks vision. His brilliance and passion continues to be clear with these clips in a speaking engagement in Australia back in 2013.

Jerry Brunetti was a founding partner in EarthWorks and a world renowned speaker and author. In this podcast we have the opportunity to hear some of Jerry’s brilliance and passion as we share a few of his agronomic talks from a speaking engagement in Australia back in 2012.

Join us for a fascinating sports turf discussion with Troy Crawford the grounds manager for FC Dallas. Troy and I discuss, among other things, the ROI that he discovered by investing in amending his fields at time of construction.

In today’s podcast interview with Nathan Cox, owner of Desert Green Turf, we’ll discuss his approach to work/life balance, how he chooses which turf varieties to produce on his farm, and some of the specific (and interesting) projects he’s been involved with since diving into the world of sod production.

This version of the EarthWorks Podcast we have the pleasure to interview our friend Kevin Mercer, The Grounds & Landscape Manager at Denison University in Granville, Ohio just north of Columbus. Kevin is a very studied Grounds Manager and talks about his years in the golf industry and the transition to University Grounds Management. He shares some interesting stories about his unique take on soils...

This week I had a chance to catch up with an old friend, Glenn Smickley, the General Manager at the California Golf Club in San Francisco California. We talked about his days as superintendent at The Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, its establishment and grow in and the incredible network of superintendents that Glenn has mentored over his career and whats it like to move desks from the superintenden...

Today’s podcast with Tom Higgins of Jumping Brook Country Club discusses the regrassing of collars and intermediate cut around greens. Tom is a very generous guy, and it was fun to hear some of his stories!

This week, we’re joined by Travis Blamires, Director of Agronomy at the Tonto Verde Golf Club in Rio Verde, AZ. Travis and I cover his career path, some of the projects he’s worked on along the way, and his unique and effective approach to sodium management at Tonto Verde. We’re excited for this interview as sodium has been a limiting factor for turf managers in the Southwestern U.S for a long tim...

Join me for a conversation with my old friend Golf Course Superintendent John Chassard of Lehigh Country Club in Emmaus Pennsylvania. We talk about his William Flynn design, his stream restoration, biological soil management and the incredible culture he has built around his long term staff.

Thanks for joining us for The EarthWorks Podcast, today I am interviewing Kevin Hicks, 25 year golf course superintendent. Kevin and I talk about his experiences of coming out of turf school and taking over Dessert Forest Country Club all the way to managing the floating green at The Coeur d’Alene Resort. We wrap discussing the challenges of completely changing careers to become a consulting sales...

EarthWorks had the pleasure of talking with Josh Saunders of Lancaster Country Club a few days ago. Tune in to hear Josh discuss some of the joys and challenges of managing the golf course on this beautiful piece of property in the farm country of Pennsylvania. There is some interesting discussion about preparing for the Women’s US Open along with agronomic strategies for managing different constr...