Weed Free - Complete Weed Control Solutions

Complete Weed Control Solutions for Turf

Spring is here and the grass on golf course fairways and sports fields is slowly being mown and brought back out of the winter doldrums.

It is going to be a late spring. The act of mowing a grass area will stimulate a little natural growth and green up as will aeration. So when is the best time to control weeds in turf?

Keep on Caravanning...

With the first day of Spring upon us and the weather trying to keep us out of the great outdoors, this weekend thousands of camping and caravan sites will open their doors to welcome those brave enough to get out and experience some much welcome fresh air after the very long winter.

Local Authorities permit camping and caravan sites to set up with minimal planning permission on the understanding that they will only open March to October. To be honest the demand for caravanning and camping reduces once it gets colder and water systems in shower and toilet blocks get drained down much like golf course irrigation systems to coincide with the arrival of night time frosts.

Funding boost for school sports

Ministers are preparing to plough up to £150million into primary schools to help them improve sports reports The Daily Mail today.

Downing Street is expected to make an announcement in the next few days on a new scheme to give schools thousands of pounds which must be spent on sport.

The money will help ensure that children will continue to have access to specialist sports teaching at least once a week, with a focus on competitive sports.

Turf Problem Solver on iPhone App available from Bayer

As part of their planned series of new innovations Bayer has launched a dedicated smartphone app for the turf and amenity sector.

The Bayer TurfXpert app has been specifically developed with turf professionals in mind and has been designed to help identify turf weeds, diseases and insects whilst in the field. Once identified, advice is given on the best methods of control.

Bayer's Product Manager, Claire Matthewman explains that this particular application is an evolution of Bayer's very popular turf weed, pest and disease wall chart, which any mature turf manager will know was a a great educational tool.

Winter Weed Management

At this time of year, every turf manager is wishing that the weather would make its mind up. One minute the temperature is almost warm enough to wear shorts, an then its forecast to feel like minus 10.

A one degree increase in temperature can double to metabolic growth rate of turf grasses. The grass will never actually stop growing, merely slow down, with monthly mowing sessions if ground conditions permit rather than weekly or twice weekly at the peak of the summer months.

Lawn Care Products Online

The Team at The Lawn Shop have over 32 years practical, technical and commercial knowledge of lawns and their care so you can rely on their advice and products as their Team use the Lawn Shop products on Clients lawns.

Their Sister Company, Weed Free also has a lot of experience of professional sports turf so whether you have a golf course, sportsfield, tennis court or lawn, you are in safe hands.

More than Weed Control

At Weed Free we have spent years selling turf care products and have a great in depth knowledge both on a technical and practical grounding so you are in good hands when you ask us a grass or weed question. Should you simply want some Advice, email us.

We are able to supply a wide range of pesticides and turf care products upon request to Turf Professionals.

We are governed by strict government legislation restricting the supply of professional pesticides to amateur users.

Worm Control Solution in Europe

With the pesticide active ingredient Carbendazim or Carbendazime as it is known in France, having had its' product registration revoked, professional turf managers in France, Germany and Ireland to name a few, are struggling to find a solution of controlling earthworm casts on their playing surfaces. Italy also has a problem with worm control.

Don't under estimate how many worms your lawn can have per a single square metre as the minimum can be around 45 and the maximum recorded 170! Actual worm cast numbers of between 45 and 119 per a single square metre have been recorded with the average 45. That's a lot of sticky soil on the surface of a lawn in amongst the grass plants that you could do without.

Weed Killing Garden Centre Planteria

January can be a slow selling month in a garden centre made worse by the heavy trading of Christmas items in the preceding months.

Once the Christmas sales have ended to shift the last of the stock at knock down prices, there is usually a time of consolidation and thoughts of ordering the spring time stock and planning spring season displays.

Gardeners and visitors to your garden centre expect to see what is in fact a garden in perfect order and your plant A-Z stock beds are the flower and shrub borders. Weeds we all know will grow everywhere and a weedy garden centre looks very unsightly, untidy, unloved and not very inviting to visitors and shoppers.

NPTC Training in the Safe Use of Pesticides

If you already work in the sports turf or horticultural industry, you would have already come across the term Pesticide and be familiar with the use of such products to be used as management tools to control a wide range of weeds and pests etc to protect what you are trying to grow or develop.

Anyone who uses a Pesticide need to hold a Certificate of Competence and there are numerous competence levels to obtain relevant to the type of application equipment that the operator is likely to use in their work.

There was an excemption clause called The Grandfather Clause that permitted operaters born before 31 December 1964 not to have a licence to apply a pesticide. That clause is now being phased out meaning that every worker needs to obtain accreditation from The NPTC - The National Proficiency Tests Committee.

Weed Control for Trees

Trees are good for the environment.

They absorb harmful Carbon Dioxide and release Oxygen for use all to breathe. They absorb toxins from the air and provide a habitat for wildlife, provide shade and also require lots of water that is often good for keeping an area dryer, a bit like Willow Trees in a wet hollow in a garden.

Young trees are therefore very important and should be given every opportunity to develop and establish once planted. Allowing weeds to grow around their base once planted will only allow the weeds and weed grasses to compete for any available water.

Weed Control saves you £££££

A weed is after all a plant growing in the wrong place. Weeds like other plants in the garden grow and before you know it your paving, fence and building lines have soon become entangled in weeds and weed grasses. Then starts the task of trying to get rid of the weeds in their new environment. Do you strim them, hoe them out, burn them or ignore them and hope that they die off in the winter?

Weed Killers are really useful management tools and implementing a structured program of weed control will save you not only a high labour charge, the cost of repairs to pathways, fences and buildings but also reduce the risk of fire in weed contaminated areas.

Grass Control in Heather

Anyone who doubts the importance of golf courses in the fight to preserve our natural heritage should consider the plight of one plant.

This article was first published in the spring of 2009 and highlights the work of Weed Free in the control of grasses in Heather on Heathland Golf Courses.

Heather, home of some of our most vulnerable and endangered species, the Smooth Snake, Slow Worm, Sand Lizard, Wood Lark and Night Jar, in the south, and both the Red and Black Grouse in the north, was, 100 years ago, so prolific on these islands, that we hosted two thirds of the total European resource. Nowadays, according to Bob Taylor, Senior Ecologist to the Sports Turf Research Institute, the plant’s presence has become severely fragmented, especially in the south.

Turmoil at Wimbledon Park Golf Club over 'Cheating'

Established under the reign of Queen Victoria, Wimbledon Park Golf Club has hosted some of the finest players the sport has ever created.

The late Seve Ballesteros and Colin Montgomerie are among many world-class champions invited to play on the meandering fairways in south-west London. Former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell and popular TV hosts Ant and Dec – Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly – are reportedly on the waiting list to join the prestigious club.

Amenity Assured scheme a significant step forward, says CPA

The Crop Protection Association (CPA) has welcomed the revised Amenity Assured Standard launched today (22 November) at Pride Park as a significant step forward.

Dr Anne Buckenham, CPA's Director of Policy said: "CPA was involved in the revision of the Amenity Assured Standard and believes that the updated scheme represents a notable improvement to the status quo. It sets out a number of legal requirements and good practices that must be complied with by those seeking to achieve Amenity Assured status and will help to raise standards of pesticide application in the amenity sector."