Pogo Turf Pro System Manual page 81

EC – Electrical Conductivity, or Salinity (Continued)
When EC is very low for your system, you will see a lack of recuperative capacity and a lack of upright rigid growth that your playing conditions
depend upon from day to day. You will also see a lack of color consistency (not necessarily green, but inconsistent color) which indicates specific
changes you need to make to your program to develop more uniform and optimally performing turf.
It is important to note that EC is important to every turfgrass manager, anywhere in the world whether cool or warm season environments. You
do not have a to have a 'Salt' or Sodium (Na) problem to be worried about EC. If you fertilize, you are managing EC whether you think so or
not...and measuring EC fluctuations from your operations and inputs is a perfect way to manage that fertilization or nutrient management
program.
If you use granular products, you can very easily measure the peaks and lows of the release of the nutrients (salts) from that fertilization input. If
you are primarily on a foliar-applied program, you can easily measure the residue and its effects on EC left behind from the 'true' foliar products,
or you will see the effects of the nutrients that wash into the rootzone from these applications.
If you have inconsistent growth on greens or other zones, you can quite easily measure the uniformity of the nutrient releases across those zones
to know if walk on/walk off areas, maintenance traffic, shade/sun, or other varying characteristics are impacting the release of nutrients to your
turf system. POGO measures what the turf sees and gives you eyes into that system so you can understand the results of what you are doing and
how you can improve them moving forward.
With all of this in mind, there are general ranges of EC values that will get you in the ballpark with where you need to be. There are 2 influencing
variables that impact these ranges. This is determined from knowing if you utilize potable (aka 'mains') water sources or irrigation, or you utilize
effluent or reclaimed water sources. Since the irrigation sources greatly impact the solution in the turf system that the turf sees from day to day,
understanding your irrigation influences will help you understand the EC measurements made by POGO. POGO can provide a water analysis as we
do for turf and soil. If you are interested in this, contact POGO support at support@pogoturfpro.com and we'll be happy to get a test kit out to
you immediately).