8/30/2024 - By Mike Hess

One constant challenge that turf professionals face is not only maintaining healthy and robust roots but increasing their overall viability and efficiency to save them time and resources down the road.

The Harrell’s Root Health Program has been carefully crafted with effective products and appropriate application timings to help turf professionals maximize root growth and viability, improve nutrient uptake and turfgrass color, and increase stress tolerance.

This article will cover all the products offered in the root health program, the benefits they provide your turf, and how they will help you over time.

Fleet® 100

Fleet® 100 is one of the most popular wetting agents on the market for its proven ability to provide fast, and firm putting surfaces. The advanced penetrant formulation helps drive moisture and products into the root zone where they are needed. Fleet 100 is often utilized during periods of high rainfall potential to minimize excessive soil volumetric water content and promote surface firmness.

EarthMAX® Organic

The balanced carbon, humic acid, and vast collection of beneficial microbes in EarthMAX® Organic work together to improve nutrient uptake, mitigate salt and other abiotic stress, and enhance overall root and soil health. EarthMAX® Organic comes from one of the highest fixed carbon deposits in the world. This is important because adding beneficial biology to the soil is not sustainable without a long-term food source, such as carbon. The addition of this product to programs should be considered to help in aiding turf health, survivability, and recoverability.

Root Enhancer

Root enhancer is an optimized formulation of fulvic acid, seaweed extract, and complexed iron for your turf, promoting stress tolerance, and root mass and length over time.

Seaweed A+E

Seaweed A+E is derived from two distinct forms of beneficial seaweed species extract that help to promote physiological fitness, stress tolerance, and root mass and length. Seaweed A+E gives you the benefit of the traditional seaweed extract that you know and love and couples it with the additional benefit of a new source to give you better overall results and increased confidence in your turf health. 

Mycorrhizae Pro

A unique and highly effective liquid formulation of the beneficial mycorrhizal fungi, Rhizophagus irregularis. Mycorrhizae Pro improves turf color, increases chlorophyll content, photochemical efficiency, root length surface area, volume, mass, and viability. The result is a healthier plant with greater root length, mass, and effective surface area leaving the plant satisfied, fungi-fed, and resulting in lush healthy greens ready to endure any potential stress people or the environment can throw at you. Apply Mycorrhizae Pro at one pint per acre per month in conjunction with wetting agents and other root health-directed products to maximize the utilization of nutrients and water in your turf’s root zone.

What’s Next for Your Program?

As we look to help these plants grow new roots and recover into the cooler temperatures of fall, we can lean on products that have been proven to aid in root function, photosynthetic efficiency, and overall root growth. Biostimulants like Amino Pro V, EarthMAX Organic, Bio-MAX 4-0-0, Seaweed A+E, and Mycorrhizae Pro are excellent tools to incorporate into soil-targeted applications and have been specifically tested and included into the Harrell's Balanced Approach Program, aimed at root growth promotion.

Contact Your Harrell’s Rep About Root Health

This is a great time to deploy proven root-promoting solutions to optimize this process and set your turf up for success leading into next spring. Conversely, root growth gradually slows in warm-season grasses like Bermudagrass, seashore paspalum, and Zoysiagrass. The cooler weather of fall often results in a slow, but steady retraction of root systems leading into winter. Using Harrell’s products that aid in root growth, density, and function in the early-mid fall months can help to maintain overall turfgrass health during what is often peak play (and stress) season over the winter.

For more information on Harrell’s root health program or any of the products mentioned, reach out to your local Harrell's Rep. They are your best resource for product recommendations, program info, and turf diagnosing throughout the growing and dormant seasons.