Thank you very much for hosting me an attending the McCall Meeting earlier this month. During one of
my presentations, I shared the results of the research we are doing on potassium requirements of
bentgrass. In our field plots, we have determined that our bentgrass gets all the potassium it needs from the potassium-bearing minerals in the sand topdressing (potassium feldspar being the most common).
Adding potassium fertilizer did not improve the performance of the turf, and actually exacerbated snow
mold damage. Our root zone and topdressing sand is quartz-dominated, but has small amounts of
potassium-bearing minerals that appear to be enough to grow high quality bentgrass in Wisconsin.
After my talk, I was given sample of a very white colored topdressing sand from Whitetail Golf Club in
McCall (Unimin BB 202). My initial impression was that the white sand did not have any potassium in it,
because potassium minerals tend to be pink or darkly colored. I also received a sample in the mail from
