Fine Turgrass Management

Fine Turgrass Management

Steve Cook, CGCS, MG - Director of Agronomy

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Salt


The Turf Care Staff plows and "salts" the club parking lot during winter storms, sometimes arriving at 3:00 am to get ahead of member traffic.

But salting the lot is only effective if certain conditions exist. Once the temperatures get below 20 degrees F, salting becomes less efficient and if traffic is intermittent the salt pellets sit on the pavement without fracturing.

Ice forms when the­ temperature of water reaches 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius). When you add salt, that temperature drops.

On a roadway, this means that if you sprinkle salt on the ice, you can melt it. The salt dissolves into the liquid water in the ice and lowers its freezing point.

If the temperature of the roadway is lower than 15 F or so, then the salt really won't have any effect; the solid salt cannot get into the structure of the solid water to start the dissolving process.

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