By Jay Hovdey, DRF.com DEL MAR, Calif. (Apr. 10, 2014) — Del Mar president Joe Harper gazed westward at the expanse of his freshly laid turf course. In the distance, the familiar landmarks of Dog Beach, the Brigantine, and the AmTrak trestle were comforting sights, but beneath his feet was spread the new Bermuda grass, transferred only the week before from its growing fields in the desert. Harper looked down. “Grow,” he said. It will, although how fast depends upon how warm it gets in coastal San Diego County over the next three months and how the new turf responds to the various tricks of the growing trade employed by turf course superintendent Leif Dickinson. Dickinson knows he can’t fool Mother Nature, but he can negotiate a working arrangement. To that end he is using plastic turf “blankets” to cover areas of the course and retain warmth, along with environmentally friendly supplements to enhance growth rate. “It’s everything,” Dickinson said. “It’s water, it’s fertility, it’s nutrition, it’s adding the biology... ...
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