The Primo MAXX Effect

Trials of the product by a forward-thinking council has revealed how it can be used to create a greener, safer environment

Last year, trials of Syngenta’s turf growth regulator Primo MAXX, which is supplied by Scotts, carried out by Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council, in Halifax, clearly showed that the product has much wider implications, and can bring huge environmental benefits when used on a diverse range of areas such as nature trails, green spaces and roadside landscaping.

Primo MAXX has already proven its worth on golf and sports turf for slowing grass growth, increasing lateral root growth, and generally improving the health and appearance of the sward.

The person leading the trials, Mark Dempsey, has worked for Calderdale Council since leaving school. As support services manager, his remit is to create a greener, cleaner, safer environment for all areas under the council’s control and to focus on environmental issues and sustainability. This includes parks, municipal green spaces, streets and highways. “It’s a broad area to cover,” explains Mark, “but the council is very environmentally proactive and committed to improving the community’s health and facilities.”

Mark is something of a visionary and is always keen to investigate modern methods and new ways of thinking to improve the environment and facilities in the community. His involvement with Primo MAXX began in January 2006 at the BTME show in Harrogate, where Scotts was launching the product. He attended a seminar and was interested to hear about how it was capable of not only significantly slowing grass growth, but also improving the general health of the sward.

Wild flowers growing after application of Primo MAXX

“It started me thinking about how I could use this product to improve green spaces. I was particularly interested in using it in wild flower meadows to slow the grass growth and allow the flowers to grow uninhibited. This would mean we wouldn’t have to cut the grass so often and the flowers would have a longer life.

“The science part that enables the wild flowers to grow while the grass is suppressed is complex, but put into simple terms a grass plant is monocotyledonous, meaning it has one true seed leaf, and wild flowers are dicotyledinous – two true seed leaves. Primo MAXX only affects monocotyledonous plants.”

	Pre-school children planting wild flowers along the Hebble Trail

Keen to test his theory, Mark set up some trials on the Hebble Trail in Halifax, starting in March 2006. There were two areas on test. The first was a bank of spoil either side of a tarmac cycle path which Mark wanted to revitalise as a nature trail. Two areas were marked out, and one was sprayed with glyphosate. The second site was a butterfly meadow where the grass was taking over. Wild flower plug plants were used at all sites, with an additional overseeding of wild flower seeds on the cycle path.

The results of these trials were quick to come and some of them quite unexpected. “Just two to three days after the first application in April we saw a marked difference at all the sites,” Mark explains. “In the treated areas grass growth had slowed and the wild flowers were coming through. In the control areas, where Primo MAXX had not been applied, the grass was growing fast and unchecked.

The grass on the left, treated with Primo MAXX, has a darker colour and reduced stem length

“After the second application in May the grass growth was very controlled, and the colour was dark green and much healthier.”

Then after the third application in June the wild flowers in the butterfly meadow revealed a surprise. “The wild flowers were now proliferating in the treated areas and not in the untreated areas. We were growing creeping buttercup, purple leaf clover and yellow trefoil. We saw this as a very positive result.”

By the end of June the heatwave kicked in and it was too hot and dry to apply any more Primo MAXX. Also, teenagers camping out in the butterfly meadow destroyed the trial site. But Mark had his results. “It was clear right from the start, Primo MAXX suppressed the grass very well, improved its health and colour and allowed the wild flowers to grow. So we made a huge saving on the man hours spent mowing the grass, reduced the pollution released into the environment because we used the mower less often, and of course the wild flowers were able to flourish and looked superb. We hope to do more trials this year.”

	Picture shows slowed grass growth on a strip of grass (right of picture) one month after application of Primo MAXX. The remaining untreated grass was cut every week

Mark also carried out some successful Primo MAXX trials last year on grass banks and the central reservation on a three-mile stretch of the A629. “Cutting grass on dual carriageways is tricky,” explains Mark, “It’s dangerous, time consuming, obstructive to traffic – all sorts of negatives. What we wanted was to retard the growth of the grass simply to reduce the need to mow so often.

“We tank-mixed Primo MAXX with a herbicide which would kill off anything other than grass plants. Within three days of application our colleagues at the nearby Kirklees Council had contacted us to ask what we had been doing on that stretch of road as something was clearly different. It certainly was, the plants other than grass plants were dying away – that was the herbicide – and the grass had stopped growing. I was delighted, we have made a saving on using machinery – fuel and man hours – reduced the risks associated with using mowers for the operatives as well as drivers, and reduced the impact on the traffic. Great result.”

This year, Mark is staring up some additional Primo MAXX trials, this time on bowling greens at Wellholme Park, in Brighouse. “The park has a Green Flag from the Civic Trust (we have three Green Flag parks and are hoping for a fourth this year) which means it’s met a long list of stringent criteria such as health, safety, security and environmental sustainability. We are also using it as a model for ENISO14001 – the government environment management system – which tasks us to show improvements in environmental practices.

“I really want to do more at Wellholme to improve the standard of the bowling greens, and I think there is a great deal Primo MAXX can do. Last year, with the hosepipe ban, the bowling greens suffered quite badly, but with Promo MAXX’s ability to improve the grass plant root system it will retain water better and so keep the turf greener and healthier for longer in a dry spell. And by suppressing the grass growth with Primo MAXX, I believe we will be able to reduce the need to cut the greens by a third.”

So the overall benefits could be considerable:

• Less wear and tear on mowers
• Less carbon fuels used, and less carbon emissions
• Saving on man hours, and more time for other tasks
• A reduction in the green waste (grass cuttings) going to landfill sites

Mark’s own personal goal is to gain a BASIS amenity pesticide certificate, and his trials work on Primo MAXX has already been accepted by the examination board as part of his course work. “They were impressed with what we’ve achieved, and why shouldn’t they be?” says Mark. “We’ve discovered practical, workable and very fast-acting ways in which we can benefit the environment and the community using this product. I can’t wait to see what we can achieve with it this year.”