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Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

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Page 1: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

Know Your Soil Conditioners

They Are Not All the Same

Page 2: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

To Build Winning Fields, You Need the Right Soil Conditioner

Page 3: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

For Both Infield and Turf Applications,

Pro’s Choice® Offers Unparalleled

Quality

Page 4: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

Presentation Highlights

• Examine “thermally optimized clay” from a scientific view point…

• Compare thermally optimized clay to other materials

…so that you can…

understand how they are different and what to expect from proper usage

Page 5: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

What is Thermally Optimized Clay?

• Any Clay Which Has Been Heated and Dried at temperatures of 1000 - 1500 °F

• Best for Sports Turf Application

• Examples: Pro’s Choice® Red infield conditioner and Pro’s Choice® Select Topdressing

• Thermally Optimized Montmorillonite Clay is processed to Maximize Hardness and Stability without Degrading Valuable Porosity

Page 6: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

Pro’s Choice Red

Pro’s Choice Red™ is a Thermally Optimized Montmorillonite Clay that Improves Soil Structure

and Controls Excess Moisture

Page 7: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

Why Thermally Optimized Clay Works Best:

Attributes of the Clay

• Cost

• Color

• Water Retention

• Stability

• Dust

• Hardness

Page 8: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

High Heat Produces Hard Red Granules

• Optimum Color and Stability are Best Achieved with Montmorillonite Clay that has Been Thermally Optimized

Page 9: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

Know the Mineral… Know the Manufacturing

Process!• To Chose a Product That is Optimized for Your Particular Sports Turf Application

Page 10: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

Competitor Process vs. Pro’s Choice

Pro’s Choice

Competitive Thermally Optimized Products

GRIND

ADVANTAGESOF PRO’S CHOICEPROCESS

MINE

SIZE / DRY

CALCINE

MINE

SIZE / DRY

Thermal Optimization

GRIND

De-DUST

•Grinding before heat treatment yields more uniform thermal processing

•Post de-dusting unique Oil-Dri process - less dust!

Page 11: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

Keep In Mind That ...

• Thermally Optimized Montmorillonite Clays Are Only One Type of Construction Material…

But There Are Others

• Each Has Its Own Particular Attribute For Construction and Maintenance of Athletic Fields

Page 12: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

Comparing Competitive Products to Pro’s Choice® infield

conditioner• Infield Mix 80% clay, 20% sand - unprocessed

• Vitrified Clay Quartz and feldspar - mixed

blend subjected to super-

heating

• Brick Chips Crushed by-product of brick

manufacturing

• Crushed Granite Mined and crushed granite

Page 13: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

Test Methods

• We Subjected These Products to a Battery of Tests Which Are Related to Their Performance On A Baseball Field

• We Need To Understand the Test Methods

• We Can Use the Test Methods to Differentiate Between Various Baseball Field Amendments

Page 14: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

Sizing

• Determined by Sieve Analysis

• Used to Characterize the Particle Size Distribution

• A Bell-shaped Distribution Is the Best!

• Uniformity Index: 1.0 = All Granules Same Size (the closer to 1.0 - the better…)

Page 15: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

Particle Size DistributionParticle Size Distribution for Baseball Field Amendments

8 16 20 30 40 50 60 100 140 200 325 pan

Sieve Size (Mesh)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Wt%

of S

ize

Frac

tion Pro’s Choice

Vitrified Clay

Brick Chips (dusty)

Crushed Granite (dusty)

Infield Mix (dusty)

Coarse granules Dust

UI = 0.22

UI = 0.07

UI = 0.01

UI = 0.01

UI = 0.01

Page 16: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

Hardness of Granules

• Resistance to Attrition

• Dry Agitation Of Steel Balls Against Granules

• Related to Physical Abrasion as Would Happen in Top 1 - 2 inches of Playing Surface

• Equivalent to Heavy Traffic of People and Equipment

• This Is One Measure of Stability

Page 17: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

Hardness

90

92

94

96

98

Gra

nule

s Le

ft A

fter T

est

(%)

Vitrified Clay Brick Chips CrushedGranite

Thermally OptimizedMontmorillonite

Clay

Hardness, % Resistance to Attrition

• All products exhibited excellent hardness

Page 18: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

Internal Pore Volume• More Porosity = More Absorption• High Porosity Correlates With Low Density

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

Pore

Vol

ume

(cc/

g)

Infield Mix Vitrified Clay Brick Chips CrushedGranite

Thermally OptimizedMontmorillonite Clay

Internal Pore Volume (cc/g)

Over 3X theporosity ofthe otheramendments!

Page 19: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

Density• Pounds per cubic foot• Pound For Pound, thermally optimized Montmorillonite

Clay is More Absorptive Because of Its Lower Density

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Den

sity

(lbs

/ft³)

Infield Mix Vitrified Clay Brick Chips CrushedGranite

Thermally Optimized Montmorillonite Clay

Density, lbs/ft³Remember:Low densityequals moreabsorption!

Page 20: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

Benefits of Low Density • Pound for Pound - Low Density Products Cover

More Surface Area!Covers 38%more surfacearea than next closest competitor!

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Surf

ace

Are

a (ft

.²)

Infield Mix VitrifiedClay

Brick Chips CrushedGranite

Thermally Optimized Montmorillonite Clay

Surface Area Covered to Depth of 1 Inch/100 lbs Product

Page 21: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

Liquid Holding Capacity• Amount of Water Held Internally; Granules Still “Free

Flowing”

• Provides for Moisture and Dust Control

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

LHC

(%)

Infield Mix Vitrified Clay Brick Chips CrushedGranite

Thermally Optimized Montmorillonite Clay

Liquid Holding Capacity (%)3 - 5 timesmore liquidholding capacity thanthe otheramendments!

Page 22: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

Water Absorption Capacity• Measures Total Water Held, Including Outside of Granule

• The #1 Attribute of thermally optimized Montmorillonite Clay!

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Tota

l Liq

uid

Cap

acity

(%)

Infield Mix VitrifiedClay

Brick Chips CrushedGranite

Thermally Optimized Montmorillonite Clay

Water Absorption Capacity (%) Double theabsorptivecapacity ofthe otheramendments!

Page 23: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

Physical Properties of Baseball Field Amendments

Test Pro’s Choice Red

Turface MVP Diamond Pro

Calcined

Diamond Pro

Vitrified Clay

Flexiclay

Playball

Fielder’s Choice

Bulk density – Ohaus(lb.ft3)

37.6 38.2 37.3 47.3 87.6 24.4 42.3

Absorption – water(ml/g)

0.86 0.72 0.68 0.28 0.32 1.20 0.60

Liquid Holding Capacity(%)

34 33 31 0 .06 48 15

Free Moisture(wt%) 1.2 2.9 1.8 17.4 0.4 0.5 0.1

pH(5% slurry) 6.0 6.6 6.1 9.2 8.9 6.4 7.3

Dust Index (better lower)

1.54 1.96 3.94 0 0.13 5.69 5.85

Hardness(%) RtoA 98.4 98.1 96.3 98.1 92.9 N/A 99.7

CEC(meq/100g of clay) 19 13 7 N/A 61 0 21

Origin Thermally optimized Montmorillonite Ripley MS, Mounds IL

Calcined Montmorillonite Blue Mt. MS

Calcined Clay, TN

Vitrified Clay

Iowa Calcined DE

Reno NV

Vitrified Clay

Texas

Color, Shape Red, Irregular Granules

Tan, Irregular Granules

Tan & Gray Irregular Granules

Rust Wet Irregular Granules

Purple Spherical Granules

Lite Beige Irregular Granules

Dark Gray Irregular Granules

Page 24: Know Your Soil Conditioners They Are Not All the Same

Thermally Optimized Montmorillonite Clay

(Pro’s Choice Red infield conditioner)