University of Florida (UF) Professor George Houhmuth says he is “sick and tired” of attacks on a paper he wrote questioning the unintended consequences of summer fertilizer bans adopted by various cities and counties in Florida. Environmentalists and some elected leaders have accused Houhmuth of bias for taking money from the turf industry, saying that the paper was intended to help pass a state law overriding local fertilizer bans.
Houhmuth, however, said the paper he wrote was not financed by anyone including the turf industry. UF’s Institute for Food and Agricultural Studies (IFAS) published the paper about a year ago, and the uproar has continued unabated. The paper was recently removed from the IFAS Web site.
“I just wanted to see if science was being used in the decision making process,” particularly in regard to turf, said Houhmuth. In the paper he questioned whether banning the use of fertilizers with nitrogen and phosphate in the summer might lead some people to over-fertilize in the spring in hopes of preserving their lawns through the summer, which could aggravate the problem of water pollution and lead to increased growth of algae.
Fertilizer runoff has been a suspect in the increase in red tide, which has been responsible for fish kills along the Gulf Coast of the state. When the red tide algae dies, it depletes oxygen in the water and can increase breathing problems in some people.
Houhmuth said the paper was not a research study, but was based on a compilation of previous scientific research. Turf, he said, grows primarily in the summer, and fertilizing at other times of year could be counterproductive, because turf cannot absorb the nutrients until the roots are better developed. However, he said he had no way of knowing whether people actually would fertilize more in the spring if bans were in place. That information would have to come from social scientists, but no such study has been conducted.
Houhmuth said the attacks on the paper he wrote had become ludicrous. He said he made no criticism of any particular fertilizer ban, “I just wanted to offer some things they may want to consider, when considering bans.”