GREEN EDGE SEEDING
After two relatively tame summers during 2008 and 2009, the summer of 2010 will be remembered by turf managers. Heat, and humidity have been relentless and have taken their toll on turf. Some areas of the country have seen excessive rainfall which has the affect of cooking turfgrass. Golf courses, especially in the Midwest and through the Washington DC to Boston corridor have been under severe stress since June. We have heard of golf courses that closed during the last few weeks so crews can re-establish turfgrass on severely injured sites. My heart goes out to fellow Superintendents, their staffs and frustrated members who have been affected by severe weather and damaged turf.
While we remain in decent shape, green edges have been damaged by nematodes. When heat and humidity are increased, biological activity also increases. This activity takes the form of insect population booms, higher incidence (and damage) caused by numerous turfgrass diseases, and a spike in nematode populations. Add to the equation the presence of weak Poa annua turf, weakening root systems, and being trampled by mowers, maintenance workers and happy golfers desiring fast green speeds, and you may begin to see how turf can be negatively impacted.
Next week, we will seed damaged green edges with creeping bentgrass seed using a specialized seeder. With these areas weakened, there will be less competition for new seedlings after they germinate, increasing the likelihood of a successful seed catch. Also, grass seed germinates fastest when soil temperatures are warm; they won't be any warmer after the temperatures we have seen the last thirty days or so. This process is non invasive to golfers, yet the benefits of increasing populations of creeping bentgrass to green edges will hopefully be seen next year.
Establishing creeping bentgrass plants is the best method available to eliminate damage from nematodes. Nematodes prefer weak Poa annua plants that heavily populate the green edges that were damaged this season. Changing the grass type present will help these areas to be stronger in the future.
DARK GREEN GREENS
During the next day or two, we will apply the environmentally friendly material Civitas to our greens to fight potentially devastating turf disease anthracnose. This application takes the place of a pesticide application. As a part of this application, a heavy green colorant is added according to manufacturer's (and Environmental Protection Agency) direction. Therefore, greens will have a dark green look for four to seven days after the application.
POND LEVEL
We have maintained higher water levels in our irrigation pond this season. Knowing in advance (thanks to the Meteorologist to Golf Course Superintendents Mr. Stevens) that 2010 was going to be a warmer summer than average, efficient water management became an important goal. In a 24 hour period during an extended hot and dry spell, we use 250,000 to 280,000 gallons of water. During the same 24 hours, the well that provides water to the pond provides around 180,000 gallons. As you can see, water deficits occur because irrigation use can exceed our supply. Town water is available to us if our supply becomes low, but at significant cost. Therefore, we have tried to hold as much water as possible this summer, to keep us from tapping into expensive Warwick water. Also, we have been able to enjoy the enterprising koi fish explore a new food source this summer.....the rough on 17!!
Tidbits.....July 2010 will be the warmest July at Potowomut since 2005, with high temperatures averaging 87.49 degrees since June 24th...We may also break our record for plant water loss in July because of the heat.....We have used 9.5 million gallons for irrigation to date, double the amount we used last year to date....
Please thank my wonderful crew for a job well done, they are excellent!!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Bentgrass is good, Poa annua is bad
Greens have continued to excel, despite high populations of nematodes along greens' edges. Nematodes are not moving into centers of greens where the percentage of bentgrass is higher. Because these turf root munchers are content to stay in the edges, we are back to managing the greens as before nematodes were discovered.
Growth regulator (Primo) has again been applied, and mowers have been lowered .010 (ten thousandths of an inch) and will remain at this height into September. Greens' speed and quality has already improved as of Friday morning.
The summer of 2010 will be remembered by turf managers. Many golf courses are struggling with a host of issues nationally because of hot, dry and humid weather. I have heard of numerous outbreaks of different diseases, insect and nematode damage and even bacteriological problems that are unsolvable with pesticides. Once again, we are shown that Mother Nature is truly in charge of our turfgrass. However, we tilt the balance toward success by proper spring and fall aeration, tree and shade management, intelligent use of irrigation including hand watering, natural organic fertilizer use and keeping pest populations controlled through chemical management.
Another important factor in maintaining success I discussed in my last blog posting, proper species. In the July 8th posting, I wrote about Poa annua being the grass mostly affected by nematodes. If our greens were 100% Poa annua, it is safe to say that greens would be in big trouble from nematode damage (or any of the above listed problems) this summer. For this reason, we discourage Poa annua from further proliferation into our greens, and we encourage bentgrass to spread twelve months a year. You could call these ideas the centerpieces of our maintenance programs.
Our extremely successful divot program on fairways is also in place to keep Poa annua away. (Thanks to you all for helping us here!!) The seed placed in the bottles is a combination 70% Chewings Fescue and 30% Colonial Bentgrass. Both these grasses are best adapted to golf fairways at our height of cut in our climate, and their combined performance is far superior to Poa annua, especially in resisting damage from disease. This seeding, in combination with using different growth regulators is helping bentgrasses thrive (and become more populated) on Potowomut fairways.
Go Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots, Bruins, Penn State and bentgrass!!
Growth regulator (Primo) has again been applied, and mowers have been lowered .010 (ten thousandths of an inch) and will remain at this height into September. Greens' speed and quality has already improved as of Friday morning.
The summer of 2010 will be remembered by turf managers. Many golf courses are struggling with a host of issues nationally because of hot, dry and humid weather. I have heard of numerous outbreaks of different diseases, insect and nematode damage and even bacteriological problems that are unsolvable with pesticides. Once again, we are shown that Mother Nature is truly in charge of our turfgrass. However, we tilt the balance toward success by proper spring and fall aeration, tree and shade management, intelligent use of irrigation including hand watering, natural organic fertilizer use and keeping pest populations controlled through chemical management.
Another important factor in maintaining success I discussed in my last blog posting, proper species. In the July 8th posting, I wrote about Poa annua being the grass mostly affected by nematodes. If our greens were 100% Poa annua, it is safe to say that greens would be in big trouble from nematode damage (or any of the above listed problems) this summer. For this reason, we discourage Poa annua from further proliferation into our greens, and we encourage bentgrass to spread twelve months a year. You could call these ideas the centerpieces of our maintenance programs.
Our extremely successful divot program on fairways is also in place to keep Poa annua away. (Thanks to you all for helping us here!!) The seed placed in the bottles is a combination 70% Chewings Fescue and 30% Colonial Bentgrass. Both these grasses are best adapted to golf fairways at our height of cut in our climate, and their combined performance is far superior to Poa annua, especially in resisting damage from disease. This seeding, in combination with using different growth regulators is helping bentgrasses thrive (and become more populated) on Potowomut fairways.
Go Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots, Bruins, Penn State and bentgrass!!
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Always learning....
POA ANNUA AND NEMATODES
Despite a very stressful week for turf, greens' quality has improved since last week because of measures we took to prepare for an invasion of a pest with no effective chemical solution. We are still concerned (we always worry about greens in summer) but I believe we will weather this storm.
A great thing about my business is that basic lessons learned at Penn State are reinforced all the time. Long term members know that we expanded the perimeters of greens during 2004. Most greens edges were pushed out two to three feet that was lost over many years because of mowing errors. It took a couple of years to successfully lower the heights of cut on the expanded greens. It was a painfully slow process.
The grass that is predominant in these green expansions is Poa annua. Poa annua is a weak grass that no Superintendent wants, but is a weed grass that encroaches into greens instead of the creeping bentgrass that was originally established. Like it or not, since it ends up comprising sometimes 80 to 90% of greens turf, we are forced to manage it and play golf on it.
Poa annua has weak, thin root systems, dies quickly because of summer heat and drought and of all the grasses we manage on a golf course, is most prone to many different diseases, insect damage, death in winter because of cold and snow, and of course nematodes. If a Poa green dies, greens are dead and need to be re-established.
In nature, the strongest survive. Poa annua is weak, and is under attack. Poa is failing and once again the basics of turfgrass management are brought to the forefront.
Creeping bentgrass is the preferred grass for putting greens in the northeast. It is much stronger than Poa annua as it better survives from all the stresses listed above. Bentgrass plants are deeper rooted and healthier during summer. Lucky for us, except for the edges of the greens, most of our greens' area (70 to 80%) is comprised of creeping bentgrass, and this is why we will survive a nematode invasion to the Poa.
And, we haven't even talked about those nasty seedheads the Poa annua produces in late spring, which is another negative feature of Poa annua to write about another day.
DROUGHT
The golf course has been dry the last few weeks. Our goal during a drought is to keep fine turf areas (greens, tees, fairways) playable. While not under water restrictions, we are limited to the amount of water available for irrigation by our well, which puts water into the pond on #18. With this recent dry spell, we use more water than the well provides. For this reason, we eliminate irrigating rough areas, causing some grasses to go turn brown until fall.
Personally, I love the golf course with its different shades and hues of greens and browns during summer. Remember, our grand game was born in Scotland along linksland, and this summer look is as close as Potowomut gets to looking like a golf course from the good old UK.
Despite a very stressful week for turf, greens' quality has improved since last week because of measures we took to prepare for an invasion of a pest with no effective chemical solution. We are still concerned (we always worry about greens in summer) but I believe we will weather this storm.
A great thing about my business is that basic lessons learned at Penn State are reinforced all the time. Long term members know that we expanded the perimeters of greens during 2004. Most greens edges were pushed out two to three feet that was lost over many years because of mowing errors. It took a couple of years to successfully lower the heights of cut on the expanded greens. It was a painfully slow process.
The grass that is predominant in these green expansions is Poa annua. Poa annua is a weak grass that no Superintendent wants, but is a weed grass that encroaches into greens instead of the creeping bentgrass that was originally established. Like it or not, since it ends up comprising sometimes 80 to 90% of greens turf, we are forced to manage it and play golf on it.
Poa annua has weak, thin root systems, dies quickly because of summer heat and drought and of all the grasses we manage on a golf course, is most prone to many different diseases, insect damage, death in winter because of cold and snow, and of course nematodes. If a Poa green dies, greens are dead and need to be re-established.
In nature, the strongest survive. Poa annua is weak, and is under attack. Poa is failing and once again the basics of turfgrass management are brought to the forefront.
Creeping bentgrass is the preferred grass for putting greens in the northeast. It is much stronger than Poa annua as it better survives from all the stresses listed above. Bentgrass plants are deeper rooted and healthier during summer. Lucky for us, except for the edges of the greens, most of our greens' area (70 to 80%) is comprised of creeping bentgrass, and this is why we will survive a nematode invasion to the Poa.
And, we haven't even talked about those nasty seedheads the Poa annua produces in late spring, which is another negative feature of Poa annua to write about another day.
DROUGHT
The golf course has been dry the last few weeks. Our goal during a drought is to keep fine turf areas (greens, tees, fairways) playable. While not under water restrictions, we are limited to the amount of water available for irrigation by our well, which puts water into the pond on #18. With this recent dry spell, we use more water than the well provides. For this reason, we eliminate irrigating rough areas, causing some grasses to go turn brown until fall.
Personally, I love the golf course with its different shades and hues of greens and browns during summer. Remember, our grand game was born in Scotland along linksland, and this summer look is as close as Potowomut gets to looking like a golf course from the good old UK.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Greens' problems and solutions
Dear Members,
The edges of some greens have not been performing well all season. With diligent hand watering, we helped these areas limp along until recent early summer heat caused conditions to deteriorate.
Parasitic nematodes are small microscopic sized, wormlike animals and are the most populous animal on earth. They reside in soil and given the opportunity, will feast and thrive on living root tissue. Soil samples were pulled this week and sent to the University of Rhode Island Nematode labs. Results revealed late today that nematodes are causing the problems on our green edges. For example, #1 green had 14,000 of one type nematode in a pint of soil sampled, 15 green had a count of 8,500. Acceptable levels are both below 1,000 nematodes per pint of soil.
With high populations on green edges early in the summer, we need to assume that the nematode populations are also high throughout all greens' soils, even though greens are in wonderful condition today. A long and stressful summer is staring us down on July 2nd, and we need to prepare for root systems that have been compromised.
A few years ago, we would have simply applied a nematicide (Nemacur) to control the nematodes and control the population. Numbers would be reduced, roots would again grow and the greens would improve. Long time Potowomut members may remember closing down the golf course to apply this material in the past, due to its high hazard potential.
The Environmental Protection Agency cancelled the registration of Nemacur in 2005, leaving us with no pesticide available to control nematodes. To a Golf Course Superintendent, this is similar to a physician suddenly losing the only drug available that successfully treated a serious illness or condition.
Nematode infestations are challenging to turf managers in 2010 desiring to provide quality and fast greens for their members. However, let me outline our strategy and reasons to get green edges back and performing as expected.
1. Greens height of cut will be raised .015. (fifteen thousandths of an inch) Turf that has added leaf area can produce more food (plant sugars) using photosynthesis. Sugars are stored within the plant by growing longer root systems.
2. Thursday night, a fungicide and an insecticide were applied that have shown to reduce nematodes.
3. There are experimental plant extract treatments (black walnut) that have shown in some testing to decrease populations in some cases. One will be applied early next week.
4. To grow roots faster than the nematodes can feed, increased fertilizers will be used.
5. Growth regulator use will be suspended, temporarily.
6. While greens themselves will be mowed daily, green edges will be mowed every other day.
7. Will be thinking of different ways to combat nematodes during the next few sleepless nights....
To provide maximum green speed in normal maintenance mode, we do everything in our power to slow greens' growth. The less grass grows, the faster and smoother they are. Healthy greens have deep root systems that help greens become reliable despite
any environmental or physical stress.
We now find ourselves in an opposite situation. Today we need to promote grass growth so turfgrass can again grow healthy root systems, and thus, reliability, into our greens. This is why the steps above almost all promote turfgrass growth, some even to overdose levels.
Our goals are to keep greens at their current condition. Speeds may slow while we attack a pest without an available pesticide solution. However, full turf coverage is better for all members than fast greens that may be far less than perfect, in my opinion. We will update any changes as warranted. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
Sincerely,
Patrick M. Gertner, CGCS
Golf Course Superintendent
The edges of some greens have not been performing well all season. With diligent hand watering, we helped these areas limp along until recent early summer heat caused conditions to deteriorate.
Parasitic nematodes are small microscopic sized, wormlike animals and are the most populous animal on earth. They reside in soil and given the opportunity, will feast and thrive on living root tissue. Soil samples were pulled this week and sent to the University of Rhode Island Nematode labs. Results revealed late today that nematodes are causing the problems on our green edges. For example, #1 green had 14,000 of one type nematode in a pint of soil sampled, 15 green had a count of 8,500. Acceptable levels are both below 1,000 nematodes per pint of soil.
With high populations on green edges early in the summer, we need to assume that the nematode populations are also high throughout all greens' soils, even though greens are in wonderful condition today. A long and stressful summer is staring us down on July 2nd, and we need to prepare for root systems that have been compromised.
A few years ago, we would have simply applied a nematicide (Nemacur) to control the nematodes and control the population. Numbers would be reduced, roots would again grow and the greens would improve. Long time Potowomut members may remember closing down the golf course to apply this material in the past, due to its high hazard potential.
The Environmental Protection Agency cancelled the registration of Nemacur in 2005, leaving us with no pesticide available to control nematodes. To a Golf Course Superintendent, this is similar to a physician suddenly losing the only drug available that successfully treated a serious illness or condition.
Nematode infestations are challenging to turf managers in 2010 desiring to provide quality and fast greens for their members. However, let me outline our strategy and reasons to get green edges back and performing as expected.
1. Greens height of cut will be raised .015. (fifteen thousandths of an inch) Turf that has added leaf area can produce more food (plant sugars) using photosynthesis. Sugars are stored within the plant by growing longer root systems.
2. Thursday night, a fungicide and an insecticide were applied that have shown to reduce nematodes.
3. There are experimental plant extract treatments (black walnut) that have shown in some testing to decrease populations in some cases. One will be applied early next week.
4. To grow roots faster than the nematodes can feed, increased fertilizers will be used.
5. Growth regulator use will be suspended, temporarily.
6. While greens themselves will be mowed daily, green edges will be mowed every other day.
7. Will be thinking of different ways to combat nematodes during the next few sleepless nights....
To provide maximum green speed in normal maintenance mode, we do everything in our power to slow greens' growth. The less grass grows, the faster and smoother they are. Healthy greens have deep root systems that help greens become reliable despite
any environmental or physical stress.
We now find ourselves in an opposite situation. Today we need to promote grass growth so turfgrass can again grow healthy root systems, and thus, reliability, into our greens. This is why the steps above almost all promote turfgrass growth, some even to overdose levels.
Our goals are to keep greens at their current condition. Speeds may slow while we attack a pest without an available pesticide solution. However, full turf coverage is better for all members than fast greens that may be far less than perfect, in my opinion. We will update any changes as warranted. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
Sincerely,
Patrick M. Gertner, CGCS
Golf Course Superintendent
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