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.