Summer 2013 Reports, one by USGA, one by Patrick

Here is a link to an essay about summer 2013 written by USGA Agronomist Jim Skolurlski who is based in Palmer, MA. I hope it is helpful.

http://www.usga.org/course_care/regional_updates/regional_reports/northeast/Skinned-Knees-And-Bruised-Elbows---August-2013/

The golf course has taken a few punches this summer after soaking June rains followed by an intense heat spell with extremely high humidity and dew points. At this time, it's bruised and battered but will improve quickly with improvement plans, cooler weather and later summer rains. According to northeast Golf Course Superintendents, the combination of weather events from June through late July was the most difficult conditions for turfgrass in many years and I don't disagree.

I apologize in advance for the length and depth of this report. However, I like to keep everyone informed of the many different issues that face us....and know many of you have expressed a desire to know. We do our best to keep our communications simple and readable, sometimes even when the issues aren't!! As always, please ask any questions you would like via my email address at patrickgertner@potowomut.com. No questions go unanswered!

Each winter, we plan to be ready for numerous potential situations that we may face during summer. The process is both art and science. When dealing with mother nature and golf turf, situations beyond our control occur. Remember, we are playing golf on living plants mowed unnaturally low and walked on all day. Greens, tees, fairways don't always behave as we would like them to...not unlike our children or grandchildren. The significant heat stretch showed us our weakest areas, areas where performance needs to improve.

COLLARS

On any golf course, the greens' collars are the most stressed out area of turf because operators and heavy greensmowers turn around on collars daily to make their mowing passes. If greens are double mowed, this happens twice. How would you like a heavy clunky mower turning around on the top of your head...everyday? Then you may get rolled by the roller and then have golfers walk on you for 12 or 14 hours or so...in the heat. I'm betting it would hurt and your head and hair may not be quite as fetching as it is today.

Green collars did not fare well after the heat spell and proved that they are the weakest and most stressed turfgrass areas as described above. Most greens' turf had the tools to survive where only inches away collars suffered. Why did this happen? Unfortunately, the turf won't answer the question when asked. Therefore, we need to do a CSI type investigation using clues in the context of maintenance procedures. Please read our "storyboards" below to know more about problems and plans for solutions. Not one thing "killed" the collars, it was a combination of all factors listed below.

1. Collars need more water than greens because plants are larger. Turf cools itself during the heat of each summer day by pulling water from soil, via roots. This cooling takes an incredible amount of energy from plants, and we see the results because the turf no longer looks healthy. When the water supply drys up, turf wilts and dies. This can happen quickly, in an hour or less.

2. If turf has a healthy and well developed root system, plants survive as long as soil has adequate moisture. However, if root systems are shallow, plants can't cool themselves and are always on that precarious edge of life and death all summer.

2. Most nights, the turf's cooling mechanism turns off as the temperature drops below 68-70 degrees. Now the plant can recover overnight to be ready for the next day. During our recent heat apocalypse, for 20 out of 25 nights the low temperature was 71 degrees or higher, failing to give plants a night off from working to cool themselves for hundreds of hours nonstop. Incredible amounts of plant energy was used these nights, weakening plants with already precarious root systems.

3. Sand does not hold water as heavier soils do. During the greens aeration and topdressing process, 100% sand is added to greens to replace existing greens' soils. The sand is wonderful for greens surfaces because it provides smoother greens, added drainage capability and increased shot holding characteristics. However, for collars, GREATER water holding soils are needed because these larger plants need more water to survive. (See #1 above) During the topdressing process, we actually deposit much more sand to green edges (and collars) because the sand tends to be pushed that way by topdressing brushes. Therefore, I feel myself and 10 or 15 past Poto Superintendents have added to today's situation because green collars have 4-5" of this straight sand material right at the surface......in turf areas that need MORE water to survive as compared to greens.

4. Another contributor to the situation is nematodes, who are constantly feeding on our roots. (As detailed in an earlier blog post, our critically timed control effort failed in 2013 because of excessive rainfall during June.) If there are no roots to pull water, turf will perish, especially when excessive heat is added to the mix. Post mortem of turf samples show plugs with virtually no roots.

Solutions for collars:

Conditions must change for collars. We must provide soils that hold more water for collars, not less. Root systems need to expand. Plants that better withstand traffic and stress need to be established. We will continue to watch and hope for chemical manufacturers to develop an affordable nematode control product that is research proven to work, as none do at this writing.

1. Collars will be aerated monthly and plugs will be removed to eliminate sandy soils. Topsoil and soil amendments will be added to aeration holes that will help collars hold more water. I expect this to be a constant operation for future months and years with the goal of changing soils on collars to ones that hold more water for plants.

2. Collars will be seeded using a grass with a lower water requirement. We have chosen chewings fescue, a fine bladed grass common on closely mowed turf in the British Isles. We expect to work on overseeding collars during this week and next with fast germination expected due to warmed soil temperatures.

3. Nematode sampling will also be done this week, on greens and green collars. These will be sent to the nematode laboratory at the University of Florida for analysis. Results to follow.

More information on plant parasitic nematodes:
http://extension.umass.edu/turf/management-updates/nematodes-and-wilting-turf

15 GREEN, PLUS THIN SPOTS ON OTHER GREENS

During a summer like this one, no one stresser usually takes out turfgrass, it is a combination of different factors. Again, the turf won't tell us what ultimately caused its demise, all we can do is look at each situation and make logical conclusions. We know nematodes are a HUGE factor on 15 green because historically this green shows the highest populations of stunt nematode. 15 green's root system shows plenty of evidence of their presence because of the absence of almost any turf roots. Other factors are also affecting 15 green health, however.

Internal soil drainage is an issue on 15 green. The back right corner does not drain. Water sits in that pocket, especially in 2013 with all the heavy June rains....and not coincidentally, this area of the collar and green has perished. We will install a small drain in this area during fall, draining this portion of the green into the greenside bunker.

Over the years, we have eliminated trees that caused morning shading problems for many greens. Trees also cause problems by blocking equally important air movement to blow across greens surfaces, especially during hot and humid weather patterns. 15 green has trees on three sides and is almost 100% blocked from prevailing southwest winds. Standing on 17 fairway many days this summer, I have seen the flag dancing on 17 green while the flag on 15 is not moving one bit. This to me is an indication that airflow needs to be improved for 15 green for significant improvement to be seen.

15 green has been spiked and seeded and this process will be repeated again this week....until this green (and others) has recovered. (13 was spiked and seeded today) Thin greens are being pushed with plant food to facilitate fast growth and healing. I expect to further investigate #15 tree issues between now and winter.

FAIRWAYS

Fairways overall are in good shape. Last year, nasty gray leaf spot disease was evident on many fairways on August 7. By that date this year, we had put down three preventative fungicide applications at a cost exceeding $ 30,000, and gray leaf spot is not here.

Fairways have room for improvement as we have been concerned about basketball to desk sized areas that have failed. Two weeks ago, we sent soil samples out to a soils lab in Nebraska. Where previous soil test results always showed well balanced, healthy soils, these results were different. Results from fairways (and greens) samples show soil deficiencies in a few key nutrients, namely calcium, magnesium and potassium. Hydrogen is excessive. We have ordered fertilizer materials for an August application for fairways that will raise levels of both calcium and magnesium while lowering hydrogen. Potassium will be addressed in 2014. The soils' condition is important so we can maintain healthy and well balanced soils and grow reliable turfgrass, especially during times of extreme heat and humidity when weaknesses are exposed.

We have coasted on our laurels of soil health and excellence for a few years but acknowledge we have work to do. More intense testing will be done during this month so we may better assess soils' needs of the entire golf course.

Fairways will be aerated by our crews during August through October. Aeration will help the fairway soils breath and will help to eliminate a significant thatch layer that is present. Tees will also be aerated in August or September.

ROUGH

Intermediate (first cut) of rough is the best it has ever been! Considering the severity of our summer weather, the standard rough is in good condition. Please remember that rough is not 100% irrigated. Most fairways have effective irrigation coverage of 220' wide, or 73 yards across each fairway. Non irrigated areas receives natural rainfall only during summer that isn't enough to maintain a vibrantly green turf stand. In most cases, un-irrigated turf areas go dormant from lack of water and will recover with cooler weather and rains of fall. A few areas that are dead will be overseeded in late August and September.

We have the ability to irrigate some areas of rough but in most cases we keep those sprinkler heads turned off to save water. If rough (and the driving range) was to be irrigated during the driest times of the year, water would have to be purchased from the City of Warwick at significant expense. To date, we have not bought any water from Warwick for 2013 because of wet June weather and also because of the new water holding berm. Last year's water bill was $ 6,500.

Last year, Gray Leaf Spot destroyed many areas of rough. For 2013, we spent significant dollars to twice treat 18 irrigated acres of rough. Gray leaf spot is nowhere to be seen this year, thankfully.

This fall, we have hundreds of small areas to seed. These areas include the spots where trees were eliminated last winter, edges of newly paved cartpaths, the messy areas near the 6th and 7th holes, and a few other areas. Fall is the best time to get this work done and for the seed to germinate and perform well.

I am sure I have forgotten to address some other areas of your concerns. Please email me at patrickgertner@potowomut.com with any questions. In closing, thanks for your patience after a devastating stretch of weather that caused havoc on our golf course...and many others in our area. We have a firm handle on the situation and have plans to soon return Potowomut as she was in the Spring!

Sincerely,

Patrick M Gertner CGCS


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