Poa seedheads - Proxy

In the last 48 hours, the Poa Annua has flowered and the seedheads have popped in all short mowed turf - tees, greens, approaches, and fairways.  We have made 2 applications so far this spring on both greens and approaches to control the seedheads that are produced in the spring by the Poa.  So far we have once again gotten great results and probably have 90-95% control of the seedheads.

In this picture, the fairway is to the left of the lens cap and the approach is on the right.  See the difference in seedheads from the left side to the right side.

Here is a picture of 9 approach and 9 fairway, fairway untreated on the left, and the treated approach on the right.  You can draw a line right down the middle, showing where the edge of the spray boom was during the applications.

In these two pictures below, I am kneeling down right at the approach fairway line.  The first picture is looking back down the fairway (see all the seedheads), the second pict is looking down the approach toward the green (very few seedheads)

Fairway view:

Approach view:

This control of the seedhead production is very important to the smoothness of our greens.  Without it, the greens would be extremely bumpy.  Also, it decreases the amount of the amount of Poa Annua in our approaches, as it limits the amount of Poa seed that is available to germinate.

In my next post, I will talk about things we are seeing on the golf course right now with our mixture of Poa Annua, creeping bentgrass, and kentuckey bluegrass fairways, and why we are trying to limit the amount of Poa.