Test plots - Poa Control

Those of you that know me in the industry, and my members here at the club, all know how I love to do research and test new products on small areas of turf or play with rates on old products.  First, for the safety of an application before I go and apply something to everything on the golf course, but also to see if there is a way I can improve our turf conditions even more and maybe find something that would work a little better.

Spraying a small test plot strip last season  on the edge of our practice putting green

Through the season we do small tests on a corner of a green or a portion of fairway with different products at different rates to see the results.  Some things have turned out well, while others have definitely proven to us that it does not work on our soils, our turf, and our conditions.

Last year I blogged about testing a growth regulator to hurt and slow down the poa on our greens to give creeping bentgrass the advantage.  Old blog - Test plots.  The small test area definitely hurt the poa and after our last late fall app in Oct I felt it was probably to harsh for us.

You can see the injured turf on the left edge of the green

Another angle of the regulator hurting the Poa in the front

The test area last fall - application width with 3 different rates

Well this spring as things are greening up, it looks amazing.

Now this spring - look at the reduction in Poa (grayish) turf in the plot area left of the red line

There is about an 80% reduction in our poa, the bentgrass has smoothly taken over and transitioned to be the dominant specie.  The next step would be the question for our greens committee if we want to do a larger test plot and take half of our practice green or half of a green on the course next winter to see the results on a playing area with more traffic.  The initial issue is going to be if we live with the less than desirable conditions for the 5 months over the winter.  Very fun and interesting to see what we can do, and food for thought on future decisions.

The reason we would consider more testing over thw next few years and trying to phase out the Poa is because in our region Bentgrass is definitely the preferred species.  Our summers are quit often over 100 degrees with no rainfall for 3 months, and even though our Poa does well in the spring and fall, it really struggles over the summer and requires a lot of babysittig and inputs from us to nurse it along.