Poa Seedhead Control

Poa Annua can produce a good putting surface in the right climate and the right conditions.  One downfall of Poa is the prolific seed head production for recovery.  It is a weaker species than bentgrass, doesn't handle the hi heat nor the cold winters as well, and can be a slow grower in cooler weather, thus it puts a lot of energy and carbohydrates into seed production so it can easily and quickly recover and establish itself.  It is the highest seed production of any plant that we use in the golf industry, so seedheads on a putting surface is one of the major issues when you are maintaining Poa.

We utilize many different chemical and mechanical controls to limit seedheads, and in the spring chemical control is one of our main methods.  Greens have received their second treatment last week, and in the picture below you see a perfect straight line where the edge of the boom was on the collar from the sprayer.  Not only is their a drastic reduction in seedheads in the controlled are on the left, but look at the overall health and color of the turf.  The right side is yellow and the treated side on the left is greener and healthier.  They have received the exact same fertilization, but it shows how the Poa plant puts so much of its energy and carbohydrates into the production of seedheads that is sacrifices the health of the plant to focus on reproduction.

Left side treated, right side untreated - left side no seedheads and healthier turf 

Left side no seedheads - right side has seedheads where it was not treated

Look at the difference in the health of the turf

Greens Aerification

This has been a busy week, starting off hosting the Frontier Collegiate Conference on Monday and Tuesday and then moving into greens aerification on Wednesday and Thursday.

This year with greens aerification we decided to make some changes.  When I first arrived here 4 years ago and sent away soil samples of our greens, they came back with 6.8% organic matter. Optimally you want to maintain your greens around 4% or slightly under.  This excess organic matter led to many problems, soft and spongy greens, shallow root system, disease pressure, and poorer putting conditions.

Core aerification last spring - lots of material

The organic layer held up all the nutrients and water, harboring disease, and led to scalping of mowers, soft conditions, and greens that were not smooth or fast.  We were very aggressive in core aerifying and pulling plugs both spring and fall the last several years.  This led to soil tests that came back at 3.8% organic matter in August of last year.  So this spring we used sold tines.  I always tell people that your type of aerification should be tailored toward your end goal.  Deep tine if you need infiltration or incorporating material deep into the profile, hallow tines if you are trying to remove organic matter, and solid tines if you want to incorporate sand into the upper profile.  Now with our organic matter where we want it, our goal was to put as many holes as we could in the upper 4 inches, incorporate sand, continue to firm up the upper surface, maintain smooth surfaces, and continue with organic matter breakdown.

By not pulling a core, we took a different approach and topdressed the greens first, then followed with the aerifier.  This allowed the vibration of the aerifier to help incorporate the sand into the profile and it really worked well.

Topdressing done (on right) then aerifying - quite the difference on what the aerifier is working in

Only the aerifier has gone over this, and 50% of the sand is already in the holes

Then the brush

Rolling them out smooth

Coco fiber matt to brush them smooth

Followed then by a heavy irrigation cycle, and continued brush, mow, and roll this week on an alternating schedule.  We should have them back in good shape in about a week.  

Greens Aerification - Fertilization

Today we fertilized greens with a granular product.  Greens only get two granular applications a year, 1 in the spring and 1 in the fall, paired with the timing of aerification, and then just small amounts of various liquid products during the growing season.  This allows us to "spoon feed" the plant exactly what it needs and regulate our growth to a minimal level to maintain the green speeds that we want.

Fertilizing greens - 1 direction, overlapping half way with half the rate to achieve accuracy

One thing we do different than a lot of people is to fertilize the greens 5 days before aerification.  Our philosophy with this is that it takes 5-7 days for the product to dissolve into solution, be taken up by the plant, and to start growth.  By doing this now, the plant is actively growing the day we aerify and it considerably speeds up our recovery time after aerfication.  Many people aerify their greens and then fertilize right when they are done, I feel they loose a week of active growth by doing this and this is how we have been able to get our greens to recover so quickly after an intense aerification.

Yes, when we aerify we do remove about 15-18% of the green, organic matter, so we are removing that amount of our fertilizer, but I truly feel it is worth it when you consider a week of growth in the recovery process.  Greens aerification will be next week April 16 and 17, and the course will be closed for those two days.

Spot Fertilizing

One thing we do a lot of here at Lewiston Country Club is spot treating and spot fertilizing.  We keep records and notes from year to year about diseases and insect activity, and many times through out the season we will apply control products only to those areas that have a history of infestation.  We also take a similar approach in some of our fertilizer applications.  Fertilizing only the fairways, or tees, or areas that show us they need it.  We apply more fertilizer to Par 3 tees to help the excess divots recover faster, we apply more fertilizer to high traffic areas where the turf needs to grow more to recover and there is less thatch because of the extra wear and tear, we also treat fairway and rough areas that may have been under stress last year with more fertilizer in the spring to help them fill-in and recover faster.

Cart traffic from last fall and early winter

Here you can see an image from google earth of areas that were under stress late last year and we go out early in the spring and fertilize just those areas, that gets those areas and early jump start and the golf course more uniform and to increase the playability.  

Stress areas in yellow

Fertilizing

Now with the large irrigation project is down to a final punch list it is time to get on the course and start spreading spring fertilizer.  This is our time to increase the density of the turf that has seen a lot of winter traffic while it was dormant. Develop a healthy plant with a deep root system that will hold up to our 20+ days of 100 degrees, and improve the quality of our paying surface.  Everything we do in the next 2 1/2 months to improve the health of our turf sets up for  June, July, and August.

Fertilizing tees

We have fertilized tees, approaches, fairway spots, and rough spots this week, and greens will be fertilized next week in preparation of greens aerification the following week, April 16 and 17.

Irrigation project update

Two weeks ago we started the second half of holes #6 and 7 with the irrigation addition.  We used the same process by rolling up sod, trenching 24" deep, and installing the pipe and wires.

Sod rolled up, trenching lines

This section had very few rocks so it made it a lot easier to work in.

This section had approximately 8,000 ft of pipe and trench, 12,000 ft of wire, and 50 heads of varying sizes being added.

Laying out pipe for installation

Running wires

Lots of wires to keep track of

After everything was installed, back filling and sodding was going to be a huge process.  We were very fortunate to have many members come out on varying days and volunteer their time to help us with the labor intensive process.

Back filling, with many volunteers helping

Compacting the soil is something that is is very important.  My philosophy is, all the dirt that comes out of the trench or hole should go back in.  We have many sunken irrigation trenches on the golf course from the original installation, so we were sure to have proper compaction of our trenches.

Step 1 was to back fill 75% and then wheel pack it with the tractor.

75% of soil back filled

The first 75% is then wheel packed with tractor tires

Remaining 25% is back filled

And then compacted with a jumping jack

Lots of hands on shoveling for final clean-up and prepping for sod

The soil is left 3" high in a mound and the sod is laid on top

 Followed by an asphalt roller for the final compaction and it lays the sod and soil down flat to match the surroundings.

Here is sod that was laid from phase 1 two weeks ago.

With backfilling and sodding down to a final punch list.  It is time to start pulling wires to all the heads that will be staying in the ground.

Vibratory plow

Pulling wires

The small trench made by wire puller is then wheel packed and disappears.

All the irrigation lines have now been filled with water and everything is working electrically with the satellite.

Timing was very important on this project and we were under the gun, as we were getting pushed by mother nature with spring winds and sunny days in the 60's, made for a need to irrigate the greens on these two holes, water the sod, and soon run irrigation on the rest of the turf on these two holes.  Everything turned out good and this week we should have the final clean-up and small punch list items done.

New blog header

I am sure you have probably seen the new header on my blog.  Thank you to Peter McCormick, the Maestro, of TurfNet.com.  A very popular golf course website for superintendents to receive information, education, share knowledge, and network with peers. He gave the blog a fresh new look.

My old header

New blog header