USGA July 28th Update

This is from the USGA for the Northeast region of the country:

The recent heat wave has caused turf decline across the region.  Although multiple daily 100+ degree temperatures have been enough to cause turf loss, the night temperatures of high 70’s and low 80’s have been the most damaging.  With these night-time temperatures, physiological decline and disease pressure have been extremely high. 

The best way to keep grass alive in this heat is to do as much as possible to keep the turf cool.  Syringing greens, tees, and fairways throughout the day and even into the early evening hours has been a necessity at most facilities.  Oscillating fans have been a huge help in aiding plant cooling and soil drying.  For those without fans, the use of rented industrial fans or portable blowers has been helpful in increasing air movement, which can make the difference in turf survival or death. 

Many golfers would think rain would be a welcomed sight for golf courses that suffer from the oppressive heat.  Actually, heavy rain, combined with hot weather, can cause severe turf loss in poorly draining sites.  Essentially, turf roots can’t keep up with their cooling needs, and wilt develops even though the soils are moist.  Frequent syringing, even if the soils are wet, is necessary to keep grass alive in this scenario.  Venting aeration is beneficial in helping to dry saturated soils and minimize turf loss.
Localized dry spots also have been commonly seen, especially where automatic irrigation coverage and uniformity are poor, and hand-watering is not available due to labor constraints.  Venting aeration, hand-watering, and wetting agent usage are helpful in battling localized dry spot. Turf suffering from drought stress is likely to be dormant (off-color/brown) until rainfall and cooler weather develops.  Dormant turf should not be heavily trafficked, as this could cause severe turf loss.  Note:  Poa annua doesn’t go dormant; if it’s brown, it’s probably dead, and overseeding will be necessary. 

Disease issues have been very common, with Pythium, brown patch, summer patch, and anthracnose causing turf loss on many areas of the golf course.  Plant-parasitic nematodes have also been reported.  If root decline has occurred more rapidly than usual, check for nematode populations. 

At this point, the best way to keep grass alive is to use defensive management practices that focus entirely on minimizing environmental and mechanical stress and less on overall playability.  For most, this means slower green speeds, which are always better than dead greens.        

Some Relief

Thankfully the temperatures have fallen and we have received some much needed rain in the amount .75 of an inch. The course absorbed all the rain with no problem except a few bunker washouts which the crew fixed this morning. The turf will rebound with these cooler nights and adequate moisture but the heat returns at the end of the week so we will continue our heat stress management program of rotating mowing and rolling on the greens and reducing fairway mowing to twice a week. I have also applied some liquid fertilizer to the greens, approaches, tees, and fairways to help grow out the damaged areas. I have also backed off on my growth regulator programs to aid in the growing out of the dead Poa. This will make the course look shaggy and the greens slower but I want to grow as much of the brown turf out before the next round of heat begins. The fairway sprinkler replacements that I did on the 9th fairway did very well during the dry weather when you compare 9 fairway to 5 and 6. While I did not budget to replace the irrigation heads this year on 5 and 6 I have ordered 6 new heads for the really bad trouble spots on those fairways. The replacement of these heads will help in the recovery of these areas as well as prevent more damage the rest of the summer. I thank you for you patience while I struggle through this time of year.

Course Update - July 23

After 15 days with no rain and high temperatures the golf course is many shades of yellow, brown and green. While I have taken many precautions to prevent turf loss such as raising mower heights, reducing mowing frequency, rolling, and many hours of syringing with a hose we still have large areas of damage on the course. Some of these areas are stressed due to poor irrigation, rocky soil, areas with limited air movement, shade, and competition from shrubs. These are the factors of why the turf is dying but the reason is that Poa Annua has filled in these areas over the years. Poa Annua loves these types of areas until it get hot then it begins to struggle and die. Although this should be no surprise considering the name of the plant tells you it’s going to die, "annua" Latin for annual. In the short term these areas will be nursed with water and fertilizer to help recovery as the weather improves. The long-term solution is to remove trees for increased air movement and allow for more sun, continue to aerate on a regular basis, increase the efficiency of our irrigation system, and overseed with bentgrass. All of these processes will be dealt with in the coming months as well as the construction of a new putting green nursery. This nursery will give us the ability to sod areas on greens that have damage in a quick fashion using our own sod. The construction of this nursery will begin in August and be ready for use in the 2012 season. I will write more about this later as I have to get back to my hose and the syringing of greens and fairways.

USGA Update

Here is the latest update from the USGA:

By David A. Oatis, director, Northeast Region
July 14, 2011

I can see it now; the summer of 2011 will wind up being ‘average’ when we total the year-end weather data, but for superintendents who manage turf, there really is no such thing as an average year.  Last winter certainly was not average because winter injury was experienced in many parts of the region.  The spring was not average because of the cool temperatures and tremendous rainfall.  Many areas of the region now have gone several weeks without rainfall, and some areas have gone without rainfall for much longer.  Once again, long-standing records will be broken for extreme weather, but the year-end totals will be ‘average.’

Annual bluegrass weevil (ABW) activity seems to be in a lull for the moment, but the next wave of damage will appear at any moment.  ABW populations were very high on many courses a few weeks ago, and, as has been the case annually for the last few years, we saw all phases of the insect at the same time at courses in the Met area.  A combination of a much wider emergence window and resistance to the pyrethroid class of insecticides are the most likely causes.  Control of ABW is more difficult now because different materials are required to control adults and larva, so it is essential to understand your populations.  Knowing the percentage of ABW in the adult, larvae and pupa stages is essential to successful control.  My best advice is to scout before and immediately after control applications so that you can target them more effectively and assess whether or not the control measures were effective.  Based on what we have seen thus far, plan on ABW being a problem for the rest of the season.

Given all the wet weather experienced this spring, one also would suspect that summer patch may be prevalent this year.  We just need some hot, dry weather to kick it off.  If that occurs, beware.

I saw the first Japanese beetle adults of the year on July 7.  Although I have not seen high populations at the courses I have visited, there are reports of extremely high numbers in some areas.  Thus, be sure your turf is protected from this insect pest.  Oh, and if the Japanese beetle traps are being used on your course, be aware that they bring in adult beetles from miles around so carefully choose where you place them. 

In case you are feeling emboldened by your turf performing well, remember some key lessons from last year.  If you want to try a new product, do not try it on all of your greens, tees or fairways.  First use it in a few small areas, in some cases possibly over a couple of seasons, so that you can get a better feel for how the product will work under a wide range of conditions specific to your course.  Once you’ve done that, expand usage to the rest of the course.  Not before!

It seems hard to believe, but the summer is nearly half over, so here’s to hoping your turf has held up well so far and that it continues to hold up for the remainder of the season. 

Course Update

I have that feeling in my stomach I get when I see that the temperatures will be above 90 for the next 12 days and night times temperatures will be above 70, throw in a few thunderstorms and its a superintendent's nightmare. The dry and hot temperatures from the past few days have already put stress on the Poa annua in the greens and on the fairways. Areas of shade, weak irrigation, tree root encroachment, or a combination of the three is where I am seeing the most stress because these are the areas where the Poa annua likes to grow and the bentgrass does not. In order to give the turf a chance to survive over the next two weeks or so I vented the greens today and rolled them. This will allow oxygen to move into the soil and allow gases to leave the soil. The venting will also aid in moving water through the soil profile in the event of a thunderstorm. I am raising the heights of cut on the greens and limiting the number of mowings during this period as well. We will be rolling the greens more and cutting less which gives the turf a better chance of survival. The speeds of the greens will be slower during this time but the long term health of the green takes priority over speed for the time being. I will be out on the greens with my hose trying to keep the turf cool so please be mindful of hitting shots into the greens while I am syringing.

Condition of 8 Green

The front left of the 8th green is still not getting better. This damage was caused by ice damage from the long winter we had last year and the low lying location of the green. In the spring we aerified this area and seeded it with bentgrass to re-establsih the area. The wet and cold spring left most of the seed un-germinated and the areas still bare. We then began to install over 300 hexagon plugs to fill the areas but this was a slow process and the green was still not up to par. I then used sod strips from our nursery which were doing well until the heat of the weekend really stressed them and they began to die. The difference between the plugs and the sod strips is that the plugs had 3 inches of roots while the sod only has 1/2 inch of roots. The roots on the sod strips just couldn't keep up with the demand from the plant during the hot temperatures. The foot traffic on the green also hampered the roots so we have roped this area off and it is "ground under repair." I will continue to topdress, aerify, and seed this area for the next 5 or 6 weeks until the shorter days of August are here which will allow us to try and sod this area again. I apologize for this unacceptable area on the 8th green but I want to let the membership know that we are working hard to fix this area as soon as possible without causing more damage to the green.

Shade

The hot weather has arrived and the stress on the course is beginning to show. The next two months will be a struggle like always to keep the turf alive in the hot and dry weather just as the roots are getting smaller and smaller this time of year. While most of us love a bit of shade during a hot round of golf the turf actually perfers the sun over the shade. Many of our greens are set back against vegetation where there is plenty of shade and little air movement. Both of these situations are not good for turf especially our greens which are mowed at a tenth of an inch. The following is from PACE turf and explains why the turf needs sunlight not shade.

Why turf needs light: Plants use light the same way that animals use food  — to fuel

The chemical reactions that keep them alive.  But different plants need different levels

of light.  Shade loving house-plants or mosses that grow on the forest floor require very little light and will actually die if exposed to direct sun. In contrast,  plants  such  as  turf grass require many hours per day of high  intensity sunlight, and will die if forced to grow in the shade. What happens in the shade? When  turf  plants  receive  less light than  is optimal, they begin to change almost immediately.  The  plants  stretch  out,

with  thinner  stems  and  taller plants.  Root  growth  is  decreased,  and  leaves  become darker, fewer in number, narrower and more succulent. Shade vs. turf: can they coexist? The damage cascades: Eventually, the turf plant becomes weakened. The  succulent leaves are more susceptible to damage  from  foot and equipment traffic, as well as to disease. The depleted root system makes it difficult for the plant to recover from injury, and weeds become more common, because the turf is unable to compete with them.  As the shaded turf succumbs to these pressures, thinning and bare spots become more common.  And because shaded turf requires less water, these areas are frequently wet and muddy. Only tree pruning or removal can completely stop shade-related damage. Raise mowing heights to increase plant health, minimizing traffic, or replacing turf with shade tolerant plants, ground covers, or mulches are other ways but are normally unaccepted.

Course Update

Yesterday I aerified the problem spots on greens most of which are in the rear sections of the greens under or close to trees. This time of year the turf on the greens begins to thin out in these shady areas as they are competing with the trees for water and nutrients. The greens were also lightly topdressed and fertilized with an organic fertilizer. This fertilizer is different then our weekly liquid application as the granular feeds the soil while the liquid feeds the plant through the leaves.
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Parking Lot

To avoid more confusion we have painted the drive-thru area of the parking lot with yellow arrows. This should fix the parking issues that we have had.
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Divots

This morning we found a divot take on the 9th green. Its disappointing that we work so hard to keep the greens healthy and someone has to do this kind of damage.
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