Topdressing

It has been three weeks since we aerified the greens so I have resumed our normal light topdressings yesterday. Throughout the growing season I am topdressing every 7-10 days but with the cooler weather and shorter the days the turf has slowed down so I will be stretching our topdressing window to every 14 days until December. Once the turf has stopped growing I will prepare them for the winter including some venting, a heavy topdressing, possible deep tine aeration, and our snow mold protectant. The final step will be to use our three greens covers on our problem greens similar to last season.

In detail:

• venting provides voids in the soil to allow surface water from melting snow and ice a place to go. Reducing the chance for winter kill
• heavy topdressing will protect the crowns of the plant from dessication in the case of an open dry winter at the same time helping us dilute our thatch layer
• deep tine aeration allows for firmer and drier greens while providing deep channels for root growth; great time of year to implicate this procedure without disturbing play
• snow mold is a fungus that requires cold temperatures, free water (melting snow), and in-case certain cases snow coverage; our plant protectant will prevent snow mold from forming on the green and approaches