Poa and Green Speeds

            Finally a break, short lived but desperately needed. We are expecting significant rain tomorrow but we have not received any rain at the club in nearly 6 weeks, average daily temperatures have been in the 90’s and disease pressure is very high.  

           Some of our turf gave out in the extreme heat. Our greens are made up of two types of grass, Poa Annua and Bentgrass. Bent is the preferred species but Poa is the predominate type at about 95%. Poa is a very shallow rooted turf which has been very difficult to manage over the past couple years.  It is the species that seeds profusely in the spring and is not standing up to heat and drought stress as well as we would like .



In the above photo the bluish green turf in the middle is bentgrass

 The newer bents we have been seeding into the greens are doing very well. If you look closely you can see the bentgrass loving the heat and humidity and is flourishing under these conditions. The importance of core aeration can’t be anymore evident than it is now. You can easily see healthier turf and specs of new grass in the old aeration holes.

We are not sure if our membership is ready for a bentgrass conversion program but it will be discussed at committee level and something we may need to look at to simplify maintenance, ensure longevity and improve consistency. Unfortunately there is tough love involved that may be difficult to swallow.

         Green speeds have slowed  because we had no choice but to raise the mowing heights during the heat, especially durring last week. Recovery of damaged turf and green speeds don't go hand in hand and a decision had to be made. Tomorrow we will be lowering the heights and grooming and rolling as necessary to achieve the desired green speeds for our club championship and hopefully maintaining these regular heights for the remainder of the summer.

So what do we do? We use our maintenance day to aggressively seed the greens. We will decide over the weekend what method depending on the weather and how they withstand the stress of the weekend. Coreing with ½ inch tines to a depth of 1” at a very tight spacing and double seeding with our spike seeder is the best chance we have to establish more bent. Unfortunately we are not confident our greens could handle such a disruptive practice and may cause more damage than good if the extreme heat continues. We may have to postpone the aeration as we did last year and just seed. In a bent grass conversion program this would be the best time to be aggressive setting back the Poa and giving the bentgrass the best chance possible to establishing its self.

Looking forward to Club C's. 

 Mark Piccolo