The Greens Blues

As has been the case for much of the spring, it was another chilly morning on the golf course.  Luckily, we didn’t get any frost, but several rooftops on my drive to work were frosty.  Thus far in May, the average nighttime temperature has been 44 degrees, and compared to last year, we are nearly two weeks behind in the growing degree days (GDDs) that I’d discussed in an earlier (May 4) post.  Clearly, it’s been a miserable spring to play golf and to recover from winter injury.  Considering the weather, we are satisfied with our recovery to this point, but we recognize that the greens still have a ways to go before they’re up to everyone’s standards.  It’s been a frustrating spring for all involved, and despite doing everything in our power to get them healed, we still don’t have any say in the most-determining factor: the weather.

Many of the previous posts have chronicled our efforts to promote germination and recovery, so I won’t go into too much detail about that.  However, to-date, we have applied 2.0 pounds of nitrogen per 1000 square feet, and as a reference, we applied 2.4 pounds over the course of the entire 2010 season.  So, the nutrients are available for whenever it is that the weather decides to warm up.  Also, we have yet to apply our growth regulator to the greens, and last year, we made this application on May 15.  We’ve also spent a significant amount of time replacing damaged turf on the affected greens with healthy plugs from the chipping green.  All told, 200 plugs have been patched in to 7, 8, and 14 green.  Essentially, we just need some warm temperatures.

The main reason why the greens haven’t yet fully recovered is because the Poa annua simply isn’t germinating.  Recently, the living Poa has begun to produce seeds, and the whitish seeds are very visible on the fairways and on some of the greens.  These seeds will lie dormant in the soil for years and will germinate when they are presented with the proper conditions.  And, because of the large amount of Poa that we have on our greens, there are a lot of seeds waiting for some warm temperatures.  A study by Dr. Calhoun at Michigan State University found that the ideal soil temperature range for Poa seed germination is 68-72 degrees and that germination drops significantly once the soil temperature drops below 58 degrees.  At 8:30 this morning, the soil temperature on 8 green was 46 degrees, and this is why the greens are recovering more slowly than anyone would prefer.

The recovery that we’ve seen thus far has been due to creeping bentgrass encroaching in the damaged areas, and the increased bentgrass population has been the one sliver of good news.  As opposed to Poa, existing bentgrass plants are able to spread laterally through above-ground runners called stolons, which is why it’s called creeping bentgrass.

We’re certainly optimistic that the 10-day forecast holds true and that Mother Nature  will provide us with a little bit of assistance.  We hope that you have a great Memorial Day weekend and that these warm temperatures will make this spring nothing but a bad, slow, and bumpy memory.