Fairways and Color

Many have noticed the golden glow of our fairways recently.  No, we did not forget how to make them green!  Just look at the greens, approaches and tees.  Just like greens we continually combat Poa annual invasion.  It's no small coincidence that with the rough so full of poa that all the other surfaces are slowly being invaded.

After the last two cool years, we have seen a steady rise in poa annua and poa trivialis in the fairways.  It invades in areas of high traffic, low and wet, or shade.  Worst is a combination, see right side of 3 beyond the posts.  The fairway mowers increase its invasive tendencies along the fairway edges from the mechanical damage when mowing on a slope.

Since the time I arrived we have been on an aggressive program to hold it in check.  We and all the other clubs use a variety of growth regulators.  These help strengthen the plant, reduce clippings, and have a tendency to be hard on poa.  After several years on a program we decided to try another tack and used a mixture of regulators.  The effect was immediate, the growth slowed, all varieties of poa were stunted and the bentgrass was fine.

Unfortunately the regulation affect was magnified by the weather.  Abnormal heat in early May coupled with no rain created a brown tint to the grass.  Since the growth has slowed its not fast enough to mow off the brown.  The positive is the bent grass is very good, the poa has been severely set back, and water requirements were less.   The downside is the color.  Playability has not been affected, in some cases slightly firmer conditions.

We will have to back off the regulator just to ensure the poa we have survives the summer (thats a lot of grass), but we know the direction we want to go in the fall, when we will resume applications and begin to inter seed bentgrass.

Here is picture of the rough we sprayed as well.  You can see the distinct line the width of the sprayer in the loop around the fairway.  We have a lot of poa!

As always if you have any questions, please stop me and ask, beware I like to talk turf.  I can also be reached by office phone and email.

Pesky little bugs

In the turf world no year can start off worse than a spring thats 2-3 weeks late and Memorial day early.  Time is very compressed when these two thing occur.  Anyway, golf season is well in hand and the course is beginning to take shape.  Many of you have seen some of our work from the winter, such as the new wall from the 3rd green to 4th tee, the new steps to the range, or maybe the thinning out of some of the trees.

We saw the decline of Bremuda used as a test on the par 3 tees, sod that was frozen for most of the winter and the opening of the new tee at 2, complete with new concrete cart path.  Of course by now you have heard of the master plan being developed by Tom Doak and Renassiance Golf Design.

For us on the turf side, our winter was spent almost exclusively learning about a new, small turf pest called the annual blue grass weevil or ABW for short.  This little pest has been plaguing the northeast for a while.  We always dismissed it as a northern problem, much like many of our issues are never experienced by them.  Well unfortunately this pest has come roaring into our area, and since we have a large population of annual bluegrass, it is something we are very concerned about.

First this little weevil is small, about 8-10 can fit on the head of a penny.  Secondly, it has about 4-5 adult generations per year, which each generation produces a larvae (grub) that feeds on roots.  Lastly there is no perfect timetable to monitor its advance and no great products to kill the larvae stage.

With so many generations in the mix, it is very hard to predict which stage we are witnessing.  Much less trying to find this little pest to start with.  Although eradicating adults can be done, research has shown that even a few sprays applied to control them may make the species resistant to future applications, so we have to be very carful in our planning and monitoring to be effective.

We start by using a vacummn to collect samples from areas we believe to be susceptible and look for adults.  We then continue to collect for several days in these areas to assess if the population is moving and building.  Next we apply products that target the adults, but not all will be contianed.

Next we begin to take turf samples and flush them with a salt bath solution for over an hour and look for the very small larvae.  Think a very small grain of rice for a size reference.

After this salt bath, we attempt to determine which of the 5 stages of the grub are in the plant/soil.  The first two stages are not affected by any pesticides.  They are still in the plant, but only for a few days.  Once they move from there to the soil, they will feed on roots for 10 days before they pupate and begin the transformation into the next generation of adults.

The above picture shows a few small larvae on the blade of the knife.  They are the small white sand size grubs.  This is the only time they are vunerable to pesticide applications.   It needs to be stated that in order for us to effectively kill the grub, the products we use must get to where the pest lives, down in the soil.  This requires us to pre water to soak the soil, then spray and immediateluy water heavy again to make sure the products reach the pest.  This is why you may see us spray and water in the rain.  These products are expensive and short lived, so they need to be put down at a moments notice and irrigaion run immediately or the whole process is wasted.

When missed, they cause damage to the root system of the plant that can be seen here on the 12th green.  This damage showed signs after 2 days; even with a month of monitoring, using vaccumns and salt flushes.  Notice the damage is confined to the poa collar.  They feast on poa first, maybe bent later, but in any case it is one we are becoming experts on.

Below is a picture of a collar damaged from the pests.  The right side is all unaffected bent grass.  The left side is a mixed stand where all the poa has been damaged.

The future of this pest is on the rise, so if we start waving our hands and shaking our heads when the term ABW is mentioned, please forgive us.