This Years Environmental Conditions

Its been a tough couple of months out at Warnimont, and it looks like its only gonna get tougher. My grounds crew staff is slowly beginning to dwindle down as they return to school and the work continues to grow. We have accomplished alot this year and without my wonderful crew, it wouldn't have been made possible. With the steady amount of rain we have received throughout the season the course has looked lush and maintained a beautiful green appearance all year. This has been a blessing, but on the same note, has caused some deeper problems underneath the beautiful aesthetics of the course. With the constant rain we got this year the Poa Annua grasses in the green have been unable to produce a deep root system. They have only an inch or two of roots, because of the constant moisture in the greens. Once the top couple inches of soil dry out, the grass plant is unable to acquire water, and declines rapidly or even results in desiccation.

If you take a close look at the greens you might observe a black slimy layer within the turf, especially were the grass has thinned. This is a organism known as cyanobacteria or as we call it "algae". This is also produced by the excessive rainfall and humid conditions. Algae like thatch will impede water movement into the soil profile. Thatch is the organic matter under the turf canopy which consists of dead debris, roots, crowns, and stems. Two factors which greatly increase thatch is excess nitrogen and WATER! Thatch not only impedes water movement, creating hydrophobic areas on the green, but also puffy areas allowing the turf to scalp during mowing, which has been seen at many courses in the area.

So in order to battle these detrimental factors we increase verticutting(which pulls out the thatch),topdressing(this is adding sand to the surface of the green), and aerifying(pulls soil cores). These three processes help break up the algae layer, and thatch, which increases water movement and gives the Poa Annua and Bent grasses optimal growing conditions.