Seedhead Setback

As we neared the end of April, everything around the golf course was starting to come together to create great playing surfaces on just about every part of the course.  The greens were rolling nicely, the bermuda fairways have filled in and greened up, the tees are more dense and uniform than in years past, and the rough...well it's still the rough.  We've still got work to do there.  So as all is going good, imagine my utter disbelief and frustration as our poa annua greens began to seed for the second time this year.

White, fat seedheads...The stuff of nightmares.

 Here I have one standing up on the point of my key chain card. 

I'm still trying to learn the why behind what happened to cause this.  Typically you can expect one good flush of seeds in the early spring.   In an effort to lessen the amount and size of the seeds produced, we use growth regulating products designed to suppress seedhead production.  As far as I understand, these products are designed to be used only once per year.  Regarding our situation - I haven't been able to get any recommendations on using these suppressants again heading into summer.

I believe this second flush of seeds is a product of the weather.  In early March we had temperatures well above average, which caused an early flush of seeds from the poa.  Temperatures in April were then typical of temperatures in March: cooler and very dry.  Now in May our temperatures are around what we might see in April.  I really think the turf is a bit confused as it has seen two periods of weather that typically serve as the signal to start producing seeds.  There could be many other factors here, but I think the weather is having the most impact.

Poa annua seedheads are the bane of a smooth putting surface.  Not much else does more to ruin the speed and consistency of the green surface.  The actual process of producing seeds is also detrimental to root development of the turf.  The turf diverts vital resources to produce seeds instead of roots. Unfortunately we will have to deal with these seedheads for another couple weeks. 

 Oddly enough this is from the same green as the previous pictures.  This biotype of poa  hasn't seeded again.

Greens Health: Water Management

The months of spring are some of our busiest months of the year here at Nutters.  We spend a lot of time preparing the turf for the summer months to come, so that it can play at its best.  Applications of fertilizers and water are carefully planned so that the turf is as healthy as possible when the heat comes.  

This year the weather has been favorable for me to condition the greens by keeping them relatively dry and firm.  As the turf stays dry on top, it will dedicate more resources to seek out water below.  I've been careful to only apply water when needed.  The humps and slopes of greens are first to dry out, and so I'll water those areas with a hose until the rest of the green needs a drink. 

A drier soil profile also allows for more oxygen in the rootzone, and consequently we have healthier roots.  I've taken out many soil samples like the one below, which has been rinsed in water.  I'm relatively pleased with what I see, but I hope we can get more white roots and more mass going into June.

Year in Review - Part 2

In my last entry, I detailed some of the issues we faced on the greens.  In this entry I'd like to lay out what my plan of attack is for the year to come.

One of my priorities in 2012 will be to establish a consistent cultural program that will lead to a healthier greens complex.  If we can be consistent in preforming the following cultural practices, I believe that performance issues with the soil profile will improve:

• Aerifying greens with the goal of removing 15 - 20% of soil material over the course of the year, and replacing it with straight sand
• Topdressing greens every 3 weeks combined with dimpling greens to work extra sand into the soil 
• Needle tineing greens every 3 to 4 weeks throughout the year
• Use far less water via overhead irrigation through the year.  Focus on using hoses to spot treat areas that need water, especially on the back holes that hold water.

My overall goal is to improve the quality and consistency of the soil.  The added sand will aid in soil drainage.  Aerifying and tineing will help the soil to breathe.  Using less water will allow us to keep the surface dry, and leave more space for oxygen in the soil.  

When you have a quality, nutritious, well draining soil, you have the best shot at having a quality putting surface.

When a golf course deliberately puts off preforming cultural practices, it's similar to trying to pay off a large amount of credit card debt by just making the minimum payment.  Eventually the burden of debt will become too large to bear, and the golf course will suffer as a result.

The Year In Review - Part 1

As I get back into regularly updating you on the agronomic goings-on at Nutters Crossing, I need to take the time and opportunity to review some of the issues the greens experienced this summer.  I'll address the contributing factors that were present before I came here.  I'll explain where I went wrong in my management and more importantly, I'll lay out the steps we will take to avoid having the same issues with the greens in the future.

So what exactly happened to the greens this summer?

 Remember this?  This picture is of the back of #13, taken right as all hell began to break loose. In the very simplest of terms, near the end of July, we experienced massive turf loss on some of our greens due to a combination of severe heat stress, a lack of oxygen in the soil profile, and the turf's lack of a healthy root system.

Now, you don't just find serious issues knocking at your turf doorstep without a fair amount of provocation (or neglect) on your part.  Turfgrass will only give you as much as you put into it, and it will be the most honest with you during the most difficult times of the growing season.  This season the grass told me, in no uncertain terms, that it could not grow under the conditions, or with the resources I provided it.  

Looking back I've been able to identify a handful of small mistakes on my part that contributed to the problem.  I've also learned that I had a few preexisting conditions that also factored into these problems.

Some of the smaller factors that contributed to the major issues: 

Early in the spring the greens seeded heavier than usual - Our greens are primarily poa annua, which will  flower in the spring, and put out large quantities of seed heads.  The seed heads not only compromise the quality of the putting surface, they also require the plant to use a good amount of energy to produce.  The resources that went to seeding should have gone to rooting.  Our greens started off the year with a poorer root system than they should have had.  

The greens struggle to move water through the soil profile - The first four inches of soil, from the surface of the green down, is a bit of a mess.  It tends to hold onto more water than it should.  It's in it's current state because of the lack of a consistent topdressing and aerification program.  Take a look at the picture below:

 

 

 Notice the dark brown to black streaks in the plug?  Notice the chunky texture of the broken up plug?  This is not conducive to good drainage of water.

The "problem" greens on the back 9, struggle to drain water from the entire green complex - In a healthy green complex the water naturally moves downward.  As water moves downward, healthy turf will push its root system to find the water below. I learned the hard way that many of the greens on the back 9 had been holding onto almost all of the water I had been giving it leading up to July.  They are essentially bathtubs.  Consequentially, the turf never had to move anywhere to find water and I didn't have much of a root system develop on those back holes.

Over-watering the greens - I did not do my due diligence in evaluating the state of the greens in the spring and their ability to drain water.  I treated them all the same, giving them the same amount of water at the same frequency.  The greens on the back held onto it.  When the soil holds onto excess water it leaves less space for necessary oxygen the roots need to be healthy.  I was unwittingly asphyxiating some areas of the greens heading into the summer.     

One major factor (nearly) out of my control: 

The weather.  This July was one of the hottest on record on the Delmarva Peninsula.  We recorded daily high temperatures above 90 degrees for 27 out of the 31 days.  Even before July we had experienced above average temperatures in May and June.  All of our problems came to a head after a weekend where we recorded highs of 103 and 104 with the nighttime temperature never going below 80.  After that weekend, the root system of the turf was totally compromised, and any wilt, foot traffic, or water stress caused the turf to die.  

I wont name the weather as a direct cause though, as a good turf manager will have the grass ready to go during these tough stretches.  

New Course, New Responsibilities part 2

New Responsibilities:

Last week I gave a brief introduction to Nutters Crossing.  This week I wanted to blog about what the transition has been like, going from an Assistant to a full fledged Superintendent.

For me, the rise up the ranks in golf maintenance from entry level to Superintendent is a lot like taking Chemistry in school.  If you've ever taken a Chemistry course, you know that everything you learn will be the foundation for the material you will be studying later in the course.  It's a pretty brutal step by step process of learning, where you have to completely understand the old material to have any chance of learning the new.  Forget what a "mole" is, and you're sunk...Golf maintenance is similar in that you must build upon everything you've learned to take the next step up.    

In golf course maintenance you start out learning and doing a wide variety of tasks, mostly hand labor and mowing.  You do what you're told.  It's mostly stress free.  You don't have to make any hard decisions.  You just need to follow directions.

For those love golf maintenance enough to make a career out of it, working as an intern is usually the next sequential step in the journey.  They usually work very long hours, and in addition to being doers they begin the process of understanding the "why" behind what they do.  As an intern you start to learn about all the time and effort put into planning the maintenance schedule.  You learn about what is in that fertilizer application you made the other day, and you start to get a glimpse of what it's like to have vision, attention to detail, and the like.

Hopefully the next step in the process is to land an Assistant Superintendents position.  This is where the real fun begins.  To this point and time, almost your whole career has been focused on doing what others tell you.   Now as an assistant you take on a huge amount of new responsibility.  You begin to learn how to mentor, teach, delegate, plan, maintain quality control, and above all work on that decision making and vision.  The best assistant jobs will be the ones where the Superintendent allows their assistant to make their own judgments and decisions on what the golf course needs to be great.  They are allowed to succeed or fail, but when they fail the Superintendent will be there to ensure the course isn't destroyed as a result.

My time at Glen Riddle was great in this regard.  Eric, the Director, expected us to take ownership of the golf course, and make our own judgement calls.  He provided a safe environment for us to make big time decisions, and learn from our mistakes without jeopardizing our jobs, or his.  My time there really prepared me for my new position at Nutters, but like the post says, I've found that there were many things happening behind the scenes that I never knew about.

One of the biggest changes for me has been to take on all of the administrative duties of a Superintendent.  I have quickly learned that I am now fully responsible and accountable for all aspects of the maintenance.  This includes the budgeting, ordering products, hiring personnel, interacting with sales reps...And did I mention being accountable for everything???  You become just as much businessman as agronomist.

Lest I come off as a complainer, I will stop now and say that I love my job and I've waited for this opportunity my whole career.  Nutters Crossing has been a great place to get my feet wet, while not being in any danger of drowning right off the bat.  I hope to continue to make great strides in building my career in order to take on greater challenges in the future.  

If you've read this far, thank you.  I plan to make my future posts about agronomy, and much more to the point.  Thanks!