Week 16 Recap

Now that we’ve had a couple of hard frosts, our focus has turned from routine mowing and fertilizing, to winter preparation and some additional detail oriented tasks that we didn’t have the time for when most our labor was allocated to mowing.  Once the turf receives its first frost, top growth ceases and all of the plant’s energy is then used to push roots and store carbohydrate reserves as it prepares for the winter months.  The photo below is a cross section from last week of 5 green. Notice the root mass is already 6” deep.  The poa annua greens we managed previously were most often in the 2” range.  This is one of the many characteristics that makes bentgrass far superior to poa annua.

Another project that’s in progress is squaring off all tees.  Now that the tees have adequately grown in, we’re adjusting the allignment and making sure the perimeters are all square and in straight lines.  This will help provide better definition between the bentgrass and bluegrass, and provide an overall more attractive appearance of our tees.  Our hope is to get most of them done yet this fall weather permitting.

Our snow mold application will commence later this week with plans of being completed early next week.  Once that application is made, a heavy dose of topdressing sand will go on tees and greens acting as the “winter cover” to protect the grass from dessication and other forms of winter injury.  I think it’s safe to say we won’t miss having to handle the cumbersome greens covers anymore as they’re a thing of the past!