The other day if you listened to my aeration video, I made mention of doing some Bermuda eradication work in the next few days in the fairways. Today was the day so you have about T-minus 4-5 days before the fairways begin to turn off color. The course will still be in great shape to play but our fairway surfaces will be a different color.
I did mention that I probably would not do 11-12 acres like I did last fall. Well, this morning as I was spraying my first 4 acre tank and it got me up to one pass through #4, I said lets jump into it with both feet. The more widespread I make these treatments, the less time it will take and then all we have to do is maintenance treatments every year.
I sprayed 18 acres of fairways at about a mid-rate of Fusilade II 4 oz/acre and 32 oz of Turflon per acre. Rates might be overall slightly less since I think my rate was spraying at slightly more acreage than the chemical I mixed but that is okay.
Within the next 4 days or so, you will begin to see a little tinge or off color look to the fairways. The zoysia will be slightly yellow and the Bermuda leaves will begin to turn a little purplish red. The next couple of weeks they will remain off color until the chemical after about 3 weeks has done its dirty work. The Bermuda will not die in most cases but will be suppressed. As the Zoysia comes out of its slight off color state, it will begin to show up a little stronger in many areas where the Bermuda is still weakened. Now, it won't jump out of the ground but it will begin to poke through in areas. This is multiple years work to try to gain control of our fairways back to Zoysia. You will be able to see significant reduction in Bermuda especially on the flat area of #3 and #13. Holes 4 and the flat area on 7 have also been in the rotation the longest. I think the 2nd fairway will also start showing improvement because most of the Bermuda is entwined in the Zoysia.
The intermediates were not touched since we mowed them this morning and I could not see the dew pattern on the Bermuda. I might have to wait a few days to spray it since rain is predicted and higher temperatures. I spray on a heavy dew morning because the Bermuda usually stands out because it has more leaves and has a darker green tint to it. As I was applying the material on the fairways, I was seeing a lot of areas of strong Zoysia with the Bermuda intermingled. These are perfect areas to try to gain some traction. I did attempt to skip the Bermuda in drainage areas. In the next few days as the color begins to change, I will take some video and pics to explain what is happening. I will do at least 2 more applications before late fall to help push the zoysia along further and suppress the Bermuda.
I can understand your concern, its looking beautiful, why tear it up now? If we become a Bermuda fairway golf course again, we could have large sections of winter kill and fairways that are not nearly as good to play off of at any time during the year. As Andy Dufresne said in Shawshank Redemption, 'Time to start living, or get busy dying'. I am choosing life for our Zoysia and death or a weakened state for the Bermuda grass.
If you are interested in our past work on Bermuda eradication, click on the link below which will take you to say posts from the past.
Fairway Bermuda Eradication
No comments:
Post a Comment