Well, we've made it on the other side of the worst weather of the season. Hopefully, our turf has survived any issues. The snow cover should have given the surfaces some insulation. I would not mind some bermuda grass damage but we will see. Bermuda rarely dies, it just gets pushed into the ground where it starts its growth instead of from runners attached to the surface of the ground.
The course should have thawed and drained enough to open this Thursday, February 25th for play. We would anticipate the range to remain closed at least through the weekend due to very soft conditions from the thaw and balls plugging. Rainfall over the weekend should help reduce some of the soft conditions but the golf professional staff will have to determine when it can be opened.
I've posted a couple videos on social media since Saturday regarding the thawing of the greens at Glen Echo and how we determine when the course will be opened. I made a post in a previous blog regarding the freezing and thawing of greens on February 9th. Below is the link.
The first video shows the spot I cleared away from the practice green on Saturday to show the difference in time it takes from a cleared green to a insulated/snow covered green.
The second video is from this morning showing the depth the greens have thawed since Saturday and an explanation of our decision making whether to open the course or keep it closed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT_2DL1KsnM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQG3frUc2Ac
The pictures below are depth measurements of the freeze in our greens. Our greens have about 6" of sand on them and then soil. I would think the freeze moved down into the soil layer. The sand layer freezes quicker than soil but the soil layer underneather thaws slower than the sand. It is important that our greens thaw enough to allow water to evacuate through the profile of the sand allowing the green surface to become less saturated. The surface area of the green acts like a soaked sponge but in a greens case, the inprint in the surface can days for days and create a very disrupted surface. We will also want to mow our greens soon to remove its winter growth and the disruption in the surface from foot printing could cause scalping which would delay spring growth.
PG depth of freeze where snow was removed on Saturday
Practice green near the above picture but snow was allowed to melt naturally
15 green middle right
15 green back right
11 green still a little covered in snow
11 green off the left side middle. Still pretty frozen
Like a shutdown corner on the football field, mother nature is doing her thing for the next week or two here at Glen Echo. Below freezing temperatures and a few days of precipitation has moved us indoors to complete our course supplies refurbishing and other important duties before we get back out on the course.
Green Root Shearing
Once temperatures have moderated and all the snow and ice is gone from the course, the course will not reopen until the freeze has come completely out of the greens. I've attached a 1 minute video from the USGA regarding root shear and its effect on golf greens.
Shearing occurs when walking on thawed green surfaces and the root zone is frozen. Foot traffic on softening bentgrass greens causes the surface layer to shift with our weight and can tear roots at the junction of the thawed and frozen part of the green. The shearing off or tearing of roots that were 4-6" long to barely an inch or less causes the plant to use a tremendous amount of energy to regenerate the roots back to their mature length. Now remember that there are an average of
Keep in mind, all roots are continueing to grow and evolve during the spring season and into early summer. They are gaining root mass and extend top growth based on the supply of energy we provide. Once they've used all their energy for growth, there is usually excess energy that has no where to go so it is placed in storage to be used by the plant when production of energy does not keep up with demand. This generally occurs when soil temperatures reach around +85 and air temperature near +90 degrees during late June through early September..
Turf and Below Zero Temperatures
So will below zero weather have a negative effect on our turf? I'm glad you asked that question. Generally speaking our turf should be able to withstand these temperatures. Snow cover does provide some insulation but we only have about 1" or so covering our fairways and grens.
The turf most effected by below zero nights could be the bermuda grasss which we have invading almost all of our surfaces. It won't kill it completely but could potentially cause it to grow out from below ground. Normally bermuda begins to green up in its runners or stolons above ground. The freeze could force it to grow from rhizomes under ground because the runners on the surface on the ground could die back to below the surface. In most cases it will kill the plant completely but could delay its growth by weeks or more.
Our golf greens, cool season turf have a higher cold tolerance to severe cold. We did discontinue mowing to allow our greens to get a little fluffy. I was contemplating a mow in January but saw the long term outlook and decided to hold on until February. I'm glad I waited. Mowing in winter, especially if it is milder can signal the plants to grow which could lead to some cold temperature injury. Poa annua can be negatively effected by cold but I've never seen much winter kill in my 31 years in the business here in St. Louis.
Our zoysia grass tees, fairways have cold tolerance to about -5 to -10 degrees under normal circumstances. Without snow cover, north facing, shaded, and heavy traffiked areas could be subject to winter damage when temperatures fall into these ranges. This damage could result in slow green up and or death and in need for replacement.
Are there cultural practices which could reduce winter injury? Thank you for asking again and yes there are Best Practices that can assist in winter turf survival of zoysia grass. At Glen Echo, we do the following to improve our turf's chance for emerging unscathed in the spring.
Aeration and or slicing fairways/tees in the summer
Traffic control of carts and moving teeing grounds to reduce wear and tear. This is why we ask you to not drive directly from the teeing area to fairways because of wear and tear.
Light, the more light the better which means the removal of limbs and or trees as necessary to improve and increase light. A minimum of 5-6 hours is the best. This would also include root pruning of trees using our tractor driven root pruner
Ensure nitrogen fertilizer applications do not extend the growth of zoysia to far into the late summer/early fall which does not allow the zoysia to move into dormancy at the proper timing. Also provide adequate potassium to the zoysia through a late summer/fall which assists in winter hardiness
Reduce drought stress going into dormancy
Raise height of cut before season ends
Reduce traffic during non-growth dormancy months
Tree Management Plan
Our tree management plan is ongoing during the year. We did some significant pruning in the late summer/early fall to clean off suckers on trees and to remove lower and or dead branches that will allow more sunlight to get to our turf canopy. Our contractor is out this week removing a few trees that are on our green committee approved list that are too large for our staff to handle without being topped out. The committe has also given the green light to remove most Sweetgum trees from the property because of the immense clean up that are caused by these trees. The time and energy that will be saved from cleaning up gumballs as they drop can be moved to managing and improving other turf areas. We also have a few damaged and or weakened trees that will get our attention over the next month or so as well that we can drop on our own. Stump grinding will be completed and soil, sod and or seeding will take place depending upon where they are located.
We have one tree left in our tree nursery which will be moved this winter. We will add another 3-4 back into the nursery before spring to allow them to grow and mature for future use.
Large Pin Oak being topped today near 4-5 cart path and main road. Tree has significant wounding in lower 1/3 of main trunk and top has continued to die back.
Maple Syrup
We began the process of tapping our maple trees for their sap this past week. We had good flow the first day but the cold weather moved in and has shutdown the flow of sap. Looking at the forecast it appears the severe cold will break next week sometime and we will get temperatues above 32 which will allow for addtional flow. Attached is a video of a tree being tapped. We have about 15 trees tapped which should give us a great supply as long as temperatures moderate slowly over the next few weeks.
Sometimes you get a bit greedy. 4 buckets of excellent
flowing trees at the bottom of #3.
6 to 8 Drainage Project
The pipe between 6 to 8 cart path has been installed and the rock and dirt backfill is in place.
We still have a great deal of work to complete as the weather cooperates over the next month.
Additional soil to add as we pack it along and over the pipe
Grading and shaping of the soil
4" drainage to be installed in front of 7 tee
Sodding all areas disturbed
Our hope is to complete this as quickly as weather allows so we can get the 8th hole open for play.
December/January Weather Stats
Daytime highs in Decembr were nearly 5 degrees warmer with night temps slightly warmer. Inversely, nighttime temps in January were over 5 degrees higher than normal with daytime being slightly over. Overall, averages were about 3 degrees above for the two months.
December
TEMPERATURE (F) Observed Value Normal Depart Normal Last Year
AVG. MAXIMUM 47.4 42.5 4.9 49.5
AVG. MINIMUM 28.8 26.9 1.9 30.0
MEAN 38.1 34.7 3.4 39.7
PRECIPITATION (INCHES)
TOTALS 1.60 2.84 -1.24 1.86
January
TEMPERATURE (F) Observed Value Normal Depart Normal Last Year
