April Cold, It Will Get Better

25 degree low for this morning, that is a bit chilly for April. Luckily for the zoysia it is just beginning to green up down in the crown of the plant so we did not lose much ground. We just some rough grass on the short range yesterday. First mow of the tall grass this season. We do have a few spots on the course that might need some trimming by next week.

I feel much better this year going into the season than last year. A year with our staff operating for the most part on their own everyday. All of us are much better organized than last year plus we did nothing to zoysia going into winter so we should be in good shape this season. No doubt last year we had some growing pains with me being completely consumed in my clubhouse/GM role.

We've got our areas sprayed as needed, we are a little behind in pre-emergent applications in the rough after all the rain but with cold temperatures and applications starting last week, we should be able to catch up pretty quickly.

Seed head applications for greens has shown excellent results so far with very few seed heads emerging. We will have seed heads but I think our levels will be reduced with our late November application being instituted this season.

We do have some significant tree removals to perform here in the month of April. The dead oak off of 10 white tee, believe the Oak is dead along the right of 15 about 100-150 yds but need to verify and the dead elm along Lucas & Hunt on #4. We will do some of the work ourselves and some handled by  contractor to reduce weight on upper levels of tree to our staff.

Laser-leveled both 5 tee and 14 on Thursday. 5 tee fairly solid but 14 tee is a bit soft from moisture so we will have to delay its install to insure it dries down properly. I would expect we will get at least one of them grassed in the next 7-10 days and hopefully 14 soon thereafter.

This will be my 10th full growing season at Glen Echo. I think we've made tremendous strides over those 10 years. We had a bit of a rough greens year in 11 and a very dry year in 12, zoysia took a bit of a ding last summer but overall I think this small in number and dedicated group of staff members have provided excellent conditions for our members and guests. Operations much larger than our organization have had difficulties matching our conditioning year end and year out. I look forward to seeing you on the course.

Course Work This Past Week

The staff has been busy this past week finishing some of our approved tree management work. We've also been picking up a great deal of limbs, raking up sweetgum balls and other debris on the course. Becky has returned to begin work on bed clean up and other horticulture activities.

Interesting information, went back to a September 2009 PowerPoint I did for the green committee and 7 of the 20 trees removed in main play areas this year were mentioned by me as trees to watch. Well, we watched them and their structure continued to worsen creating a hazard and time to remove. Two were Silver Maples near the tennis courts and one Sweetgum which was removed so that we could then replant 1 tree in an area that would allow for full, proper and mature growth instead of compromised, leggy and weakened structure. The staff were also working down along 3 fence line where some dead trees were removed near the tee area to prevent damage to the fence and protect staff and golfers from debris dropping.

I also finished the remaining spraying of our fairways/tee areas for pre-emergent and non-selective weed killer to kill poa annua which has been popping up over the winter.

As mentioned in the blog post yesterday, I was able to get our seed head control out before a big warm up this week and rain. Wind came up pretty fast this morning and a flat tire on the spray rig but finally got it completed.

Hollowed  Silver Maple that was removed.

An even larger Silver Maple that was compromised even more.

This Sweetgum was near the other two trees and was tall and thin and was removed to allow a new tree to be put in place of the three trees.

This was the area in question along #18. We will get the stumps ground out and then place a tree somewhere in the area near the stump on the left. There are large Pin Oaks to the right which you can see the outline of limbs coming into this picture.  

Turf Rising Means Poa Annua Is Waking Quickly

Yes, our turf is rising from it's winter slumber, especially our poa annua. We have a variety on our practice green that wakes up a bit early. I think it awakens early because of a micro climate created by the large parking lot and roadway which is next to the green. The black asphalt absorbs heat which is then transferred onto the green artificially inflating its temperature.  It is also orientated toward the west which gives it a good sun field most of the day.

Interesting note, I just went out and took some soil temperatures of our greens at a 2" depth, 1:15 p.m. Practice green was 54 degrees, #11 which faces to east was 50 in the front but only 43 in the back where it is shaded by the large Pin Oak. 13 green which is facubg west was 51 degrees.

At the tip of the tee is a seed head that has already developed on the practice green. 

Each season, we begin to count growing degree days (average heat accumulation) to determine when to apply specific products to prevent or reduce the effects of weeds, insects and fungus. Yes, scientific models are developed to help us to predict when to apply these products making them more effective. Poa annua seed head development, crabgrass control, broad leaf weeds, beetles and other pests are treated from these various models.

The model we use for poa annua seed head development is the 32 degree model.

Allow me a moment to explain how this model works. The high temp for Friday March 4th was 43. The low was 37 giving us an average of 40. We then subtract the 32 degree base number from the avg. temp for the day which was 40 giving us 8 growing degree days. We then accumulate the days totals until they begin to get near the target number that has been developed over the years by researchers as well as practical experience we have seen on our course.

We use GDD Tracker from Michigan State University. As you can see by the map, we are getting close into the target time for applying the product.

We utilize 2 growth regulators that work in combination to reduce the impacts of seed heads. The predicted outcome is about 50% control which does not seem very good but if we used no control measures, you would come to appreciate at least 50% control. 

We attempt to apply our product when we are trending toward 300 growing degree days. 

Right now we are at 221(we were at 8 growing degree days last year on this date). This week's warm up and rains should shoot us well past the 300 target mark before the end of the week. 

So what does this mean, yes I am either spraying later this afternoon or Sunday morning with rain predictions for most of this upcoming week. We sprayed last year around March 20th or so. We should go past that growing degree number by Thursday of this week. 

What does this mean for the season. Right now we are accumulating heat days about 2 weeks ahead of last year. Will it last? I don't know but we are trending for an earlier season so we will keep our fingers crossed. The weather does have a tendency to average itself out. Of course if we continue this warming trend, that creates tremendous pressure on our staff because everything is sped up, staff are not in place and those problems that come along with too much work and not enough time. Also, applications and sprays get pushed very close together which can create problems for us. Some of our chemicals don't play well together if they are sprayed to closely to one another.

Greens aeration is scheduled for March 21st pulling cores and March 28 contracting a new service called Dryject. More information on this over the next couple of weeks.

Greens and upcoming aeration

Posted a video regarding our greens and the regulator that we are using to reduce the activity of the poa annua. We also aerated 18 green today in preparation of our work next week.

I also sprayed our seedhead suppressant material as well today.  We use a Growing Degree Day Model to determine when to spray the product.  Take the average temperature for the day and subtract that number from the base which is 32.  Add those numbers each day since mid-February.  The range is around 220-500,  I usually spray before we reach 300 growing degree days. Some years it works better than other years but we expect to have around 50% reduction in poa seedheads which helps bump the ball off line when putting over the next couple of months.

The walk off area on 5 green.  Mostly poa annua on this collar. Too much shade folks from too many trees. Need to do some sod removal but my nursery is not strong enough at this time.  Maybe I will shorten some approach bent and use in this spot.

Guys finishing dragging 18 green in our practice run for the aeration coming up Monday.

Final surface.  Looks pretty good.  Vertical mowing lines in the surface as well.

Growing Degree Days, Poa Management

The work that we do here at Glen Echo is not necessarily set on a calendar.  There are seasonal schedules and as long as products are applied within a couple of weeks, there are not issues.  There is one early season application to our greens which is timed to within a day based on scientific models.  The model uses growing degree days to determine the date to spray our greens to suppress and or reduce the amount of poa annua seed heads that are produced.  As you know, the seeding of poa annua in the spring to early summer can lead to ball roll not being as smooth as we would like to see on our golf greens.  The production of more seed heads also increase the seed bank for poa annua.  Millions of seeds are produced and can be viable in the soil for years just waiting for some thinning of turf to encourage more poa to germinate.  Seed heads are not just produced on greens surfaces, they are produced in the 100's of millions underneath the mass canopy of trees that run along our fairways and roughs.    

Growing degree days are formulas which take the average temperatures for the day and subtracts them from the base number used.

I.E.  The base number for poa annua seed head suppression is 32 degrees.  The high was 38 and the low was 28 yesterday at our weather station. so the mean/avg temperature for the day was 33. Subtracting 33-the base of 32 = 1 growing degree day.  This number is then added to an accumulating total that begins normally around the end of the 2nd to 3rd week of February.  If the number would be negative for a day which it could if the mean temperature is below 32, you have no growing degree days for that date.  Currently we are at 344 growing degree days.  The range to spray is normally around 300 growing degree days, more or less depending upon the year.  The spray we use suppresses or reduces seed heads from about 50-80% depending upon if your timing was correct.  I sprayed 1/2 our greens on Friday and the other 1/2 on Saturday morning. The poa annua on a green, the more potential for seed head production.  This is one of the reasons we are trying to encourage sun on our greens.  Bent grass is a sun loving plant and poa annua likes it shady and moist.

Growing degree days models are also used for other weeds such as crabgrass germination and broadleaf weed applications.  Bluegrass weevils and grub control of beetles are a couple of insects that can be monitored using growing degree day models.  Farming relies heavily upon growing degree day models as well in planting of crops and applying pest control measures.

We will make a second application of the growth regulator products twenty one days after the first application.  The spray we use is a mixture of Primo which is our main growth regulator product for greens and Proxy which reduces the seed head formation.  With early season aeration in March, our seed head suppression application usually falls around the time of aeration. It can delay healing slightly but I think it might only delay it a couple of days at the most.  This season, a majority of our aeration was finished five days before the application of this product mixture.

Seed heads that are produced do have a tendency to be shorter and tighter and do not effect ball roll since the greens are regulated.  Ball roll in general should improve as the aeration heals and  the plant growth regulators PGR begin to do their work.

2nd poa annua seedhead reduction application

The 2nd seedhead reduction application is being applied today.  Control has been okay this season, better on some greens and not as well on others.