Merry Christmas!!
I am concerned about this latest thaw. I like to walk the course every day to be honest this year has been the easiest in many years no need for the snow shoes. What I have found, is alarming to say the least. This week, I noticed the poa annua has broken dormancy in many areas and is starting to grow. For us nothing to worry to much about since this grass is undesirable here most is isolated in the fairways and tees. Breaking dormancy a few times over the course of a winter doesn't seem like a good thing to me. But there are a lot of courses that poa annua is desired. The one good thing is the extended forecast is not at this point calling for a extreme temperature change. I think if the temperature were to drop dramatically, we could lose turf. I do not think I have really seen a situation like this in many years. I do not see any disease on the bentgrass turf yet but there is very active snow mold in the untreated areas on the course right now. On the good note we do not have any standing water on the course mainly because the lack of frost in the ground. Dr Paul Koch from the research facility down the road has done a lot of research on Snow mold disease. At this point he is saying to sit back and not reapply. He is saying not too reapply plant protection right now for snow mold http://www.turfdiseases.org/northcentral/does-a-winter-thaw-mean-you-need-to-reapply-snow-mold-fungicides/
There is nothing that we can do that hasn't been done already. Right now, I do not want to give out any predictions but I know we did everything possible in the fall to give us an advantage, I will take 30 below any day to what is happening right now.
Here is another link to a blog of a colleague at Bullseye Golf Club addressing his concerns right now.
http://bullseyegreensblog.blogspot.com/
Neil
I am concerned about this latest thaw. I like to walk the course every day to be honest this year has been the easiest in many years no need for the snow shoes. What I have found, is alarming to say the least. This week, I noticed the poa annua has broken dormancy in many areas and is starting to grow. For us nothing to worry to much about since this grass is undesirable here most is isolated in the fairways and tees. Breaking dormancy a few times over the course of a winter doesn't seem like a good thing to me. But there are a lot of courses that poa annua is desired. The one good thing is the extended forecast is not at this point calling for a extreme temperature change. I think if the temperature were to drop dramatically, we could lose turf. I do not think I have really seen a situation like this in many years. I do not see any disease on the bentgrass turf yet but there is very active snow mold in the untreated areas on the course right now. On the good note we do not have any standing water on the course mainly because the lack of frost in the ground. Dr Paul Koch from the research facility down the road has done a lot of research on Snow mold disease. At this point he is saying to sit back and not reapply. He is saying not too reapply plant protection right now for snow mold http://www.turfdiseases.org/northcentral/does-a-winter-thaw-mean-you-need-to-reapply-snow-mold-fungicides/There is nothing that we can do that hasn't been done already. Right now, I do not want to give out any predictions but I know we did everything possible in the fall to give us an advantage, I will take 30 below any day to what is happening right now.
Here is another link to a blog of a colleague at Bullseye Golf Club addressing his concerns right now.
http://bullseyegreensblog.blogspot.com/
Neil