Dead Poa Renders Opportunity for Bent Grass Establishment

Constant flooding leads to dead turf. It's always hard to see your turf die, but with death, mostly poa annua, comes opportunity to increase our fairway bent grass population. Early to mid August in Wisconsin is an excellent time for interseeding bent grass and getting excellent germination results. Poa that does germinate with the bent can be eradicated with the poa control Velocity. We will first need to vent the soils and relieve compaction with a Toro-ProCore 72 Soil Reliever with solid tines than Seed with

First Products AERA-vator seeder which has over 100 2" spikes on each of its 6 vibrating drums which make excellent niche's in the soil for seed germination. We will test out the process on the Little Links, if approved, we will move on to the fairways.

This brings to mind one of John Wooden's famous quotes, and he had many, "Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." We could not save stressed poa annua but we can seed in more stress tolerant bent grass. Thanks John for the direction, let's get to it!

Help I'm Drowning! If Only Turf Grass Roots Could Talk

Drown: To kill by submerging under water. To die under water of suffocation. We sliced the fwys shown to get oxygen to the roots and dry the soils out. Yes this caused small brown spots at the slice area but it will prevent larger dead areas of turf in the next few weeks. A minor disruption for a major gain. Hard to understand this preventive management practice until you see turf die right before your eyes on a sunny, breezy day.

Turf Grass Roots Need Equal Amounts of Air and Water to Prosper

Too much water, from constant rains, saturates the soil and pushes the air right out of the ground which creates a very unhealthy situation for the turfgrass roots. Turf roots need an equal amount of air and water to grow properly, when saturated conditions persist, the roots die back and consequently the grass can no longer take routine foot or vehicle traffic without thinning out. The month of June, with its nearly 11" of rain, created this anaerobic (without oxygen) condition in the soil beneath our turf and has caused some thinning, particularly in some of our new fairway areas adjacent to fairway sand bunkers. We have flagged some of these areas off so golf car traffic and mowing vehicles stay off them until recovery is achieved. We will use special equipment that will relieve compaction in these areas and allow a pathway for air to reenter the soil. As the turf and soil in these areas mature the wear will be less of an issue.