Summertime Fans

bentgrass greens) . The big difference: The higher the humidity and the more you’re sweating; the less a plant can transpirate & cool itself down.

What the heck are those for?? Why are they so loud and why does it have to be so close to the green?

This time of the year, the St. Louis heat can be sweltering and when the humidity kicks in, it can be unbearable. For us golfers, the high heat and humidity this time of year has us sweating buckets. Just like you’ve heard before, it’s true that we sweat so that our bodies can cool down. Well, plants and humans aren’t so different after all! Instead of “sweating”, plants use & lose water via transpiration, which has a cooling effect for plants (especially

That’s where air movement comes into play. At your home golf course, you may see a fan or two around some Greens, or you may have heard your Golf Course Superintendent talk about tree removal and increasing air movement around greens. That’s because air movement is crucial, especially on Cool-season bentgrass greens. Cool season grass can survive very warm temperatures (100 degrees F +) as long as there is enough air movement over top of the canopy to allow the plant to still perform the transpiration process, and “cool itself”...

How much air movement? Well, that can be complicated... as there are a lot of factors to determine whether the grass can survive or not (relative humidity, wind speed, canopy temperature, soil moisture, etc.) One thing we do know is the better environment we can make for our plants to be successful, the better our playing conditions will be on the golf course. These fans “break up” the relative humidity over the Green by adding air movement, which in turn cools down the canopy temperature. Steady winds are even better than fans, but in some corner-pockets of your property, fans may be the only option.

I speak for all superintendents in asking that if you see one of these fans on the golf course, please don’t turn it off, and know that is just one piece of the equation that’s helping keep conditions great for everyone. And next time you see hot temperatures in the forecast, hope for high winds as well for your Super’s sake!!