Cover St o r y
Poa
Is On The Way: Are You Ready? By Jim Brosnan, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Turfgrass Weed Science, The University of Tennessee
“This is the worst Poa year I can remember.” “I’ve never seen it like this before.” “We’ve never had this much Poa.”
T
hese were common refrains across Tennessee this spring as many turfgrass managers struggled with annual bluegrass control. One of the things our research team has learned over the years is that it’s critically important to have a well thought out plan to effectively control annual bluegrass. It may be hard to believe, but those plans will need to be put into place soon to effectively manage annual bluegrass this winter. The article below outlines some of the key lessons learned in our 2018–2019 research that will hopefully aid turfgrass managers in controlling annual bluegrass this season.
Lesson #1: The Days of a “One-Shot” Poa Control Program are Over One major take-away from our statewide trial work last year was that the days of one herbicide application (i.e., a “one-shot” program) providing season long annual bluegrass control are over. In trial work conducted in Knoxville, Nashville, and Jackson last year we evaluated 17 “one-shot” Poa control programs and only 3 provided >90% control at all locations.
Photo 1: Annual bluegrass (Poa annua) on an ultradwarf bermudagrass (C. dactylon x C. transvaalenis, cv “MiniVerde”) putting green
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TENNESSEE TURFGRASS October/November 2019 Email TTA at: info@ttaonline.org
Photo 2: Annual bluegrass (Poa annua) emerging from seed
