Turf Talk
STEVE GRIESINGER, COURSE SUPERINTENDENT
We are geared up and ready for another busy season on the golf course. The new concrete sidewalk to #5 bathroom has been poured and is open for business. Thanks to Robin Fisher, the epoxy floors inside both bathrooms have been freshened up and look terrific.
grass that can handle low mowing heights, loves shade and excess water. It lives in our greens with our bent grass, especially the older greens. We HATE poa annua; YOU hate poa annua. This is time of year when poa annua produces seed heads, which can affect ball roll, and also sticks out like a sore thumb. We use a pesticide that that helps reduce the amount of seed heads the plant will produce to improve ball roll, and it also turns the poa annua yellow and slows the growth of the plant. That is why the pesticide is called a growth regulator.
We had 4-inch main line leak that crosses the road from #13 to #14, and, of course, the leak was under the road. With a little luck and expertise of our contractor, Triple C Underground, we were able to pull the old iron ductile pipe out and slide Now that we have poa annua under a new piece of PVC pipe in. regulation and turning off color (yellowish), we will promote the Aerification had its issues this year. growth of the bent grass in the golf We had a mechanical problem with green. Poa annua will then become our aerating machine. We made it weak, and, in a perfect world, the through, and everything finished up bent grass will take over. After great. We just didn’t have a smooth several years of this practice, there ride to the desired result. would be a major reduction in the As the greens begin their healing amount of poa annua population in process and weather continues to our golf greens. warm, poa annua seed heads will be the hot topic. It is an annual blue Also poa annua does not like hot
14 LAKEWOOD OAKS COUNTRY CLUB
temperatures. If we can keep the plant weakened through its growing season (spring) then let Mother Nature finish the kill in the heat of summer, that is plus. However, this also causes problematic thin spots in the summer. So, in the heat of the summer, we will do everything in our power to keep the poa annua alive because poa annua is better than dirt. Then the vicious cycle begins again. During late summer and fall, poa germination will begin in ball marks, thin spots, etc. So we will try and control the amount of germination with pre-emergent pesticides. In a nut shell, that is how the life cycle of annual blue grass works and the problems it causes for the maintenance staff. See you on the course!
