Recently the board had asked if Dr. John Kaminiski could come in to look at the damage to greens and to give us an independent opinion. Dr. Kaminski is the head of the 2 year Turfgass management program at Penn State. On Monday June 6th we viewed a few greens. Number 17 is where we spent most of our time. We spoke about my winter practices including fertility, growth regulators, late aerification, snow cover, snow removal, ice, ice removal. Dr. Kaminiski agreed that all of my winter prep practices were sound and correct and there is only one factor that caused this, mother nature. Dr. Kaminski told us that there is no silver bullet with winter kill on Poa. Poa is a weed that has taken over our greens in the past 50 years.
After speaking with Dr. Kaminski we will be tweaking our practices so that we will be able to allow the turf to go into winter with the best chance of survival. This means aerification, augering holes in greens, stripping turf off of greens to create channels for water to drain off and reduced mowing to allow the plant to build up its natural defenses. Some of this is extreme but if that is what it takes that is what we will do.
Another topic we spoke about is bentgrass vs poa, always a hot topic with members. The question was asked that if we had bentgrass would we have had the damage and Dr. Kaminski’s answer is no. Bentgrass is much hardier plant than Poa and can withstand the temperature shifts in our area. If you had any question about that just look at the collars that we installed last year. The sustained no damage what so ever and they are Penn Trio, a cultivar of bentgrass. For that reason, I am working on a conversion plan for the future of Glen Oak. Nothing has been decided yet but I'm sure a decision will be forthcoming.
I think the visit was a great help in reaffirming that the USGA, Dr. Kaminski, all other local superintendents and myself all agree that winter was the cause of all of the issues we had. We all also agree that the only 100% way to make sure that it would never happen again is to convert to bentgrass greens.
After speaking with Dr. Kaminski we will be tweaking our practices so that we will be able to allow the turf to go into winter with the best chance of survival. This means aerification, augering holes in greens, stripping turf off of greens to create channels for water to drain off and reduced mowing to allow the plant to build up its natural defenses. Some of this is extreme but if that is what it takes that is what we will do.
Another topic we spoke about is bentgrass vs poa, always a hot topic with members. The question was asked that if we had bentgrass would we have had the damage and Dr. Kaminski’s answer is no. Bentgrass is much hardier plant than Poa and can withstand the temperature shifts in our area. If you had any question about that just look at the collars that we installed last year. The sustained no damage what so ever and they are Penn Trio, a cultivar of bentgrass. For that reason, I am working on a conversion plan for the future of Glen Oak. Nothing has been decided yet but I'm sure a decision will be forthcoming.
I think the visit was a great help in reaffirming that the USGA, Dr. Kaminski, all other local superintendents and myself all agree that winter was the cause of all of the issues we had. We all also agree that the only 100% way to make sure that it would never happen again is to convert to bentgrass greens.