Easter

Easter

Happy Easter! The course is starting to green up nicely. We have had some warm days which have helped the cool-season grasses tremendously. Cool-season grasses, which are the grasses in the rough, tees, and greens (all the grass that is green), enjoy moderate warmth. With daytime temperatures in the upper 50’s to 75 degrees, these plants can flourish. They begin to struggle and need intense management when temperatures reach into the mid 80’s and above, but right now they grow vigorously.

The Bermuda grass fairways have also begun to awaken. Again, the air temperature over the last couple of weeks has been positive, but the Bermuda grass, a warm-season grass, is really dependent more on soil temperatures. Soil temperatures tend to lag behind air temperature because of the difficulty in changing the temperature of the soil. By the end of the warm spell we just had we just reached the 65 degrees that the Bermuda grass really needs to begin to break its dormancy.  As you are out you will notice slopes and areas angled toward the sun have jumped out ahead of other areas. Once we get into the heat of the summer, the Bermuda grass will be alive and strong, thriving in the temperatures in which cool-season grasses start to weaken.

 

 

The warm daytimes have also been accompanied by some cold nights. Again, both cool-season and warm-season grasses are affected by this swing in temperatures. The cool-season grasses are far more tolerant of the drop in air temperature and only slightly adjust their growth rate, slowing marginally. The Bermuda grass is another story. Due to the lag in soil temperature behind air temperature, the soil just reached the needed temperature before falling back slightly with cold nights. It is very difficult on the fairways to begin to emerge and then be shocked by the cold nights. Luckily, modern varieties of Bermuda grass, like what we have on the fairways, are much more cold tolerant than their predecessors. The Bermuda grass will pause until air and soil temperatures climb up and then resume growth.

No one likes the swing in temperatures. Golfers get the dust off their clubs and enjoy some very comfortable weather. Everyone gets back outside to do some spring cleaning. Then the cold nights hit and temperatures dip back down and only the hardiest golfers stay out. The same is true for the turf. Both the warm and cool-season grasses jump when those warm days hit. Just like the golfers who put their clubs in the corner, the turf is shocked by the wide difference in temperature. We all know it won’t stay cold for long and even the turf knows summer is on its way.

 Again, Happy Easter and I hope you and your family have a great holiday.

 See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org