Bermuda plugs

Every year is different and every year brings new challenges. So, every year we try new strategies to deal with what we are facing. The difficult part is that sometimes we have to wait an entire year to see if the tactic we tried was even worth it, or even worked how we hoped it might. One such example is the Bermuda grass plugging we did last year.

Spring dead spot is the most troublesome disease for Bermuda grass. You can find a more in depth discussion regarding spring dead spot and some of the things we have tried to combat it here. The dead areas can be small or large, randomly located, and cannot be entirely prevented. Last year we started taking plugs from our Bermuda grass nursery and putting them in these dead spots. You can read more about that process here.

We put the plugs in the fairways in late spring and through the summer, so they performed very well. Pretty much all of the Bermuda grass performed well last summer because of the record warmth. So, we weren’t able to accurately gauge the effectiveness of the plan until this spring. We made a calculated decision with an expected outcome, and many man-hours were put into the project, but we had no way of knowing the results for an entire year.

So far this spring, we have seen some encouraging results from the work, though. First, our overall spring dead spot incidence is lower than years past, the Bermuda grass overall is performing as well as it has in my tenure, and we now see some of the places we placed plugs healing faster this year. Since things in nature are rarely symmetrical, it is easy to notice areas where nearly perfect squares or rectangles appear in the fairways, which was the shape of our plugs. While the idea was that we may be able to eliminate the spring dead spot in each particular area that we plugged, that wasn’t our only goal. We also knew that introducing some Bermuda grass that had not been previously infected by spring dead spot may help to heal an infected area, starting from the inside of the diseased area working out. Combined with healthy tissue working towards the center of the patch, the healing should occur much faster.

Having to wait so long for results can make it hard to pull the trigger on trying new things. But not making the effort to make things better is worse than having a new strategy fail.

On a side note, somewhat by accident, we took pictures from a similar location on the same date, one year apart. A picture April 19^th, 2014 was followed by another picture in 2015. To keep a record of one singular area as a representation of Bermuda grass progress, we have now taken a very similar picture in 2016 and 2017. Below are the 4 photos:

10 fairway, April 19th, 2014

10 fairway, April 19th, 2015

10 fairway, April 19th, 2016

10 fairway, April 19th, 2017

You can see the status of the Bermuda grass on the same day in four different years. You can also see the progress in controlling spring dead spot. These pictures have more to do with weather than anything, but it at least gives the Grounds department the belief that what we are doing for the Bermuda grass is not detrimental.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please don’t take any type of full swing on a putting green. Damage from spikes or divots may occur.

Divot on 18 green

Divots on practice green

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org