“Why aren’t greens healing completely from aeration? That
was two months ago.” This is a question we have heard and it is a valid one.
The answer is simple: we have not allowed the greens to grow.
One of the biggest complaints coming from golfers who play
on Poa annua, or annual bluegrass,
greens (like ours) is seed heads in the spring. Seed heads are unattractive and
make putting miserable. Check out our past blog post from April 2014 for more
in depth information regarding seed heads. For this post, though, we are more
concerned about how the Grounds department prevents seed heads and what that
does to the growth of the greens.
As the post regarding seed head production mentions,
preventing seed heads is all about timing. We begin our treatment the exact
same time that we aerate greens, towards the end of March, depending on
weather. So, at the very same time we are asking the greens to grow, heal, and
awaken from winter, we are also purposefully making them unable to grow and
heal. We use several different chemicals, all specifically timed, to prevent seeds
from ever forming. Using these plant growth regulators, or PGR’s, works
exceptionally well. However, most of what these chemicals do to the plant is reduce
the amount of new tissue that grows. So, the greens growth is stunted and
healing is very slow. In fact, the greens grow so little during this time of
regulation and seed head control, that we will regularly go more than a week
without mowing. This is in sharp contrast to later in the summer or fall, when
we are no longer trying to control seed heads, and we have to mow every day or
every other day.
This all begs the question: “Why don’t we aerate at a
different time?” First, there are several weather factors like soil
temperatures, air temperatures, frost/frozen ground, rain, and more that all
must be factored in before aeration can take place. So, aerating earlier in the
year is difficult, especially with the last two winters that have stretched well
into March. We also cannot move the time much later in the year because we
begin to impact both club tournaments and outside events. Participation drops
in tournaments because of course conditions and outings cancel or never book
once they hear our aeration timing. This directly impacts the bottom line,
which everyone understands.
The battle is tough between wanting the greens to grow and
also actively preventing them from doing so. We dislike having the open wounds
of aeration as much as the golfers, but we believe that everyone would choose
this rather than having seed heads across all of the greens.
See you on the course!
Joe
jvillegas@bwrc.org
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