February Update

Its been a unusual winter and the next few days are going to be very warm for February. I realize these warm days are great for the mind and soul but not so much for certain plants.

I walked some of the course recently and it looks like the poa annua on the greens might be starting to "wake up". Poa annua only needs a few days of warm weather to start water uptake and translocation. The plants uptake of water followed by a cold snap can lead to plant winterkill. 

Bentgrass doesn't "wake up" as fast and is less prone to this type of winter injury.  Thankfully the majority of our greens playing surface are bentgrass. However we do still have a fair amount of poa annua in our greens and have experienced winter kill in the past.

The waste area on the 5th hole was hit hard by the recent flooding. 

The rest of the course doesn't look too bad concerning flooding but we do have a lot of leaves and tree litter to pick up.

This USGA update gives a good idea of what turf managers in the northeast are concerned about right now.  Please give them a follow by email for timely and pertinent turfgrass information.
http://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/course-care/regional-updates/northeast-region/2018/a-whole-lot-of-winter.html

Ill have an update in the next month regarding the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program.  The local boy scouts have volunteered to build some woodpecker boxes and install them on the course.  Our goal this season is to submit all paperwork for certification.

Looking forward to "getting after it" once we start back at work in the middle of march.

Comments

Popular Posts