I saw this on Facebook last night and had to share it here as well (thanks,
@explorerman
). From a 25-year old green in SFL. Note the original USGA-spec mix on bottom and 25 years of growth above. Last six years have seen black sand topdressing in upper horizon. Incredible image!!
I feel that this is one of the coolest things that a golf course can do. Producing a delicious treat while showing how golf courses are safe to pollinators. Just one of many benefits of green spaces on golf courses.
I am so excited to announce that a new chapter of my life begins this coming Monday, as a Technical Service Manager with Bayer! I look forward to continuing to serve the Florida turfgrass community and to strengthen the relationships that I have developed in my 18-year career.
I was dragged to the most magical place on earth and my family is totally unimpressed when I let them know that I’m pretty sure I know which bermudagrass varieties they are looking at 😒.
This seashore paspalum driving range was fraise mowed lightly on Mar 23rd. Image taken today. Very interesting!
@KernsJim
,
@ClemsonTurfPath
,
@turfdom
So, one of the coolest things I learned in Phoenix, at the GCSAA tradeshow, was a technique to create a permanent model of a soil profile, by one of the vendors! This could definitely fall in the “tell me, you’re a turf nerd, without saying you’re a turf nerd“.
This takes the cake. The 7-layer 🎂, that is! Supt sent this image of a plug with bird 💩 removed from a green and remarked that club will only allow sand topdressing in summer. Luckily, aggressive summertime cultivation programs create channels through the layers.
Zoysiagrass has excellent shade tolerance and has been planted in shaded areas on southern golf courses. However, its disease tolerance is not the greatest during our colder, wetter peak play season, particularly in a tough in El Niño winter!
With El Niño still here for a few weeks and many golf courses still feeling the pain, it’s great to see little gems like these and the summer season cultivations paying off! I am generally anonymous with my images but
@MikeFasyGolf
didn’t mind me bragging on him!
It’s important to identify where your pest resides and where your product must go, when applying plant protectants. This troublesome, reoccurring fairy ring is especially frisky because it resides in the original grow in layer (orange color).
@MikeFidanza
The rainy El Niño is not only bringing more disease but also some black layer where water is being held up. Not problematic just yet but showing where OM dilution needs to occur. This buried layer of stems is holding water. Vent/Ninja tine now for O2 and core this summer.
Can water quality be too good? I’m not certain what the exact component is, but courses I’ve seen with reoccurring mini ring generally have very clean water - 3 of them in FL have had reverse osmosis systems and another 2 have “squeaky clean” water.
Nematodes suck…the life out of turf! And, damage roots, making them more prone to fungal attack. We will soon have a tag team combo of our own, to help mitigate these stresses and give root disease an atomic elbow (sorry, I couldn’t resist the wrestling pun).
#comingofftoprope
So, what do you call a net 1 on a Par 5?! I’ve never had to know, lol, but
@carlylemerring
just drained his 246 yd second shot on Hole
#17
at Tiburón Golf Club for
@EGCSA2016
2023 Poa. Honored to watch it happen with
@zlane14
and
@kearnsnk
!
These greens can be a hot mess (or actually a cold mess) in winter! Two regrassings, where some of the old organic layer was left intact each time, can restrict water flow and cause concerns as temperatures drop and root zones remain saturated for longer periods.
I’ve never had an emotional experience in a Bar B Q restaurant before, but I ate lunch at a Mission BBQ today at noon, where they stand up and sing the national anthem. 😭
I’m always amazed at how little roots are necessary to maintain ultradwarf putting greens and joke that we sometimes grown greens hydroponically down here. We always want deeper roots, but sometimes factors conspire against us. Shallow roots will definitely keep you on your toes!
I was notified by two different S FL golf courses today, that billbug activity is becoming apparent. Sometimes difficult to diagnose, symptoms can mimic dollar spot, drought or traffic stress. However, the “tug test” is a giveaway to their presence.
A heavy sprig rate can help with late season putting grow-in in Year 1, but this layer is buried with topdressing and becomes a food source for fairy ring in Year 3, if not addressed in Year 2.
So, I’m having dinner with my stepdad when the waitress brings him a PBR and says that someone from another table bought it and said to relax on his day off (and to please put him on the nice list for next year!).
Some before and after shots, showing that bermudagrass mites can be a problem on greens too. Now that we’ve seen mites become more widespread in the south, we are identifying more issues on greens as well.
Is it dollarspot? Drought? Traffic?Nope, we are still seeing billbugs in FL. We even found some pupae hanging out. Telltale symptom = tug test! Clumps of turf are easily pulled out of the canopy.
Any time is a great time to inject sand into greens, but it is especially beneficial in late summer, as conventional coring can be a stress. It’s time to
#poundsand
to the Max!
Patches, rings, blights and spots (oh my!). It’s been a busy week in FL. So much for a restful holiday season. El Niño is no bueno. Stay sharp out there!
Saw this yesterday at a golf course in S FL. With all the drought stress and traffic patterns out there, it is easy to dismiss these to seasonal wear. Upon further inspection, brown areas failed the “tug test” and adult billbugs were then found throughout the canopy.
#digdeeper
It’s not often that you get to do a little pottery on a golf course ride around, but this clay layer was quite impressive…not so much as a soil type, however.
Turning 50 ain’t so bad, especially when you stay a week on the Weeki Watchee and then hire guide to help catch your limit grouper in Crystal River, FL.
I’ve really enjoyed my last 6 years on the chemical side and being a part of a great team, but I have to admit that visiting supts, thumbing through roots and taking a deeper dive into programs has been a reawakening. I saw some rockstars this week!!
An avg green in S FL accumulates nearly 1/2” OM stained layer annually, but rate of accumulation depends a lot on fertility and sand topdressing rates. This is a cross-section of the now green collar which receives a little more sand deposited from mowers & rollers turning.
Say you’re a turf nerd without saying you’re a turf nerd Part II - family reunion in Welaka, FL and your cousins are saying, “What’s he doing?” to your wife. You can never have too many disease pics!!
Treasure Coast GCSA Blue Pearl today. First event that I’ve done from a tent, and not on a golf cart. I must admit that this is a much more enjoyable way to do a Supt event! I’m only missing the awesome turf conditions that each of the groups tells me is out there.
I know this looks bad but this is actually awesome. Tropical signalgrass losing the battle against Specticle PRE and Dismiss + Manuscript POST arsenal!
Not sure Mother Nature will let us finish but
@turfmonkeyboy
and staff are providing G2G mintiness for the
@FGCSA
Steve Wright Memorial. Great conditions!!
Instead of posting an impressive list that I had dinner with tonight, including Vargas, Clarke, McGraw, Martin, McCarty, Kerns, Kaminski, McElroy, Unruh, Guertal, Gaussian, Richardson and dozens of others, I thought I’d just post an image of me and my GST colleague, Dr. Benelli.
Initiating Stressgard fairway demo in Florida and am pleased to see amazing results so far. Will be keeping us all posted as we go through our peak play season, but so far, so good!
#beyonddiseasecontrol
#bayergolf
I think fraise mowing needs to be encouraged more at courses with known herbicide resistance issues by reducing resistant populations, along with rotating/mixing chemistries. It also removes thatch, maintaining better golf course playability - surface firmness!
Appreciated the opportunity to see Southern Dunes today with
@ShaneRice33
today! Some commonalities between the beard and root mass - long & healthy!
Nematodes can damage sections of greens or isolated areas. They injure turf roots, causing a droughty appearance and make turf prone to additional stress from lower mowing and cultivation. Spring will soon bring ideal soil temps for bermudagrass root growth and nematicide apps.
I always appreciate the special touch that
@turfmonkeyboy
provides! Now, looking forward to an excellent minty experience for the Suncoast GCSA Christmas event.
A mint monkey sighting today at Feather Sound, along with some excellent roots and happy greens produced by Mike Strube. Pretty sand channels produced with the help of
@turfmonkeyboy
!
New greens are more susceptible to stress (mechanical wear, shade, traffic) due to a reduced rhizome layer or “pad” of thatch/OM. Green on left was sprigged in mid-June and green on green on right in August. Guess which green was thinner in stress areas?
I grabbed this image on a recent visit not to show a dirty cart but the never ending battle against weeds down here and daily hand-pulling is still a part of every successful weed management program.
A friend of a friend posted this image on Facebook of his neighbor pressure washing his lawn, to his bewilderment. It looks like a great way to dethatch a lawn, which is something that few homeowners in my region do. Has anyone seen this before?
In all my years in the turf world, and a UF turf grad, I don’t recall ever visiting the nematode assay lab. But when you have 100+ samples, you can save some freight (and time) by hand delivering. Thanks
@NematodeGuy
and Matt! It was also great seeing
@adamGdale
!
I am a big fan of all sorts of summertime cultivations, but sometimes we just need to
#PoundSand
! Excellent programs, taking place by
@EhrhartJoel
and
@JonCockerham
this summer!
Differing horizons can exist within and among greens after regrassing. Top 3” (purple) is OM layer since previous reno, middle (yellow) is new mix added during reno and red is bottom OM layer of previous greens. Old OM layers can slow percolation and cause issues at times.
Be on the lookout for small dollarspot-like symptoms, where the turf is easily removed from canopy with a slight tug. Left untreated billbug areas can grown in size and be rather ugly at this time of year.
This time of year is difficult with the stems that bermudagrass greens produce, leading to crescent shaped voids around old hole plugs. On a positive note, it’s an easy way for golfers to see grain patterns. Verticutting can’t happen soon enough!
An aggressive summertime fairway sand topdressing program can pay big dividends in a wetter winter like we are currently experiencing in FL. This represents four years of sand topdressing.
This was a biostimulant trial from
@FLRECturf
, providing nutrition and other benefits but had no herbicides, despite providing very good goosegrass suppression. Supports the fact that healthy turf is the best line of defense for weed seed germination.