The test plots on #15 and #16 south fairways have been completed. Our initial response is that both products worked as advertised. While there was a certain amount of damage to the bentgrass in both test the surfaces have remained very playable for the golfer, but have not looked the best.
On #15 we used a product that is supposed to kill poa annua and poa trivialis. It takes 6-8 applications of this chemical every other day to achieve the desired results. The picture below illustrates that the poas were controlled but doing so had a dramatic effect on the bentgrass also. We expect complete recovery of the bentgrass and once healthy we will overseed new strains of bentgrass into the areas of dead poa and try to achieve a fairway with 100% bentgrass. The picture below shows the dividing line between treated and untreated. The treated area is on the right.
The product used on #16 is designed to kill poa trivialis but not poa annua. Again we were successful by killing the poa trivialis but not the poa annua. This product requires two applications but our question in the end was if we could not control both types of weeds why use it? We do believe that this will be the chemical to achieve our ultimate condition. We do feel however that, it’s a good tool to use on large areas infested with poa trivialis.
What happens next? We will be evaluating the results of both trials, we will also be evaluating our overseeding tests in August and we will keep you updated on our results.
There have been comments the last week about green speeds being slower than earlier in the year. Many factors may affect green speed. Two of the biggest are heat and humidity. Bentgrass grows very rapidly when temperatures reach 80 degrees or more and when the humidity is high. However bentgrass can also be lost to disease or summer stress during these high heat and humidity periods. Once into peak summer conditions like we are now experiencing we change into survival mode rather than trying to be aggressive with high green speeds. Once into a little less stressful period we will be able to achieve some faster speeds and better conditions.
Finally, this time of year there are a lot of gnats and mosquitoes on the golf course and we see this happening:
You can see where the person stood and sprayed their legs with bug spray. Luckily this was not on a green, tee or a fairway. When applying insect spray please stand on a cart path.
Rick Tegtmeier