Golf Course Winter Update

So far we have had a mild winter, and, if Punxsutawney Phil's prediction is right, we are in for an early spring.

In the fall Golf Course Superintendent's prepare their courses for the winter months. Various activities are performed like aeration, fertilization, topdressing and preventative fungicide applications. At Metamora,  all of these activities are performed, but we also raise our mowing heights on greens and mow everything less as we head into winter. This is done to insure that plants can produce and store as many carbohydrates as possible.

I have had several opportunities throughout the winter to inspect turf conditions and I don't have any major concerns. There were a couple of instances where ice had formed on the putting and fairway surfaces, but it wasn't there long enough to cause any harm. When ice forms a proverbial clock starts, and we keep track of this time while the turf is under ice. Interestingly enough, this winter that clock has restarted a couple of times (including now0. For more information on ice damage view the past posts under the winter labels. I have included several photos (below) of what I have discovered while inspecting the course thus far. Everything, so far, is positive.

Ice sheet formed on green

Snow removed to reveal no ice

Ice sheet melting creating porous ice

As I've mentioned above, ice did form (as seen in the photo at left), but through melt, this ice sheet has turned into a porous, breathable sheet (as seen in middle picture). In the third photo: more snow fell, but, after removing it, no new ice has formed.

Exposed green and no problems

Renovated bunkers are draining well

No signs of snow molds

These photos should help explain what I have seen so far this winter and why I believe any significant problems have occurred. The extended forecast is promising with a few cold days followed by warmer ones. I feel the threat of ice damage is behind us, but a threat to Annual Bluegrass (Poa annua) can still occur in the form of Crown Hydration. This typically occurs late winter or early spring; however, if these weather patterns and temperatures stay consistent it will not be a threat.

Thanks for reading and please check back in the coming weeks for further updates. We anticipate seeing you on the golf course soon.

Michigan Turfgrass Foundation's Annual Turfgrass Conference

The Michigan Turf Foundation's Annual Conference was held on the campus of Michigan State University January 5th through January 7th. I had the opportunity to join hundreds of turgrass professionals and listen to speakers discuss strategies on renovations, tree management, bentgrass promotion, pest control and many other great topics. These types of conferences are very beneficial to our clubs and their golf course superintendents. It's always nice to converse with fellow superintendents and share ideas on making our golf courses better through our experiences. I would like to thank Metamora for allowing me to go to this conference every year, it is definitely worth it.

Golf Course Update

As the golf course begins to thaw, I have managed to get around many areas of the golf course to evaluate the conditions of the playing surfaces. Although we monitor things over the winter, there is no way to truly know the conditions until areas are fully exposed and the grass starts to grow. There are still areas of significant snow cover, but from what I can see so far, I am confident the turf is healthy.

Metamora Golf and Country Club is very fortunate that it still has a lot of bentgrass. Creeping bentgrass is a lot more tolerant to winter weather than annual bluegrass, often referred to as Poa annua or Poa.

This is a picture of a 90% creeping bentgrass ladies tee on #12. The brown look is very normal with dormant turf.

Pictured here is an area of #16 fairway. Again, creeping bentgrass is the predominate species here, around 75%. The other 25% is a mixture of Poa annua, kentucky bluegrass and rye grass.

This picture is a close-up of a green area that also has a lot of bentgrass, the green turf mixed within the brown dormant bentgrass is Poa annua. The green Poa plants are still at risk of crown hydration for another couple weeks depending on moisture and temperatures. Crown hydration is caused by the plants taking in water and then freezing causing severe damage and often death.






Please follow this blog as I continue to explain the importance of creeping bentgrass and why it is promoted over Poa annua at Metamora.

MTF Conference

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Michigan Turf Foundation's annual turfgrass conference, which was held on the campus of Michigan State University. The conference always has great educational workshops for continuing education. The conference also provides an opportunity to network with golf course superintendents, their assistants, educators, researches and vendors.  I would like to thank Metamora for allowing me to attend and the MTF for putting on this event.

For more information on the Michigan Turf Foundation, please click on the link below.

www.michiganturfgrass.org

Winter Update

Old Man Winter has arrived at Metamora golf and country club and to many other areas. I wanted to update you on how the course was prepared for winter. The irrigation system was blown out with air, snow mold applications were made to all the playing surfaces excluding the roughs. Mowing heights were raised to allow the turfgrass plants to build up more carbohydrates. Another thing that we did to a few of our greens is we cut some strips of turf out with a sod cutter to hopefully expedite surface drainage during thaw cycles. Below are a few pictures.

Recovery and the toll this winter really had on the golf course

As everyone is aware this winter was unprecedented and will probably be talked about for some time, especially by those in the turf industry. The facts about Metamora are quite simple, we suffered minimal damage. As mentioned in a previous post the leaves have a scorched like appearance but we felt the crowns were healthy. How did we know the crowns of the plants were healthy when the entire plant appears brown or has a whitish/grey look? By looking at the plants under a microscope, and continuing to bring samples indoors throughout winter. We used a compound microscope to look for green tissue within the turfgrass crowns. We sprayed fertilizers targeted to the crown area to try and stimulate growth. We are definitely seeing a lot of improvement, but it is slow.  Until we get soil temperatures consistently in the mid 50's and a lot of sunny days recovery will continue be slow. Below is a picture of a annual bluegrass plant responding from our sprays with new root and top growth.

 

 

 

Dr. Kevin Frank from Michigan State University was in the area yesterday visiting with other golf courses and stopped by our course on his way back to campus. He also thought or turf suffered minimal damage.

We do not need to cover any greens or use temporary greens, we just need Mother Nature to give us May weather not March weather!

Turfgrass Health Part 2 and the importance of bentgrass

Despite the cooler weather and the latest snow that broke a 100 year old record, we are seeing recovery. Recovery is slow, but the turf is heading in the right direction. Recovery will continue to be slow until temperatures rise, especially at night. Last Friday we applied some fertilizers delivered through our sprayer that was targeted to the crown area of the plants. We will be applying another spray to the crown area very soon. The green, healthy looking grass in the pictures is bentgrass. As mentioned earlier, bentgrass is usually not affected by winter months. Even with this multiple record setting winter, the bentgrass remains extremely healthy.

Below are pictures of two fairway areas that contain more than 80% bentgrass. Notice these areas show no real problems of any kind.

#9 fairway after breaking dormancy

#4 fairway starting to break dormancy

 

      
                         

Turfgrass health.

The turfgrasses at Metamora went through the toughest winter in their history. Although we will not know for sure until things start to grow I do not anticipate a lot of damage to the greens. The fairways and tees will be fine. What I am seeing right now is a lot of scorched looking leaves on the greens, but a lot of the crowns (most important part of the plant) appear to be healthy.  It is important to understand that recovery will be slow, recovery will always happen underground first, before visible evidence occurs above ground.  Another thing to keep in mind is this post was written on April 6th, the turf thinks it's early March.

We have extracted numerous plugs and examined the greens throughout this winter, and everything that was sampled has responded favorably.  Although there was ice of all types that had formed on many of our greens, I never felt good about removing it because of how cold it got this winter. Below is a picture that shows damage I caused by shoveling a couple of spots and a progression of growth on damaged looking plugs.

Every golf course is different and each course is required to deal with ice differently. In our case I feel that leaving the snow and ice on the greens was our best option. Anyone that plays Metamora knows how windy it can get here. Certain times this winter it got pretty windy and with temperatures in the minus's that could of made things a lot worse. I feel we have a really good plan in place to expedite recovery if damage has occurred. Please check back to this blog for additional updates.

Golf Course Walk March 15th 2014

With temperatures rising and the snow slowly melting I took a walk around the golf course. I was able to get an idea of how the course was draining and how the playing surfaces were doing, as we hopefully are nearing the end of this historic winter.

Overall I was pretty pleased with what I saw. Although I could only see sections of greens, tees and fairways, I feel optimistic about our turf coming through this extremely difficult winter. There are no signs of snow mold of any kind as that can become a concern when you deal with a lengthy winter with long lasting snow cover. I was also pleased with how the greens are holding up. There are several greens at Metamora that could suffer significant damage because these greens are heavily populated with Poa annua. There is still a significant amount of snow on green #10 which has the highest population of Poa annua, about 90%. I had to dig down through about 24 inches of snow to get to the putting surface and I liked what I saw. The ice that is down there is still porous and the turf has no foul odor. Below are several pictures that were taken around the course.



Close up of #10 green

10 green is 24 inches under snow









#8 Green bentgrass looks good

Crown Hydration of Poa annua













12 ladies tee, looking good

11 green, bentgrass looks good




Everything in these pictures looks pretty good to me, even though there is some poa suffering from crown hydration it's minor and the surrounding bentgrass will fill in and this will become less of an issue on certain greens in the future. However, crown hydration is of major concern on the greens as things begin to melt. As mentioned in a previous post, crown hydration affects Poa annua. These plants will take in water and then freeze during low temperatures, resulting in cellular damage in the crowns and ultimately killing the plants.

Winter projects

The jury is still out on turfgrass survival as one of the toughest winters in history continues, so I thought I would update you on a brighter subject. I wrote in a few posts back that we will be replacing or repairing some of our golf course accessories. We have received a plastic shrink-wrapping product called Vinyl Guard for our bunker rake handles, hazard stakes and flag sticks. Here are a couple before and after photos of the bunker rake handles.






An old/new comparison

Before heat treatment









We have also decided to replace our wood tee markers with a brick. Yes....A brick! This brick is smaller than those typically found on homes. We have also started to make our new hazard stakes and we are repainting the cart control posts that go in the approaches. Below you find photos for these.




Vinyl Guard hazard stakes

Red tee maker




White tee marker

Painting cart control posts

 

The latest on ice and turfgrass survival from Michigan State University & The United States Golf Association

Please follow the links below for an up to date report on ice damage.

http://www.migcsa.org/uploads/Winterkill-Letter-2014.pdf

http://www.msuturf.blogspot.com/

http://www.usga.org/course_care/regional_updates/regional_reports/northcentral/A-Lose-Lose-Situation---March-2014/

Please note that we will not know what type of damage will occur and what the extent of the damage will be until the snow melts and things begin to grow.  It is important to note that Metamora Golf and Country Club isn't that old of a golf course and was grown-in with creeping bentgrass. Although there is Poa annua on the golf course, there is also a lot of  creeping bentgrass throughout and that grass species is rarely affected from ice damage in Michigan and isn't prone to crown hydration.

Ice Update Part 2

I was hoping not to have to report an ice update part 2, but it seems this winter is hanging around, and according to the extended forecast it's in no hurry to leave. Normally we are all gearing up for golf season right now. We start watching golf tournaments on TV, or follow the end of college basketball and get ready for "March Madness". Usually, my indicator that golf season is right around the corner.

As we continue to move forward we also keep monitoring the greens for plant health. Last Saturday I pulled another sample from a green. The sample is growing good after being inside for only a couple of days. I plan on retrieving more samples later this week. Below are pictures of the sample taken Saturday and a picture taken Monday afternoon after some growth.

 

With temperatures still well below average, there isn't much that can be done except monitor and document our findings. Removing the snow and any type of ice isn't a good option for us. With temperatures dropping again and wind being an issue it could be disastrous to our greens by exposing all of the grasses to desiccation.

 

As I mentioned before research on ice damage is very difficult due to winter inconsistencies. Research is being conducted all across the country, and the findings may not apply to all golf courses. In fact, every course is different and there are also many things that factor into ice damage or other winter related issues.  Many of these factors include turf type, the amount of plant respiration, organic matter content, freeze/thaw cycles and shade (sunlight is very critical all year long). The biggest factor, and all researchers will agree is what Mother Nature does........So far she's been nothing short of brutal.

Ice update

I mentioned when dealing with ice and Poa annua that constant monitoring needs to be practiced. I have brought several samples of turf inside and they are growing well and show no problems so far. I also noticed a change in the ice formation. The ice that was dense and can lead to problems has changed to a more porous type, and is usually less threatening. At this time we will hold off on snow removal and ice melting practices at Metamora. The extended forecast is calling for some warmer temperatures and we should see a significant melt starting February 18th through the 23rd. There may need to be some additional snow removal to the putting surfaces to manage the water as the snow melts. Below is a sample of turf taken two days ago that consists of about 95% Poa annua. Again, the green color is exaggerated due to the pigment that was added to the spray solution last fall.

 



Ice melting tactics

As we continue to monitor the greens under ice there becomes a time when further steps may need to be taken. Unfortunately, Mother Nature needs to help. We need a window of sunlight, several days in the mid 30's and no precipitation of any kind. Once we see a few days like that, we can use a snow blower to remove the snow off any greens of concern. We can then spread a material that is black in color that absorbs the sun light to expedite ice melt. You may have also noticed how green in color the sample was in the previous post. The green color is somewhat exaggerated, a green pigment was added to our spray solution during our preventative snow mold application to the greens last fall for a couple of reasons, but can also assist with ice melting. 

 

Monitoring the greens for plant health when ice is involved.

As mentioned in the previous post involving ice damage, the greens will require constant monitoring. Once the ice on the green is exposed several samples of turf and soil are pulled from that green. Measuring ice depth is important and I will also use an infrared thermometer to document ice and soil temperatures. Smelling the samples for a foul odor is also important because it can indicate decomposing tissue or anoxic conditions. The plugs are then brought inside to monitor growth. I also look at the moisture as the samples thaw, if there is green moisture that can indicate possible cellular damage. As indicated for annual bluegrass the range is typically 45-90 days it can survive under ice. More samples will be taken throughout this range.  Here is a picture of one sample pulled at 44 days under ice.

After looking at and smelling this sample there doesn't appear to be any issues, but it will be left inside for several days to make sure.

Possible issues that can be caused by winter weather conditions.

 

Winter Diseases: There are two winter disease caused by fungal organisms that effect all cool season turf grasses. The first being Pink Snow Mold which is caused by Microdochium nivale, this can occur with or without snow, and is favored by cold wet conditions. The other disease is Gray Snow Mold caused by two Typhula species: Typhula incarnata and Typhula ishikariensis, this disease occurs under snow cover. Both of these diseases are typically not a concern with properly timed fungicide applications.

 

Direct Low Temperature Kill: This occurs when temperatures drop below the maximum level of freezing tolerances of the grass species. Once this happens ice crystals form within the plants puncturing cells. Snow cover provides insulation and usually prevents this from happening. Creeping bentgrass can tolerate temperatures as low as -30 degrees and annual bluegrass, often referred to by it's scientific name of Poa annua can tolerate temperatures of -5 degrees. There are even certain bio types of annual bluegrass that can tolerate temperatures up to -15 degrees. Perennial Rye grass is tolerant to about 5 degrees. This problem can become more troublesome during freeze/thaw cycles because the plants cold tolerance can be affected. For example a plant that was tolerant to -15 may only be tolerant to -5 after a cycle. The more cycles you have the less cold tolerant the turf becomes.

 

Desiccation: This usually occurs in the absence of snow with frozen ground. Plants that get damaged or killed from desiccation are usually exposed to cold winter winds. Transpiring plants will lose water from their leaves, and then are unable to replace that water loss. This is not very common because of snow cover. Higher areas are more prone to desiccation like bunker faces, peaks of hills or slopes. 

 

Crown Hydration: This is a problem with annual bluegrass. Annual bluegrass can come out of dormancy with a couple of warmer days. These plants will begin to take in water, and the problem occurs once temperatures freeze again causing ice crystals to form inside the plant puncturing cells in the crown leading to severe injury or plant death. This is usually a problem during freeze/thaw cycles that you would have towards late winter, early spring. Can become very concerning on greens that have a lot of annual bluegrass.

 

Ice Damage: There are typically two types of ice that can form over the winter. One type is porous, like you would find in snow cones. This type of ice doesn't usually cause any issues because of pore space, which allows for oxygen and gas exchange. The more threatening ice is the type that is thick, dense and lacks pores, like you will find with ice cubes. This ice causes an impermeable layer at the surface of the turf which can restrict air exchange causing anoxia (suffocation). Creeping bentgrasses can tolerate ice cover for 90 to 120 days. Annual bluegrass can tolerate ice between 45 and 90 days. Most research indicates 60 days. However, research in Michigan is very difficult because winters are so inconsistent.

 

All of the above problems can occur almost anywhere on the golf course due to Mother Nature, but the greens are obviously the most critical and require the closest monitoring.

 



What do you do in the winter?

This is an understandable question that gets asked quite often. To start, all of the equipment and golf course accessories will be gone through. The off season is a great time to fix equipment problems that may be lingering from the season. Preventative maintenance is absolutely necessary which can head off a lot of major breakdowns that can't be absorbed during the season because of down time. Some reels will have to be completely dismantled to replace bearings and seals. Also, all of the reels and bed knives will be ground (sharpened). Some critical bushings will get replaced in some of the equipment. Sometimes replacing a bushing may mean taking a big part of the machine apart. Bushings are cheap in comparison to how much the part costs that they protect. This season our flag sticks, hazard stakes, bunker rake handles and tee markers are all getting a make-over.

I will also reevaluate the entire maintenance department. I try and figure out ways to become more efficient, whether it be by routing our maintenance staff while doing maintenance practices or other things. If we can save time on activities like mowing greens, tees, fairways or raking bunkers throughout the golf season it can add up.  I also reevaluate our agronomic and cultural programs. I look at fertilizers and plant protectants like fungicides. Can we use something else that will give us the same or better results but cost less?



I will also take seminars or get involved in web-casts or other online based sessions. Some are used as a refresher, while others are used to learn about new products, trends and techniques. The Michigan Golf Course Superintendent's Association and The Golf Course Superintendent's Association of America will offer seminars or web-casts from an array of topics that include business, communication and agronomic skills.



Fairways reels ready for grinding

Waiting for parts
 

Just needs rear rollers (verticutters)

Bunker rake handles ready for vinyl guard





Keeping costs down during the winter!

Our shop has a furnace that uses propane that we set to 40 degrees just to keep things from freezing. However, it's rarely 40 degrees in our shop. To supplement the heat source a wood burning stove was installed a few years ago. During the week days the furnace rarely runs and we are able to maintain mid to upper 60's during our work day. In my opinion every maintenance department should have an alternate heat source. Another club I worked at burned used oil from the equipment and carts to help heat the building. Here is a picture of our wood stove.

Happy Holidays

Metamora Golf and Country Club's maintenance department would like to wish everyone Happy Holidays! We would like to thank our owners, membership and guests for a successful 2013 season and we look forward to making the golf course even better in 2014.

We will continue to post to this blog with winter updates after the New Year.

Sincerely,

Metamora Golf and Country Club's maintenance department

Winterizing the course

Winter preparation begins several weeks before "Old Man Winter" arrives. Greens preparation began right before aerification when the greens received a mineral fertilizer with high amounts of potassium. Potassium helps strengthen the plants and makes them more tolerant to cold temperatures. Aerification reduces organic matter build up (thatch) which also helps with winter survival. Mowing heights are also raised to allow the grass plants to build up needed carbohydrates to survive winter.

The irrigation system gets blown out with air. The pump house also gets winterized which consists of draining the water, removing gauges, disconnecting plumbing and a lot of mouse traps.

Plant protectants are applied to the greens, tees and fairways. These plant protectant fungicides are used to protect the turf from pink and gray snow molds. However, before plant protectants are sprayed on the playing surfaces it is important to clean-up leaves and other debris. To get good preventative control of these two pathogens spray coverage is very important. Please note, that once plant protectants are applied the turf will not be mowed again until spring.