Putting Green Management and Putting Green Performance

I shared some data collected over the past year that shows an increase in soil moisture in a sand rootzone will usually lead to softer surfaces. We looked at a clip from a classic video of water movement in soils, to see what happens as water moves from a relatively fine-textured (sand + organic matter) layer down to a coarse-textured (sand without organic matter) layer, and then we discussed the four ways in which we can manage soil organic matter. Of these, I think the first two are the most important.

1. Manage the growth rate of the grass to avoid excessive accumulation of organic matter, allowing the grass to grow at a rate sufficient to recover from traffic damage, but no faster.
I shared some data collected over the past year that shows an increase in soil moisture in a sand rootzone will usually lead to softer surfaces. We looked at a clip from a classic video of water movement in soils, to see what happens as water moves from a relatively fine-textured (sand + organic matter) layer down to a coarse-textured (sand without organic matter) layer, and then we discussed the four ways in which we can manage soil organic matter. Of these, I think the first two are the most important.

1. Manage the growth rate of the grass to avoid excessive accumulation of organic matter, allowing the grass to grow at a rate sufficient to recover from traffic damage, but no faster.

2. Apply sand topdressing to dilute the organic matter as it is produced. As a general rule, plan to apply at least 0.012 m3 sand/m2/year.

3. Verticut (vertical mowing down to the soil surface) and scarify (vertical mowing that goes below the soil surface) to remove organic matter.

4. Core aerify to remove organic matter, keeping in mind that tine size and tine spacing should be carefully considered to optimize the organic matter removal at each time of aerification. This will minimize disruption to golfers.

Transcript

1. Putting Green Management and Putting Green Performance Micah Woods, Ph.D. 13 November 2012 TGCSA Meeting at The Vintage Golf Club www.asianturfgrass.com
2. Seashore paspalum Le Touessrok, Mauritius
3. Surfaces that hold too much moisture have three main problems. Disease pressure increases, surfaces are too soft for golf and ball marks are excessive, and mowing quality is poor.
4. Surface Hardness and Soil Moisture Sentosa GC, Singapore
5. 80 85 90 95 100 15 20 25 30 35 Volumetric Water Content (7.5 cm depth) Clegg Hammer Reading Data collected at Singapore, October 2012 bermuda
6. Data collected at Thailand in 2012 bermuda & paspalum
7. 70 80 90 100 110 20 30 40 50 Volumetric Water Content (7.5 cm depth) Clegg Hammer Reading Data collected at Thailand in 2012 bermuda & paspalum
8. Data collected at Vietnam, September 2012 seashore paspalum
9. 50 60 70 80 90 100 10 20 30 40 Volumetric Water Content (7.5 cm depth) Clegg Hammer Reading location approach fairway green Data collected at Vietnam, September 2012 seashore paspalum
10. Saitama, Japan creeping bentgrass
11. Pune, India seashore paspalum
12. New green Philippines
13. Control the growth rate to minimize accumulation Zoysia japonica, Japan
14. Thatch above a sandcapped fairway Seashore paspalum, Vietnam
15. Sandcapped fairway with high organic matter layer Seashore paspalum, Vietnam
16. Verticut to remove organic matter Bermudagrass, USA
17. Manual spin topdresser Tifeagle bermudagrass, Thailand
18. Scarify Tifeagle bermudagrass, Thailand
19. Core aerification Creeping bentgrass, Japan
20. Core aerification Creeping bentgrass, Japan
21. Spacing 2.5 x 2.5 cm Spacing 2.5 x 5 cm Spacing 5 x 5 cm
22. Tine blocks adjusted to 3.2 cm x 3.8 cm spacing Creeping bentgrass, USA
23. Research in Arkansas Creeping bentgrass, USA
24. • control the growth rate to be as slow as possible while still growing fast enough to recover from traffic damage. • apply sand at a rate of at least 0.012 m3/m2 per year. This is 12 mm of sand, in depth, or 12 L of sand per m2. • recognize that scarifying removes more organic matter than does coring. • optimize the tine size and tine spacing before coring. Annual removal of 20% of the surface area each year is recommended, although this can be reduced if scarifying is done and if adequate sand topdressing is applied. For high-performance greens, we should: