Turf conditions & optimal efficiency

These are the slides for my half day pre-conference seminar at the Western Canada Turfgrass Association conference. Just doing the work -- fertilizing, topdressing, irrigation, mowing, pest control -- doesn't guarantee that one will get the desired turf surfaces. In fact, one will sometimes notice that the areas receiving the most maintenance actually have the worst turf! That's unfortunate. In this presentation, I explain some portions of what I call the "Grammar of Greenkeeping." This is a way to think of the work done to the turf in terms of what the objectives actually are -- producing a good surface and doing so with the least possible amount of work. When this grammar is implemented, one can either improve results with the same amount of work, which gives improved conditions and improved efficiency. Or, one can get the same results with less work, which is improved efficiency.

Transcript

1. Turf conditions & optimal efficiency Micah Woods 14 February 2018 Chief Scientist Asian Turfgrass Center www.asianturfgrass.com
2. Today’s schedule • 08:00 to break, session 1 • break/s • break to noon, session 2
3. Golf Course Seminar magazine, Japan
4. “The BOOK”, photo by Jonathan Smith
6. manilagrass putting green, southern Thailand
7. manilagrass putting green, central Thailand
8. Table of Contents in the Grammar 1. Defining turfgrass management 2. Two uncontrollable factors influencing grass growth 3. Managing water in the soil 4. Nitrogen, temperature, and growth rate 5. Temperature-based growth potential 6. Managing soil organic matter 7. Measuring soil water to estimate soil air 8. Four things to increase roots on putting greens 9. Do you know how much salt is in the irrigation water? 10. Managing salt by leaching 11. Measuring clipping yield from putting greens 12. An easy PAR 13. Similar temperatures, but dissimilar sunshine 14. Two ways to avoid nutrient deficiencies
9. Today’s “Table of Contents” • Defining turfgrass management
10. Today’s “Table of Contents” • Defining turfgrass management • Two uncontrollable factors influencing grass growth
11. Today’s “Table of Contents” • Defining turfgrass management • Two uncontrollable factors influencing grass growth • Managing water in the soil
12. Today’s “Table of Contents” • Defining turfgrass management • Two uncontrollable factors influencing grass growth • Managing water in the soil • Nitrogen, temperature, and growth rate
13. Today’s “Table of Contents” • Defining turfgrass management • Two uncontrollable factors influencing grass growth • Managing water in the soil • Nitrogen, temperature, and growth rate • Temperature-based growth potential
14. Today’s “Table of Contents” • Defining turfgrass management • Two uncontrollable factors influencing grass growth • Managing water in the soil • Nitrogen, temperature, and growth rate • Temperature-based growth potential • Managing soil organic matter
15. Today’s “Table of Contents” • Defining turfgrass management • Two uncontrollable factors influencing grass growth • Managing water in the soil • Nitrogen, temperature, and growth rate • Temperature-based growth potential • Managing soil organic matter • Measuring clipping yield from putting greens
16. Today’s “Table of Contents” • Defining turfgrass management • Two uncontrollable factors influencing grass growth • Managing water in the soil • Nitrogen, temperature, and growth rate • Temperature-based growth potential • Managing soil organic matter • Measuring clipping yield from putting greens • An easy PAR
17. Defining turfgrass management
18. Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland
19. Kashima Stadium, Japan
20. Royal Bangkok Sports Club, Thailand
21. Greenkeeping is managing the growth rate of the grass to create the desired playing surface for golf.
22. creeping bentgrass, Japan
23. bermudagrass and seashore paspalum, Thailand
24. manilagrass putting green, Thailand
25. seashore paspalum and bermudagrass, Thailand
26. Penn A-1 creeping bentgrass, K deficiency
27. creeping bentgrass, PGA Catalunya
28. Two uncontrollable factors influencing grass growth
29. What affects growth? Growth is a function of photosynthetic light, plant water status, temperature, and a nutrient index.1 This can be represented as the environmental productivity index (EPI). 1Each of these factors can be represented by an index that takes a value from 0 to 1. Thus, the EPI will also have a value in the range of 0 to 1. The nutrient index is primarily a function of leaf N content.
30. What affects growth? Growth is a function of photosynthetic light, plant water status, temperature, and a nutrient index.1 This can be represented as the environmental productivity index (EPI). (light)(water)(temperature)(nutrient) = EPI 1Each of these factors can be represented by an index that takes a value from 0 to 1. Thus, the EPI will also have a value in the range of 0 to 1. The nutrient index is primarily a function of leaf N content.
31. Poa annua & kikuyugrass, Gran Canaria, November
32. storm approaching, Bangkok, September
33. creeping bentgrass 5 cm soil temperature, Japan, July
34. Festuca & Poa annua near Reykjavik, May 4
35. Simplified EPI   XXX X (light)(water)((((((( ( hhhhhhh h (temperature)(nutrient) = EPI
36. Another simplified EPI   XXX X (light)  XXX X (water)(temperature)(nutrient) = EPI
37. Managing water in the soil
38. 80 year old rootzone, Sydney
40. Nitrogen, temperature, and growth rate
41. fairway fertilization, Hanoi
42. add N, get more colour and growth
43. “We determined through field experiments that in our climate [Wisconsin] it takes at least [80 g N/m2/year] to maximize clipping production on a [Poa pratensis] lawn and in excess of [19 g N/m2/month] on a bentgrass fairway.” Houlihan and Kussow, 2006
45. 2 key things with more N: chlorophyll & RuBisCO overseeded bermudagrass, La Quinta, California
46. fescue sod, Iceland
47. Temperature-based growth potential
48. Grasses can grow well when temperatures are close to an optimum for growth, and grasses will grow more slowly or not at all as the temperature moves away from the optimum.
49. Temperature-based growth potential PACE Turf developed the Temperature-based GP to express the actual temperature in terms of its proximity to optimum temperatures for shoot growth. GP = e−0.5( t−to var )2 where, GP = growth potential, on a scale of 0 to 1 e = 2.71828, a mathematical constant t = average temperature for a location, in celsius to = optimum temperature, 20 for C3 grass, 31 for C4 grass var = adjusts the change in GP as temperature moves away from to ; I suggest 5.5 for C3 and 7 for C4
57. vacuum mower, Japan
59. Implications and use of GP • mowing frequency • fungicide duration • heat-related stress • topdressing requirement • nutrient use
60. Managing soil organic matter
61. golf course construction, Thailand
62. seashore paspalum, Hong Kong
63. First, manage the grass growth to be as slow as possible.
64. Second, add sand topdressing to mix with the organic matter as it is produced by the grass.
65. Third, there is coring or scarification to physically remove organic matter from the soil.
66. Measuring clipping yield from putting greens
67. 10 L bucket to measure clipping volume
70. What’s affected by the growth rate? • divot recovery • ball mark recovery • some diseases • traffic damage • green speed • mowing requirement • thatch (and everything associated with its management)
71. Checking variability • day to day • green to green • machine to machine • year to year
72. mowing greens, Fukuoka, Japan
74. KBC Augusta Tournament, 2013
85. An easy PAR
86. 3 terms 1. PAR – photosynthetically active radiation 2. PPFD – photosynthetic photon flux density, measured per second 3. DLI – daily light integral, sum of PPFD from sunrise to sunset
87. Quantum meter for PPFD Okinawa, Japan
88. 14 July 2015, Tokyo with clear sky
89. 1 July 2015, Tokyo with heavy clouds
92. For more, please see www.asianturfgrass.com or @asianturfgrass on Twitter.
93. ATC newsletter: www.subscribepage.com/atcupdate MLSN newsletter: www.subscribepage.com/mlsn