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Turf conditions & optimal efficiency with the
Grammar of Greenkeeping
Micah Woods
January 21, 2018
Chief Scientist
Asian Turfgrass Center
www.asianturfgrass.com
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Today’s schedule
• 09:30 to 11:00, set 1
• 11:00 to 11:30, coffee break
• 11:30 to 13:00, set 2
• 13:00 to 14:00, lunch
• 14:00 to 15:30, set 3
• 15:30 to 16:00, coffee break
• 16:00 to 17:30, set 4
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Golf Course Seminar magazine, Japan
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“The BOOK”, photo by Jonathan Smith
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Today’s “Table of Contents”
1. Defining turfgrass management
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Today’s “Table of Contents”
1. Defining turfgrass management
2. Two uncontrollable factors influencing grass growth
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Today’s “Table of Contents”
1. Defining turfgrass management
2. Two uncontrollable factors influencing grass growth
3. Managing water in the soil
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Today’s “Table of Contents”
1. Defining turfgrass management
2. Two uncontrollable factors influencing grass growth
3. Managing water in the soil
4. Nitrogen, temperature, and growth rate
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Today’s “Table of Contents”
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
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Today’s “Table of Contents”
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
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Today’s “Table of Contents”
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
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Today’s “Table of Contents”
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
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Today’s “Table of Contents”
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?
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Today’s “Table of Contents”
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
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Today’s “Table of Contents”
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
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Today’s “Table of Contents”
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
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Today’s “Table of Contents”
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
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Today’s “Table of Contents”
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
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Defining turfgrass management
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Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland
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Kashima Stadium, Japan
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Royal Bangkok Sports Club, Thailand
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Greenkeeping is managing the growth rate of
the grass to create the desired playing surface
for golf.
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creeping bentgrass, Japan
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bermudagrass and seashore paspalum, Thailand
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manilagrass putting green, Thailand
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seashore paspalum and bermudagrass, Thailand
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Penn A-1 creeping bentgrass, K deficiency
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creeping bentgrass, PGA Catalunya
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Two uncontrollable factors
influencing grass growth
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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.
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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.
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Poa annua & kikuyugrass, Gran Canaria, November
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storm approaching, Bangkok, September
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creeping bentgrass 5 cm soil temperature, Japan, July
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Festuca & Poa annua near Reykjavik, May 4
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Simplified EPI
XXX
X
(light)(water)(((((((
(
hhhhhhh
h
(temperature)(nutrient) = EPI
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Managing water in the soil
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80 year old rootzone, Sydney
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Nitrogen, temperature, and growth
rate
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fairway fertilization, Hanoi
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add N, get more colour and growth
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“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
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2 key things with more N: chlorophyll & RuBisCO
overseeded bermudagrass, La Quinta, California
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fescue sod, Iceland
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Temperature-based growth potential
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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.
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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
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vacuum mower, Japan
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Implications and use of GP
• mowing frequency
• fungicide duration
• heat-related stress
• topdressing requirement
• nutrient use
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Managing soil organic matter
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golf course construction, Thailand
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seashore paspalum, Hong Kong
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First, manage the grass growth to be as slow as
possible.
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Second, add sand topdressing to mix with the
organic matter as it is produced by the grass.
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Third, there is coring or scarification to
physically remove organic matter from the soil.
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Measuring soil water to estimate soil
air
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Novotek bermudagrass, Thailand
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The best playing surface will be produced
when the soil has just enough water to keep
the grass from wilting, and the remaining soil
volume will be filled with air.
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creeping bentgrass, Kunming, China
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Four things to increase roots on
putting greens
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creeping bentgrass, Japan
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Golf is played on the surface, not on the roots.
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4 things to increase roots on putting greens
1. Mow the grass as high as possible
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4 things to increase roots on putting greens
1. Mow the grass as high as possible
2. Apply the right amount of N, at the right time
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4 things to increase roots on putting greens
1. Mow the grass as high as possible
2. Apply the right amount of N, at the right time
3. Make sure there is plenty of air in the soil
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4 things to increase roots on putting greens
1. Mow the grass as high as possible
2. Apply the right amount of N, at the right time
3. Make sure there is plenty of air in the soil
4. Make sure there is enough P in the soil
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algae on bermudagrass green, Vietnam
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bermudagrass roots, September
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3 months later
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3 months later
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Do you know how much salt is in the
irrigation water?
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bermudagrass, Thailand
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cool-season mix, Girona
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Managing salt by leaching
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Adding extra water will carry salt below the
rootzone by leaching.
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How much leaching is required?
We need to know three things to calculate the amount of water
required.
1. Irrigation water salinity (ECw
)
2. The grass tolerance of salinity in the soil (ECe
)
3. The consumptive water use of the grass (ET)
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Leaching requirement, LR
LR =
ECw
5(ECe) − ECw
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Irrigation requirement, IR
IR =
ET
1 − LR
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Measuring clipping yield from
putting greens
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Using a 10 L bucket to measure the volume of clippings
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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)
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Checking variability
• day to day
• green to green
• machine to machine
• year to year
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mowing greens, Fukuoka, Japan
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KBC Augusta tournament, 2013
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An easy PAR
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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
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Similar temperatures, but dissimilar
sunshine
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Orlando vs. Hong Kong
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Two ways to avoid nutrient
deficiencies
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First, and the recommended way, do a soil test.
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Second, and less efficient, supply 100% of plant use.
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I don’t worry about micronutrients.
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For more, please see
www.asianturfgrass.com or
@asianturfgrass on Twitter.
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