Thursday, January 28, 2010
The poa looks tired
Normally, this time of year, the poa annua will be bright green, lush, and a little puffy after two inches of rain. Instead of those qualities, the poa is tight, sunken, discolored, and barely growing. The bentgrass, on the other hand, continues to creep above the poa and slowly (and I want to emphasize SLOWLY) gains ground on the annual bluegrass.
Taking a closer look (this is the exciting part) you can see that the growth of the bentgrass is not restricted nearly as much as the poa. As I said before, that is the opposite growth patterns that are expected for the foggy winter in California's central valley. I am thrilled to see so much bentgrass at a time that I'm used to seeing very little. Ball roll has also been much improved for this winter season.
Since our greens are half poa, we don't want to limit growth all the way into the warmer months of spring. Our last application of Trimmit will be around the first of February and from there on we will switch back to Primo for our growth regulator needs.
The yellowish-brown poa will return to green in less than a week and today's fertilizer application, the first since December 30th will speed up recuperation. We normally will fertilize every two weeks at light rates, but this last winter storm would wash out any fertilizer and eliminate any benefits. So here we are, nearly a month later, giving the turf a little food. Speaking of food, Izzo has been begging for breakfast for the last 10 minutes so I better go feed the fat little meatball.
This is the 7th green which is about 50% annual bluegrass. Since the first of October, we have applied four applications of the growth regulator Trimmit at the low rate. The current appearance of the poa is definitely the most extreme change we've seen since we started.
Taking a closer look (this is the exciting part) you can see that the growth of the bentgrass is not restricted nearly as much as the poa. As I said before, that is the opposite growth patterns that are expected for the foggy winter in California's central valley. I am thrilled to see so much bentgrass at a time that I'm used to seeing very little. Ball roll has also been much improved for this winter season.
The yellowish-brown poa will return to green in less than a week and today's fertilizer application, the first since December 30th will speed up recuperation. We normally will fertilize every two weeks at light rates, but this last winter storm would wash out any fertilizer and eliminate any benefits. So here we are, nearly a month later, giving the turf a little food. Speaking of food, Izzo has been begging for breakfast for the last 10 minutes so I better go feed the fat little meatball.
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