Back on September 4th, I shared with Blog Nation the decision not to overseed the golf course for 2009 in order to save nearly $30,000 and prevent course closure during the process. At the end of that post I said, 'come back to check for frequent updates.' This is the first one, almost 5 months after the original article.


Every fairway that hasn't been treated with Revolver has more ryegrass and more annual bluegrass to cover up the dormant bermuda. The population of cool season grass makes a trasition into winter less noticeable and gives us fairways that look like this:

This is number 12 and a good example of what the rest of our fairways look like The darker shade of grass along the ridge in the middle and up the distant, left side of the fairway is perennial ryegrass. Everything else is filled in with poa annua.

Many superintendents would disagree with the practice of letting in all of this poa. I opted to let it come in to provide a playing surface for the winter without the cost of overseeding. Without this poa, there would be many, many spots that look like the muddy ground in the first image. So, we are able to have grass in the winter without the cost of overseeding or the messy process of getting the seed in the ground, germinated, and grown to maturity. When warmer temperatures arrive, we will start to lose this poa annua more quickly than we would lose a stand of seeded ryegrass. This will lead to a quicker transition to bermuda and we can start to build up that dormant mat we want in future off-seasons.

The membership has been very happy and pretty surprised at the results of not overseeding. Many people expected nothing but mud and unplayable conditions. As usual, winter here does not offer the best in playability due to our soil types and extreme proximity to ground water. However, that would be the case if we did overseed or not. Besides a lighter green appearance, most fairways are very similar to what they would be with the $30,000 bill.

Now if we could just dry out enough to mow, we would be in business. More about that in the next post. Thanks for reading.

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.

This week's storm is nearly finished soaking the course and a weekend of sunshine starts tomorrow, and that suits me fine because Saturday is my 30th birthday. Before I get to celebrating, I have to get this monster off the cartpath so we can get a few rounds this weekend.

The original predictions for this storm included 4-6 inches of rain. As usual, this was an overestimate for our area with our weather station currently recording 1.81 inches over the last week. The wind, however, did not disappoint.

This huge eucalyptus tree on #17 cartpath was one of two trees lost in the storm. We have hundreds of branches scattered all over, but this mess does not compare to the storm in October. In that one day of wind, we lost 12 full size trees and cleanup took two full weeks. This time around we will be back in shape much sooner, although carts will be restricted to paths until we dry out.

So now I'm off to start cutting up this giant hunk of wood. I hope the neighbors don't mind that we're firing up chainsaws at 7:00 am. We've never received any complaints in that department, but we don't want to start now. Maybe the noise would be worthwhile if it came with free firewood. I have some to spare.

The course concession stand, or snack shack, as we like to call it, is an important part of every club's amenities. Everyone can use a little refreshment or bite to eat during a 3-4 hour round and the strategic location of this facility makes that easily possible. Golfers pass the shack at 6 green, 13 tee, and 16 tee giving them multiple opportunities to wet their whistles.

Pink snow mold is one of the most obvious diseases to diagnose out on the course. There really isn't any other disease that I would confuse with the colorful ring that this disease produces. Besides the typical signs and symptoms that aid in identification, the timing is also a pretty good clue since pink snow mold only occurs during conditions that would not support most other diseases.


The name may be confusing because snow is an extremely rare occurrence in Stockton, CA. Snow cover is not required for the formation of pink snow mold, but is necessary for its cousin, gray snow mold. All we need for pink snow mold is temperatures between 30-60 degrees F and extended periods of leaf wetness.

As you can see from this image, or if you've played recently, you know that leaf wetness is constant in California's central valley fog. Day after day, we just don't dry out and pink snow mold is right at home. This photo was taken on #13 fairway beneath the shade pattern of a redwood at 12:00 pm.

The greens will normally dry out every day after mowing or rolling and this helps to keep the disease under control. We also treat the greens with fungicide prior to the onset of conditions conducive to snow mold. Fairways, however, are not treated with fungicide because of cost, and the only damage will be on this winter's poa annua, so little is lost. The other practice we employ to manage pink snow mold is removing urea fertilizer from our maintenance program. We fertilize very little this time of year, but when we do, we use calcium nitrate and potassium nitrate as our sources for nitrogen. The last two years, this has helped reduce the amount of snow mold on our greens.

This year, pink snow mold has been pretty scarce. I've seen a few spots on fairways here and there and 9 tee had a small outbreak. The entire crew is trained in disease identification and they're quick to report any problems they see during their daily travels.

The best cure for a little snow mold is temperatures in the 70's or higher, and I for one, cannot wait to see the sun.

Here is a closeup of the pigment condition I described in the last post. I pulled this one off of the University of Connecticut Turfgrass Disease website by following a link supplied by one of our followers, John Kaminski, Ph.D.

Notice the purple tips on most blades of grass. This is an accumulation of anthocyanin due to cold temperatures that limits translocation of sugars produced during photosynthesis.

Wow, I have become a real nerd because I find this stuff fascinating. If you are also intrigued by this seasonal abnormality, then here is a few links that will dive a little deeper into this subject.

The first link is from Wikipedia, always a good place to start. The second is a Google preview of a great book by Peter Dernoeden called Creeping Bentgrass Management.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthocyanin

http://books.google.com/books?id=N7HoRiWxG2kC&pg=PA29&lpg=PA29&dq=anthocyanin+bentgrass&source=bl&ots=cAWm--MX15&sig=MkYaEJ5cU6OP4ZaAqVsS2B0Ph1w&hl=en&ei=6ahHS-WuG4SkswPr_t31Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=anthocyanin%20bentgrass&f=false

Happy reading.

If you've played golf in the last month, I'm sure you've noticed the purple blotches all over the greens. Whenever strange patterns and patches occur on a green, disease is the first suspect to blame. In this instance, the mottled appearance is just part of the winter season and will fade back to green when temperatures begin to climb.

The bentgrass on our greens is predominantly Crenshaw which, like many older varieties, turns purple quite easily. Bentgrass, just like the leaves of trees, changes color when mild days are mixed with cold nights. Basically, the sugar produced during photosynthesis is trapped in the leaf and expresses itself with a different color. As temperatures rise, the sugars can be moved more effectively into the roots and the chlorophyll can make the plant green around the clock.

This year the course is showing more purple than it had over the last five years and that is a good thing. Since October, we've been using a plant growth regulator called Trimmit which gives bentgrass a competitive advantage over annual bluegrass. This time of the year, bentgrass is barely growing so there is little hope in out growing the poa annua. However, we have limited poa's spread and all these new purple spots are proof of that.

The last few winters have ended with the greens nearly covered in light green poa annua. Heading into summer, some of the poa would back off and the bent would take charge and return the green to 50/50, poa/bent. This season, the poa is being kept in check and we should have greater than 50% bentgrass when we hit summer. Hopefully this is a reversal of fortunes and we can look towards the turf maintenance holy grail: poa-free greens.

Going from 50/50 to solid bent might be a pipe dream in all honesty, but with the proper maintenance practices, the greens will be rolling just fine. Perhaps we knock out 2-3% of the poa each year and keep plugging along.

First off, let me tell you that this has nothing to do with golf course maintenance. Instead, I want to share with you my source of pain relief after my wisdom teeth were removed. The extraction was performed last Tuesday and went very well. I had very little pain or swelling until Friday, January 1st. This is when a condition called 'dry socket' first reared its ugly head.

This malady is referred to as a phenomenon that involves inflammation of the bone where the tooth was extracted. It is not an infection and simply goes away over time. Waiting for it to go away is excruciating and probably the worst pain I have felt. The pain relievers the doctor provided were not helping by Sunday so I went to the Internet to find a cure.

Many of you probably know this, but for me, it was the very first time I'd seen this remedy. Clove oil is very good for toothaches and for treating dry socket. A couple drops and the most incredible pain I've ever known subsided within two minutes.

This is way off topic for this blog, but I wasted three days of a brand new year dealing with this condition when a natural remedy was sitting at Walgreen's. Hopefully, somebody with tooth pain will find this useful and can get on with their lives as well.

OK, now back to growing grass.