But that is not the case here at The Meadow. The small patches of yellow grass you see in the above photo are patches of poa annua, a grass that is common to most every golf course you have ever played on, but one that we are pleased to see on its back foot. These poa plants are struggling for many reasons, some natural, and some intentional.
The natural reason:
• Ice Damage - poa does not like dealing with ice at all in the winter. It generally does not like the winter much at all, and many times is quite slow to wake up in the spring. But once it does decide to come around it usually fills in like crazy (unfortunately that could be sometime in late June...)
The man made reasons:
• We have been slowly tilting our cultural practices over the past couple of seasons to favor the bentgrass population in our greens, to the detriment of the poa plants. They include...
- Deep and Infrequent watering - poa like to keep its feet wet constantly, but bentgrass enjoys a tall glass of water every week to ten days. This practice encourages the bent to sink its roots deep into the soil profile, while the poa is left struggling at the surface (their roots penetrate 2-3" at best)
- Minimal disruption - brushing and late season aerifying are our most aggressive practices. Poa loves disturbance, so we try to keep it to a minimum.
- Lots of sand...lots and lots of sand...
- Chemical - we began using a product called Velocity last season in very limited quantities. This herbicide will take the poa without harming the bentgrass. This process will take a few seasons, but the results so far are encouraging.
So the anti poa sediment will be a common theme that I will touch on a lot in the future...so stay tuned...
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