I am often requested to provide these on spec for clubs and to some extent it can be done; there are certain aspects of green maintenance that can be specified regardless of conditions, but the main issue is not what is to be done, but why it has to be done.
I covered this in more depth in a recent article here.
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The watering of bowling greens is one of those critical issues in bowling that splits opinion across the game.
Some purists would see no artificial watering of greens regardless of how dry the weather gets. Some are in favour to different degrees; some would argue that the green should only be watered enough to keep it alive, while others demand that the green be watered heavily and often to keep it green.
For me the critical issue is as always performance.
We can argue about the right way to water or not water greens until the cows come home, but green performance is the only measure we should really be worrying about and that means we need to deal with individual greens on an individual basis.
Some greens, mainly those that haven’t been subjected to years of sandy top-dressings dry out evenly across the surface. As the weather gets drier, these greens get faster and smoother and everyone is happy. However, there is a point of no return for these greens also and a complete drought will see them go Read more
A high proportion of the bowling greens I see every year are victims of what has become accepted as “conventional maintenance”. I say victims, because much of what has come to be accepted as normal in bowling green maintenance, is anything but, if you happen to be a grass plant or a healthy living soil.
Below you will find a very popular article that was published on this site a while back, which illustrates very clearly the dangers inherent in “going with the flow” or following the herd to put it another way!
The diagram above shows the process that many poorly maintained bowling greens experience over a period of years if 3 basic maintenance issues are not addressed as a priority.
The top 3 issues on all fine turf are Read more
Leading on from my previous article on over-seeding and the new over-seeding fact sheet , I have received a few enquiries about over-seeding of bowling greens this week.
A common question is about over-seeding rates, or how much seed to use.
There is of course no right or wrong answer to this as the rate can be adjusted to suit conditions, required effect etc.
So in some circumstances it might be necessary to over-seed very heavily to ensure a thick enough sward on a bare area for example.
At other times when using a particularly specialist seed mix the rate might be very light indeed.
As a general guide if you are using a traditional 80% fescue and 20% bent grass mix, then I would normally recommend a rate of 15-20g/m2.
Over a typical green of around 1400m2 the lower end of this scale would use about 1 full commercial bag of seed.
If a more specialist all bent grass over-seeding mix was being used then the application would go down to about 8g/m2 to reflect the major difference in seed size and weight.
It’s always best to try to divide the application into two passes with the machine as this helps to avoid missed areas and gives a more uniform finish. This is all the more important when using all bent mixtures as you can’t actually see the seed once it’s been applied due to its size.
5 tips for getting this operation right are:
