Scientists in South America are developing a new strain of turfgrass that responds to applications of beer slops by only growing at half the rate of normal grasses.
Turf managers are already getting excited about the development saying that the beer swilling turf drastically reduces labour costs for bowling green maintenance and potentially creates a use for beer slops and half drunk pints from the clubhouse bar.
The breakthrough was spotted by accident by a greenkeeper at Lirpa Premia Bowling Club. When interviewed by Bowls-Central, greenkeeper Avril Primo said “its amazing, the grass seems to come up “half cut”, it’s going to revolutionise bowling greenkeeping the world over and I can finally put all of the half pints left over on Sunday night to good use”.
We tried to contact the Science team involved but we were told that we couldn’t speak to anyone until the second day of April.
If your green has suffered the blight of localised dry patch (LDP), sometimes called bowling green dry patch in the past, this is the most critical time of the year to take action to minimise the chances of another outbreak.
It’s unlikely that you will be thinking about irrigation of the green just yet, but dry weather in March and April, usually accompanied by drying winds which cause further moisture loss from the green surface can allow LDP to take a firm grip on the green.
The main effects of this might not show up until June, but the damage will already be done and no amount of irrigation will correct this once it has taken hold.
With this in mind and especially if your green has suffered in the past, you should at minimum be keeping an eye on your water balance chart and making irrigation applications to replenish any deficiencies, even if it seems counter intuitive…trust your water balance sheet!
Now is also a good time to mini-tine the green and apply a granular wetting agent, making sure it is washed into the tine holes thoroughly.
Monthly liquid wetting agent applications should also commence now and the water balance sheet (not Charlie, the club champion in 1977, who doesn’t believe in watering greens!) should rule the roost as far as irrigation decisions are concerned.
Pre season bowling green fertilising is a key component of the Performance Bowling Green program.
Spring and autumn are the ideal times to make nutritional corrections using granular fertilisers.
During the playing season I recommend that you rely on bio liquid fertilisers applied on a spoon fed basis approximately every 14 days. There is a large range of suitable products available from a variety of manufacturers.
The bio liquid approach to fertilising the green delivers a more consistent growth pattern and the “bio” or carbohydrate component encourages natural decomposition of thatch and release of soil borne nutrients to the plants as and when they need them.
However, the rigours of winter can leave imbalances in the soil due to luxury uptake by the plants of Potassium and the natural leaching processes inherent in the soil.
Due to this it is a good idea to top up the soil with a corrective application of granular fertiliser at this time.
The soil temperature will still be fairly low so the product you use should contain a little quickly available nitrogen (ammonia), as well as a slow release N component. Plants also need a little Phosphorous at this time to aid strong root development, especially if you over-seeded the green in autumn.
Whatever the season, mowing remains the most important job in the maintenance of a Performance Bowling Green.
Often overlooked due to the everyday nature of the task, there is a lot more to mowing than meets the eye. It is particularly important to follow the correct mowing regime to ensure green consistency and speed. More detailed information on green speed and consistency here.
At this time of year in the run up to the new season, it’s especially important that we get the mowing program right.
During the winter the green surface should have been maintained at a mowing height of around 8mm. In very cold winters, you will see some recession in height and this is difficult to avoid. However, in mild winters, like the one most of us have had this year it is quite normal for the green to keep growing throughout the winter months and this growth needs to be kept in check to minimise the outbreak of diseases and other problems associated with lush winter turf.
Now that the new bowling season beckons we need to gradually lower the cutting height and I would suggest taking it down to around 7mm this month, aiming for 6mm by opening day and 5mm by the end of May, all dependent on soil temperature and prevailing weather; we can still be in the grip of icy cold winds at Easter.
Mowing frequency will be dictated largely by growth rate, but once a week now should be the minimum, bearing in mind that you don’t want to be removing more than a third of the leaf at any one time. So, if the green is growing vigorously, then more frequent mowing will be required.
Of course its tempting to keep the work to a minimum, but mowing will also help to lightly roll the green surface, so it might be beneficial to mow more frequently than is actually required.
The most important factor in mowing is ensuring that the mower is razor sharp and that there is zero contact between the blade and cylinder to give the cleanest and least damaging cut to the grass leaf. More detailed information on mowing can be found here.
Tomorrow we will look more closely at the pre-season renovation work required on the green, with a look at some do’s and don’t’s.
