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Category: Greenkeeping

Performance Basics-Watering the Green

Irrigation-a vital skill to master for a performance green

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

Break with Convention for a Performance Bowls Green

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

Bowls green over-seeding rates

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:

  1. Choose a high quality seed mix which utilises cultivars from near the top of the STRI turfgrass manual.
  2. Calibrate machinery accurately as even a small error in adjustment can waste a lot of expensive seed.
  3. Always apply seed into rather than onto the bowling green surface.
  4. Heavy sowings can encourage Damping Off disease so take care.
  5. Always apply seed in at least two passes in different directions.

Carbon Dioxide

One of our regular readers commented:

I read various references to CO2 in fine turf literature but no explanation of its production and effect on turf propagation?

The role of CO2 in Turfgrass.

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is extremely important in producing a high performance bowling green surface. Fortunately, there is no lack of it in the atmosphere, but we still have to make sure that the plants and soil are in good health in order for them to make best use of it.
CO2 is the basic stuff of life. It is taken in by the plant through the leaf and used (with water) to make sugars (carbohydrate and starch) in the Photosynthesis process. The main by-product is Oxygen which is given off through the leaf…luckily for us!
The Carbs created are then “burned” as fuel in the plant’s metabolic processes (Respiration), or stored for later use. The Respiration process results in increased biomass and gives off CO2.
For steady growth to occur Net Assimilation Rate (food produced) must be greater than rate of Respiration (food burned). Sunlight provides the energy for Photosynthesis, so growth slows in the darker months. Temperature is also important for Respiration, so growth slows in the winter months.
Although there is an abundance of CO2, the plants can’t always access it. In hot, dry weather the plants will close down their leaf stomata (where the CO2 enters) to conserve moisture. This causes an imbalance within the plant photosynthetic tissue (green parts) and Oxygen can build up to levels that far exceed CO2. When this happens a process called Photorespiration begins which is essentially Photosynthesis using Oxygen instead of CO2 as raw material. This is a wasteful process and results in very low or no net gain in energy. Plants then start to show signs of damage and health declines.

Simply put, no CO2 = no Photosynthesis = no bowling green…or bowlers for that matter (no Oxygen!)

As an aside, this is always a very popular subject with my students. When they consider how important grass is to life on earth for the first time they are amazed. Most of the world’s human populations rely on grasses as staple foods; wheat in the west, rice in the east and of course maize. The Oxygen manufactured (discarded) by the Photosynthesis process is of course vital to our existence.
Hope this is helpful, but it’s a vast subject in itself. I aim to put up some short online courses on these fundamental aspects of turf maintenance soon on Bowls-Central.
Footnote for our readers in South Africa, Southern Europe, Southern USA and Australia and anywhere else hot; the grasses you use are typically C4 or warm season grass species’. C4 refers to the first stable product of Photosynthesis, which is a 4 carbon sugar molecule. C4 plants use a specialised form of photosynthesis that is particularly suited to warm weather and which bypasses the Photorespiration phase, allowing C4 plants to thrive in very hot temperatures. The cool season grasses that we use in the UK and more northern climes are C3 grasses where the first stable compound of Photosynthesis is a 3 carbon sugar molecule.