Functional Turf Qualities. Performance Evaluation of the Bowling Green Part 7.

So far in this series of articles on the Performance Evaluation of the Bowling Green we have looked mainly to visual clues to ascertain the likely performance attributes of the turf. To some extent, these visual clues can only be appraised subjectively; one man’s deep green might not be the same as another’s after all. Although it might be interesting, I don’t think we have enough time to get any deeper into anthropology or philosophy here 🙂

So, in the face of this potential for subjectivity what can we do to take our study of green performance further? Fortunately there are a series of functional turf qualities that we can look at in order to come up with a more tangible assessment of the factors that influence bowling green performance.

First of all we’ll take a closer look at these features one at a time over the next few articles and then we’ll look at some of the latest developments in the industry that can help us put numbers on these factors, but first of all, what are they?

The functional turf qualities we can appraise are as follows:

Rigidity: a measure of the rigidity of the individual grass plants.
Elasticity: the ability of grass plants to bounce back after impact.
Resiliency: a feature of the turf as a whole, including the thatch layer.
Yield: how much grass are you collecting and what does this tell us?
Verdure: what’s left behind after mowing?
Rooting: the vigour, mass and depth of rooting.
Recuperative Potential: how hardy are your grass plants and how well do they recover from environmental stresses?

For now, try to have a think about these factors on your green and go back to your soil sampling findings to see if anything stands out from that process.

Next time we’ll get started on appraising these functional qualities of the green starting with Rigidity.