The most popular subject in bowling green maintenance is…Green Speed.
The main factors affecting green speed are in order of importance:
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Get back to the basics of thatch and compaction control
Here we go with our next web search term that resulted in someone finding this site.
I picked this one today, because it sounds like this search was instigated by someone who really needs help quickly.
This kind of situation calls for a level headed approach. At times like this, when it appears that all is lost and you feel like digging up the green and starting again, it’s easy to Read more
Spring bowling green renovation should be focussed on 3 main components:
1. the completion of the winter, deep aeration program
2. rejuvenation and aeration of the green surface
3. nutritional corrections
On greens in the non-drought affected areas of the UK, it should still be OK to carry out slit tining.
This is the last time we will get a chance to do this until autumn.
Two final operations with this machine will make all the difference to the greens ability to resist compaction in the early part of the season.
In drier areas, mini solid tining might be preferable and this can be done in addition to the slit tining in other areas.
If you have a thatchy green; identified by spongy turf, disease problems in winter and general poor health; you should scarify the green quite harshly in two directions to remove some of the fibre and mat that has built up over the winter months.
On healthier greens, where over-seeding was carried out last autumn you should avoid heavy scarification.
Lighter verti-cutting can commence once the sward is growing vigorously in May.
A question I get asked a lot is:
“ How much top-dressing should be applied in spring?”
The answer is a resounding “None”
Good luck with your spring bowling green renovation work.
Tomorrow we will have a look at turf nutrition requirements for pre-season
More detailed information on aeration here, thatch here and a range of one page factsheets here
We have had a few queries asking about thatch; actually a few readers asking for a definitive description of thatch and its associated problems, so here it is:
What is it?
Thatch is the name given to the mat of dead roots and shoots that accumulates on the surface of the green. Where moisture, nutrition and cultural practices are optimised for the desired grasses, thatch rarely becomes a problem. However, when soil air content is low, or if drainage is poor and the fertiliser program is not optimised for the prevailing conditions, thatch can become a problem. In severe cases the major root mass might only exist within this layer and this leaves the green susceptible to drying out in summer and to the heads “skinning” (loss of turf cover) in wet weather. Thatch is also a major contributor in the Read more
My post yesterday looked at the huge extent to which the top 100mm (4inches) of our greens have been subjected to sand over the previous 3 or 4 decades.
Today I’d like to elaborate a little on my thinking about taking a green from that state to one of High Performance.
The recovery process is based on encouraging that same top 100mm to return to a state that is akin to a natural, healthy living soil. This of course takes time as we are actually waiting for nature to produce more organic matter to ameliorate the sand to bring the soil back to a state where it can support a large, thriving population of soil microbes.
If you imagine my sketch of the “Circle of Decline” as a water wheel spinning fiercely in a clockwise direction; in other words out of control due to inappropriate maintenance. Each application of sand, pesticide, excessive N fertiliser, etc only serves to set the wheel spinning ever faster in the wrong direction.
The performance greens program is aiming to make the wheel turn in the opposite direction so a lot of the effort at the beginning is simply to slow the wheel down gradually until it is eventually stopped. The program then needs to get the wheel to start turning in the other direction.
Once it starts to turn in the right direction every bit of the correct maintenance program just makes it go faster and faster, so although the recovery process is slow at first, it builds very quickly once things are turned around.
We then start to see the action of what I am going to call the Circle of Improvement due to lack of imagination!
Every ounce of new Read more
