How To Stay Green In The Winter

We have been very pleased with our new grasses on the course throughout the winter so far, as they have maintained color and resiliency even through the coldest stretch of the season. One of the factors we took into consideration when selecting new turf for the renovation was their cold weather tolerance. Most warm season grasses shut down and enter dormancy during this time of year. There are many reasons why selected the Celebration and Champion varieties, one of them being their ability to retain color and recuperative ability. We also incorporated several different strategies to help our turf sustain, and to ensure that we did not lose any of our playing surfaces. Our weekly foliar sprays were adjusted to provide the greens with a more appropriate nutrient package necessary to survive cold stress and enhance a darker color to retain higher temperatures. We also used a black topdressing sand as another way to retain heat. You may have noticed since last weekend that the greens went through a substantial color change and growth flush after only a few days of temperatures near the 80's. This rapid natural response is not only a sign that the greens are strong and active, but also a sign that we can look forward to a quick and easy transition into the active growing stages of spring and summer.

Good color for early February!

Only isolated rough areas saw any effects of frost

From 4 green- lush, healthy leaves!

# 3 Continues to Improve

Since the re-opening of the course in October, our approach to maintaining hole #3 has been slightly different than the rest of the course. You may recall some areas being slower to fill in and develop than others, mainly just beyond the tees and a few areas in the fairway. We ultimately determined that the largest contributing factor to this issue was a slight buildup of toxicity in the soil profile that was holding back plant development. We initially applied a wide variety of fertilizers to encourage the sprigs to fill in all the way, but after seeing a less than desirable response, we applied charcoal to test the possibility that there may be an issue of toxicity. Charcoal works by neutralizing these toxic materials within the soil profile, and in our case showed a vast improvement in our problem areas. We will continue to monitor these areas and make both charcoal and fertilizer applications as necessary to promote growth and development in the future.

The right side beyond the ladies tee showing improvement

Root structure overall continues to gain strength and density

An area where charcoal was applied is filling in nicely