Bent and winter

Sledge – posted 21 December 2004 13:54

Plugging bent greens during cold (not frozen) season = Poa invasion. True or false?

cohiba – posted 21 December 2004 17:20

The problem is poa, but more importantly is the fact that the greens will not heal until the ground has warmed up. Poa will fill the spots first in the early spring. We wait until mid May (in southern NJ) before we aerate. We also wait until the bent is actively growing before we start the process.

Good Luck……………

Sledge – posted 23 December 2004 09:36

I’m in Guadalajara, Mexico, Altitude 5500ft, Temp range 41-66, (cold for here) so the bent (Penn A4) is doing very well. The local courses do not recommend plugging at this time for fear of bring on the Poa. My greens are the only pure bent greens (newly constructed USGA Spec) in the entire area, all the others are a mix of Bermuda,Bent,Tiff,Poa,Heinze 57, you name it. I’m new to this zone so are they correct?Thanks.

cohiba – posted 27 December 2004 09:57

Sledge,

I feel that as long as your bentgrass greens are growing, I mean aggresively growing, you can aerate them. If these are new greens, with 100% bent, do you need to aerate? The question is if you are aerating because of thatch, why not skip the plugs and verticut and topdress? If you are on USGA spec greens the rootzone should not be compacting. Unless you have water and traffic issues. But also remember, that any compaction should be restricted to the top inch or so. Do you have access to a quadratine? Or better yet a hydroject?

Also think about trying a chemical called “Velocity” when you get poa. It is expensive and not labeled for greens in the USA but may be used in Mexico. Check with your local government to see if there are restrictions. I just came back from a convention on turf issues and one of the talks was about this chemical “Velocity” and how well it works on bentgrass fairways. The major problem with its use is taht guys are having trouble determining how much bentgrass they actually have. When they use the Velocity they are killing off way more poa than they thought they had.

Take care and good luck with those greens.

Happy New Year!…………………….