Saturday, August 21, 2010

Jacked Up

Throughout the main play areas on the golf course (greens,tees and fairways) we use PGR's Extensively.  The main purpose of these Plant Growth Regulators are to control growth of the turfgrass.

The regulation of turf growth comes with several side benefits such; increased turf density, increased green speed, reduced mowing frequencies,pre stress conditioning and my favorite Poa Annua control.  Not all growth regulators hurt the Poa, some even help make it stronger which is great for some places but not here. I specifically choose the PGR's  that will hurt the Poa the Most.

This is most evident on the greens and collars right now. The Poa is discolored and sunken down in patches which will allow the Bentgrass to out compete it and over time encroach back into the space occupied by the Poa Annua.  This is a long term process that takes many years to  fully realize the success of the program.


The picture below shows and area on a collar where Poa Annua, Ryegrass and Bentgrass all reside.  The visual effect of chemical regulation on the different grass types shows itself very differently on each of the plant species.      

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