Research Articles continued
ULTRADWARF BERMUDAGRASS PUTTING GREENS in the Transition Zone Virginia Tech Researcher: Mike Goatley Jr., Ph.D., Extension Turfgrass Specialist, Dept. of Crop and Soil Environmental Science Sponsors: The Virginia Turfgrass Foundation and The Virginia Agriculture Council
The
Nottoway River Country Club in Blackstone, VA, is a limited-budget, nine-hole facility that repeatedly had issues with its push-up, native-soil creeping bentgrass putting greens during the stress periods of the summer. In fall 2007, the greens committee asked me to attend one of their club meetings regarding the challenges they faced each year with their greens. After I provided my thoughts on the pros and cons of ultradwarf bermudagrass greens for their facility, two of the committee’s most active members, Dan Irby and Ray Smart, set about gathering all the information they could regarding the cultivars and how they might fit their situation. The decision to convert was made in spring 2008, and MiniVerde was rowplanted into glyphosate-treated greens in mid-July of that year. The course reopened after Labor Day in 2008. To date, here are my observations
and some management data provided by Mr. Irby and Mr. Smart through the first full year of use. • Turfgrass covers for the ultradwarf greens are a necessity in this climate, and the NRCC staff purchased turf blankets to protect their investment. The greens were covered a total of eight times from November to April of 2008–2009. They likely should have been covered another 7 to 10 nights, based on temperatures that actually occurred, but no winter kill was observed. Covering events were essentially doubled for the winter of 2009–2010. The practice putting green was not covered at all during the winter of 2008–09, yet it survived, emerging approximately three weeks later from dormancy than the covered greens. • Water use was reduced by approximately 300% in 2009, compared to previous requirements. Hand-watering was almost eliminated, whereas
A MiniVerde bermudagrass green at Nottoway River Country Club, as it fully emerged from winter dormancy on May 11, 2009. 12 | VIRGINIA TURFGRASS JOURNAL May/June 2010 www.vaturf.org
the bentgrass had required three to four hours of hand-watering per day during the summer. • Chemical expenditures were reduced approximately 60%. • The biggest change in management strategy has been the need to perform more regular, light topdressings. The course superintendent can now manage the entire golf course during the summer, rather than spending almost every hour on the greens. • The club’s membership is very pleased with both the playability of the new greens and the cost savings.
Summary Creeping bentgrass will (and should) remain as the predominant putting green turf for most Virginia golf courses. However, particularly for facilities with native-soil greens and limited resources/manpower, the new generation of ultradwarf bermudagrasses offer an intriguing option. (For those of you who came to this year’s conference and participated in the 50th anniversary celebration, did you catch the part in our review of the 1960s that almost all golf greens in Virginia were common bermudagrass?! Maybe bermudagrass greens aren’t so crazy after all.) One big unknown looms for this spring — what are the effects of the extreme winter of 2009–10? Winterkill has been and always will be “predictably unpredictable,” as its occurrence often has nothing to do with the caliber of the course, its management, etc. This winter will provide some answers to the suitability of ultradwarf bermudagrass in the southern Piedmont of Virginia.