late in the afternoon. Late afternoon irrigation touch-ups could have been the difference between turf life and death.
3. Once it’s gone, moderation and consistency is the key to recovery I’ve never actually quoted myself before, but from a tweet I posted on July 13, “trying to revive what’s already lost with excess water right now will probably only result in the living joining the recently departed.” The point of this snappy tweet was simply to emphasize that over watering following severe wilt/ death won’t bring back the dead any sooner or as Dr. Lee Miller from the Univ. of Missouri described it, “If the soil is wet during the heat of the day, boiled root soup occurs.” Moderate, consistent amounts of irrigation will aid in recovery, not excessively saturating the soils.
5. Wetting agents are invaluable Wetting agents are commonly used on many golf courses, but as I toured low-budget public courses this summer, more than once I thought that if they could have added a wetting agent to their program it would have made a huge difference this year. Many courses struggle with aging irrigation systems and lack the resources and personnel to syringe
throughout the day, for these courses wetting agents could be a huge help in reducing localized dry spots on putting greens. It’s been a tough summer, hopefully the autumn will be a time for the turf and you to recover.
4. Mow, roll, alternate and repeat Many superintendents have used an alternating mow and roll schedule during high stress periods. Skipping a mow and replacing with a roll gives the turf a break from mowing stress and possibly a little more leaf surface to enhance photosynthesis while at the same time not significantly reducing green speed.
Course Conditions
| Summer 2018
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