SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/107950
FieldScience Getting faster turf recovery coming out of winter Editor's note: We asked some top-of-their-game STMA members about strategies they employ to help their fields recover from winter more quickly. Here are the questions: 1. What's your experience with fertility strategies coming out of winter? 2. What's your experience in controlling any winter diseases you've seen? 3. What topdressing materials do you use? Why those particular materials? 4. If you overseed, what's your advice on removing the overseeded grasses? GRANT SPEAR, CSFM Athletic Fields Supervisor University of Nevada, Las Vegas Winter in Las Vegas typically means dormant bermudagrass fields for 3-4 months. If a field is not overseeded, the bermudagrass will start to slowly grow in March. Fertilizing with a 3/4 to 1 pound N per thousand square feet and 4% Fe in late March or early April following topdressing with sand or better yet, sand with 20 to 30% peat helps to speed things along (the darker the topdressing, the better). Of course longer days and 80+ degree highs and 60+ lows help much more. I have yet to see any disease issues other than physical damage from excessive use of a dormant field when it's wet in the winter. Overseeded fields behave and are treated differently here. Typically, ryegrass remains green but grows very little for us after mid-November until the end of January. Topdressing with a dark sand helps a little but most fertilizer seems to have very little effect until the days get longer in early February. Late January, I start fertilizing overseeded turf at about 3/4 pound of N per thousand square feet with about 4% Fe every 3-4 weeks until about a month before I want to transition the turf back to bermudagrass. The bermudagrass base turf is much slower coming back when competing with perennial ryegrass, but by late May it's usually coming back. Depending on field use in May through the end of June we spur the bermudagrass along by controlling the water to stress the ryegrass and lowering the mowing height from 1" to 3/4" or from 5/8" to 5/16" on infield turf. Heavier applications of urea (1-1.5 lbs N per thousand square feet) add to the stress on the rye and speed the encroaching bermudagrass. If more complete, quick removal of the rye is optimal and adequate time is available for the bermudagrass to grow, transitioning herbicides like Monument and Revolver are the way to go. One week after treatment, I start to hit it with fertilizer again. JEFF HAAG Sports Turf Specialist John Carroll University, University Heights, OH Currently I try to avoid making any fertilization application in this region until late April so that I don't deplete the carbohydrate reserves I have built up heading into winter for our cool-season grass. If there would be a need to apply any I would try to limit it strictly to recovery areas and not as a blanket application for an entire field. I do apply a dormant fertilization application to continue to store carbohydrates for the following spring and summer the last week of November. Last year it was applied on November 26. 22 SportsTurf | February 2013 In this part of the country (outside Cleveland) the main concern is pink snow mold; however, here at John Carroll we do not apply any fungicides to any of the athletic fields. But when I was the golf course superintendent/sports turf manager at Bowling Green State University, I applied a tank mixture of iprodione (Chipco 26GT) and Daconil (chlorothalonil) as a preventive for pink snow mold with great success. I topdress using a coarse USGA spec sand because the coarser grade allows for better drainage. Since we have cool-season grasses here at John Carroll we do not have to overseed. When I was at the University of Louisville we overseeded the bermuda fields with perennial rye, and found that the product Katana removed the rye the quickest and with minimal turf discoloration. CHRIS "BUTTER" BALL Sports Turf Manager Gwinnett Braves (GA) Typically we load up our bermuda with potassium for the winter. We usually apply 1-1.5 lbs of N all winter, typically done with one granular app, supplemented by foliars. In the Southeast it has been rare the last few years that the bermuda has gone totally dormant, in my opinion, which really helps as the weather starts to turn. We start the spring by lowering the mowing heights on our ryegrass, and applying small but frequent amounts of N as soon as the air temp breaks 65-70 and our bermuda starts to show signs of life. Most of the winter diseases we see in the Southeast are on our ryegrass. Preventative apps of broad spectrum fungicides made starting in late January and early February, usually do the trick. We also are on a phosphate program that has been a large piece of our puzzle the past few years. I also believe it is a must that getting your potassium built up in late summer and all fall is a vital to a healthy transition. We typically use a sand for topdressing that is very similar to our rootzone base. We are 100% sand and have found a source that matches our rootzone very, very closely. We also topdress with green sand in thin and wear areas as needed. Kiln-dried green sand is a must in our program. We do overseed, (unfortunately) due to some of the February and March games we play. My philosophy the past 10 years or so has been to go out late and very light with our ryegrass seed. Last year (2011) we were close to 5lbs/M and this year (2102) we are at 4-4.5lbs/M. We do not take the rye out chemically for transition. We start to drop the mowing heights as soon as possible (late March-early April) typically from 5/8" to 1/2". When our team is on the road for an extended period of time we will often take our turf down to 3/8". We will apply a polycoated N-P-K granular and really start to pour our foliar program to our turf by spraying small amounts of N every 7-10 days. We also use green pigments as much as possible to draw heat into the plant and start to aerify with small solid tines as much as possible early during transition, while large core aerification is done in June, July, August, and September. Frequent light topdressings also help us push our transition. www.sportsturfonline.com