Turfgrass Melting Pot

Arriving at Hartefeld over a year ago and taking inventory, the turfgrass melting pot that exist across the property quickly became a top priority. This exists across the entire property, from greens and tees to fairways and native areas. The fairways particularly had a wide variety of turgrass species. These species were Perennial Ryegrass, Creeping Bentgrass, Poa annua and some Kentucky Bluegrass; the predominant species is Ryegrass. Managing a melting pot of turfgrass can be expensive, particularly managing a population of Bentgrass and Ryegrass in the same fairway. Each of these grasses have their own management nuances which doesn't make them favorable to populate the same turf stand. Poa annua being the easiest to control with an aggressive growth regulator program along with proper water management, we started there. We have had great success with our Poa erradication!

The next step was Creeping Bentgrass. This was going to be a bit more difficult. Our IPM and BMP programs developed to manage towards the P. Rye is also favorable to bentgrass. In order to eradicate our bentgrass we need to use specific herbicides and we need to use them when the bentgrass would be under stress, summer time. Last week we made the first of three herbicide applications to eradicate the bentgrass. This herbicide also controls several broadleaf and annual weeds, crabgrass is an example.

The pictures below are of 13 fairway. You can see the bentgrass has begun to decline after only 6 days. 13 and 17 fairways have the highest bentgrass populations, therefore will not visually be favorable, but playability will not be disrupted. We have overseeded these fairways last fall and will continue to overseed the worst areas of bentgrass decline through this entire process.

Close up of bentgrass decline from herbicide.

Photo of 13 fairway.