Cut those spores away!

As we are in to the peak months for disease pressure, how do we keep our surfaces clean of those dreaded parasites? We all hear about using the right cultural practises such as aeration, dew removal and fertility reduction; Basically anything that will dry out the surface and keep it lean. But what about cutting heights? We are always told to increase them at this time of year, but could keeping them tight help in our IPM programme against disease pressure?

Over the last few years I have caused quite a stir with my revolutionary cutting height recommendations. Without giving numbers my theory is to keep them tight 12 months of the year. This will not only help with the playability of putting surfaces through better ball roll and increased speeds but also may help from an agronomic view point as well.

When I was a young assistant I enrolled at my local college. One of the most important things taught was cutting height. Suggested heights ranged from 4mm in the summer months up to 5 or 6mm in the winter months. This was very conservative and on entering the real world I soon found out that it was nonsense. Visiting top courses and viewing great putting surfaces I soon gathered that their cutting heights were far lower. 3mm or less seemed to be the norm so I started to experiment with these sorts of cutting heights in the summer months. What about the autumn and winter months? What should we do here? ‘Get those heights up’ I hear the agronomists cry!

In my opinion too many turf managers are setting cutting heights by the calendar. As soon as the clocks go back, the heights go up. But sitting in my office this morning at 7am looking at my weather station it is telling me 12 degrees in London. So why increase them? ‘Because we always do it at this time of year’ would be the answer. But is this right? Could keeping those heights tight during the autumn months actually help against disease pressure?

As well as improving the playability of greens, keeping those heights tight can help with your agronomics as well. Organic matter build up is less as there is less leaf mass to break down and more importantly for this time of year, the sward will be drier as less moisture is able to build up in the sward. So often I see greens where the heights have been increased and spores are just sitting there in the turf canopy ready to attack. By decreasing the sward length you might find that you are able to keep disease at bay for longer periods.

Keep those greens tight during the autumn months

So when you are planning your autumn maintenance programmes, think about your cutting heights. Keeping them at your summer heights might not only improve your putting surfaces but improve your IPM as well.

How Smooth Are You?

The first question I get as a turf manager from members and visitors is 'What speed are they today?' and it's very true, speed matters a great deal to golfers. Golfers generally love quick greens. When have you ever heard a golfer say, 'Wow those greens were amazing, they were so slow!'. Not often I bet. However, for us turf managers, while speed is important (especially for bragging rights), smoothness is undoubtedly the key ingredient for top quality greens.

Personally, I hate slow greens. As a former decent golfer (yes, I used to hit a fairway once), if I went to play a golf course where the greens were sluggish I would be counting down the holes waiting for the 18th to get off the course. But far worse than this were quick, bumpy greens that you used to get in the English springtime with those northerly winds. A round in March when the greens were lightning fast but bumpy, would produce putting strokes where, if you watched carefully, you could just about see a backswing! So for me, even though I still detest slow greens, if they are true they remain superior to quick bumpy ones.

So now that we have established that smoothness matters and rates above speed, how do we measure it?

As I reported in my September blog 'Greens Performance - Are you measuring it?' the STRI brought a tool out a couple of years ago called the 'trueness meter'. The device is outstanding, giving precise data on lateral and horizontal movements of the putting surface. The R & A now use it for The Open Championship to record smoothness data. The only problem with this tool is cost. At present, according to an STRI agronomist, it costs £12,000 to purchase. So unless you have a spare £12k knocking around in your course budget, how do you measure smoothness? I've come up with a system that might just allow you to do so for a cost of a stimpmeter (£50), 3 golf balls (£10) and the golfer's golden rule, no cheating!.

I collate data on my greens regularly. Everything from organic matter levels to percolation rates is measured. I also perform weekly performance tests where I measure speed and on course actual cutting heights with a prism gauge. It was during this time with a stimp meter that I started to think about how I could rate ball roll. So I implemented a system based on a 10 point scoring system:

• Go to a flattish location on one of your greens where the hole cup is (try to keep to the same green weekly if you can).



• Measure a distance of around 6 feet (don't go under this distance but if the greens are quick you will have to go further away).



• Place the stimpmeter on a small bracket so that it is angled around 25%. A small bucket (as shown) or an old hole cup will do.



• Send the ball down naturally allowing for it to finish 1 foot behind the hole. Once you have this measurement then you are at your optimum distance (remember, it must be greater than 6 feet).



• Now adjust the meter so that the ball travels in to the centre of the hole on a regular basis. This may mean that the meter is facing the right lip position for example so that it takes a slight break and drops in the middle of the hole.
  
  Once you have done this you are now ready for the test. Send down 10 balls and score accordingly:



• 1 point if it finishes in the centre of the hole, 1/2 a point if it goes in the right or left half and zero points if the ball misses.



• After 10 balls you should have a score out of 10. So for example if you sent down 10 balls, with 8 going in the middle, 1 slotting in the right half and 1 missing, you score 8.5 out of 10, a perfectly reasonable score. On the other hand, if you send down 10 balls and 3 go in the middle, 3 in the right half, 1 in the left half and 3 miss, you have only scored 5 out of 10, so get that top-dresser out to smooth those greens a bit.

This system may not be as scientific as the STRI's trueness meter, but it certainly costs a lot less! If you did start to implement this system on a weekly basis I bet your life that very quickly you will see how good or smooth your greens are. Either way, just like speed, measuring smoothness is a crucial element in judging how your greens perform on a daily/weekly basis. Your golfers demand it!

Who's the Boss of the Moss?

One of the hot topics (as well as hollow coring) this summer has been moss. In particular moss on greens. I've visited lots of courses this season, speaking with many turf managers and a very high percentage have had a huge battle with moss this season with silver thread moss being the chief culprit. However, my own course, a wet, clay based parkland course surrounded by trees, has been totally free of any type of moss for the last five seasons. Why? By rights, my course should be perfect for moss to invade. I do the same as most other greenkeepers. I aerate and sand dress as much as other guys, but the two things that some greenkeepers may not be as aggressive with are my very tight height of cut (2mm) and weekly spoon feeds. Could this be it?

My key for a top greens' surface, or any playing surface to think of it is density. Creating tight, firm swards is crucial to producing top quality playing surfaces. To achieve this, on top of good cultural practises, I believe in a low cutting height and frequent spoon feeds at very low rates, just keeping the plant ticking along nicely. The tightest swards that I have seen with the greatest shoot density have been the modern creeping bents and the good old fashioned perennial poa (which incidentally is seen as a weed by certain traditionalists). Cut low, the swards get so tight on these surfaces that sometimes you have to verti-cut just to get a granular feed in to the canopy. Moss doesn't stand a chance of breaking into these swards.

We all now accept that the excessive fertility inputs of the past have no place in a modern maintenance programme as they produce soft, spongy, disease ridden surfaces that are terrible to putt on. But have today's turf managers gone too far the other way? In certain circumstances, I believe so. The heavy ammonia granular feeds of yesteryear may have produced carpet like swards and because they were so dense they did keep out the moss. However, to help gain speed on longer heights of cuts, fertility has been heavily reduced in certain turf programmes. This has produced weaker swards ideal for pests like moss to gain an advantage. This is where I think frequent spoon feeding has a place in a modern turf programme.

With frequent, light rates, spoon feeding can give you a sward that is growing at a controlled rate. The advantages of this are increased speed and smoother ball roll as growth is controlled but, more importantly for moss control, a stronger sward that helps to suffocate this pest out.

I don't assume that I have the total answer to the question of moss, but having thought about it over the past few months I ask you to consider that there may be a link between cutting heights and fertility. What goes without question is that the greater the sward density, the more chance you have of keeping moss at bay. If you have reduced your fertility over the last few years and seen a dramatic increase in moss, try upping the fertility levels again. It may be as simple as that!