With the recent heat wave that has been on us and the new record high of 109F, our staff has been out in full force hand watering greens everyday. During these stressful times every second counts when hand watering greens. Each staff member is trained to look for stressed areas on the green and apply water accordingly. Over the past week the staff has steadily mist the greens with water to give a temporary cooling, just as humans sweat. A misted green’s temperature can drop by 10 degrees for a short period of time providing some aid from the heat.
There will be some changes you will be able to notice during this time. To help relieve stress, a couple of argonimic practices will be used. First off, green’s heights are raised slightly to allow more leaf tissue to generate for photosynthesis (production of food from sunlight), frequency of mowing greens is reduced and rolling greens is more often. Another practice is venting, which was performed recently. Venting greens is opening small holes across the greens to allow gas exchange through the root zone. During this process carbon dioxide in the green escapes and oxygen enters the root zone to allow roots to function. These are just a few of the major practices used to reduce stress on bentgrass during the heat.
Please be patient as our staff works through the heat hand watering greens. Each staff member is trained with time factors in mind for bentgrass survival. Allowing the staff to get on the green in a timely manner could be the difference in survival.
