Sabot vs. Poa annua

 

It is early spring and your Poa annua on the Sabot is seeding out like crazy. The Poa is there because of the commitment to grow bluegrass on the fairways (and tees). The idea behind "bluemuda" is that there is a never a transition from cool season (bluegrass) to warm season (bermuda). The bluegrass and bermuda grow together well and are not antagonistic like bermuda and rye are. Ideally the bluegrass should come back each fall once the bermuda goes dormant. Last fall, not knowing if the blue would come back or not, we added more bluegrass seed to the fairways. Because of this, no pre-emergent was applied in the fall. No pre-emergent means Poa annua will germinate if the blue doesn't provide enough cover. 

Well, the new bluegrass seed did approximately 0 thanks to an un-invasive seeding process. If we had scalped the fairways down and re-seeded, we would have never known what older bluegrass was going to come back. That combined with massive amounts of golf play and make up events, we chose to just drop the seed into the bermuda canopy. The cover from last years bluegrass crop was also inadequate to crowd out any Poa. If you notice in the picture, the rough is clean and there is an overlapping line from the pre-emergent and post-emergent herbicide spray applied in the rough keeping the edge of the fairway pretty clean. The only reason we are trailing the bluegrass is to give decent playing conditions in January, February and March. We could easily have spotless Vamont bermuda fairways all winter if we chose. Because the Vamont is so thin when dormant, combined with the low lying, wetter winter conditions on Sabot, that surface would probably not be satisfactory. Historically, a ryegrass overseed will yield thin bermuda conditions in the summertime.

On Wednesday we went out to the fairways and applied our spring pre-emergent along with a selective herbicide that will injure the Poa annua but leave the bluegrass alone. After seeding out, the Poa is at its weakest. A herbicide application or two, combined with some warmer spring weather, and lower mowing heights will have the Poa thinned out and the bermuda moving in over the next few weeks. 

The installation of the bluemuda system can take 3-5 years to really be reliable. Dealing with Poa annua early on is certainly a battle. As more bluegrass gets established, the seeding process goes away and pre-emergents can be used regularly to prevent the Poa invasion. As it stands now, this fall we plan to scalp the fairways down again and seed in the bluegrass one more time. We hope this will yield the surface that we were rewarded with in the spring of 2020.

Why can't we just resurface the Sabot fairways (and rough)? Three reasons. Main reason being you do not have an irrigation system adequate enough to grow in any new turf. This is being addressed in November when a brand new system is being put in on the Sabot front nine. The following November the back nine will be completed. The summer of 2023 would be the first available time to install new turf on the Sabot, provided we can stomach closing a course for the summer, and we can budget the money to do it (the other two reasons).

On the tees, we have applied a herbicide that will take all cool season grass out of the bermuda. The tees are dry enough where they can handle golf traffic in the winter while dormant. The Bluemuda experiment is over on the tees.

On the greens it is common to hear about the Poa each spring when the seedheads come out. The older L93 bentgrass is more susceptible to Poa encroachment than the "newer" A1/A4 like what is on the Manakin. Once the seedheads drop, the poa will be generally unnoticeable again. This Poa isn't really increasing, but it is well established on a number of greens throughout the Sabot. In the heat of the summer the Poa can thin out, especially around the edges of the greens. The Poa population, combined with decreased summer vigor and coarse texture leads us to combining a greens resurfacing project with the irrigation renovation this winter.

There is what your new greens for the front nine of the Sabot look like right now. Pure Eclipse bentgrass was seeded one week ago today at Collins Wharf sod farm in Salisbury Maryland. One season of growth will have the turf ready to be cut and then laid down on our existing greens cavities on the front nine of the Sabot around the first week of November. We spec'd out the Pure Eclipse last year and chose it for its amazing density, heat and disease tolerance. Because the bentgrass is cool season turf we can install it during the winter. Come late April 2022 we will be opening the front nine of the Sabot back up with the newest and best greens and irrigation system available.

In the meantime we continue to make head way with drainage, tee resurfacing and master plan improvements. Three new tees were shaped in along the lake on 18 Sabot this week. A cartpath will take you towards the tees and then drop you off into the rough to head towards the fairway. These tees will supply a very interesting option to our finishing hole. They will not be in play every day but serve as an alternate to the original tee set. The rain on Wednesday night delayed our load of sod that was going to finish off 11 tees and cover these tees on 18. We should have these sodded early next week and then will have the path paved in the next 2-3 weeks.

Spring aeration is complete of the Manakin. The same process was followed that was performed on the Sabot. Deep tine aerate, Dryject, core aerate, fertilize, topdress, brush, solid tine aerate, brush 2x, blow off, roll 2x, fertilize, water. Piece of cake.

Tae caught a snapping turtle on Wednesday, he is going to train it to eat Poa!

Hopefully this blog again addresses any questions about the Sabot, please don't hesitate to email or flag us down with any concerns!