Practical reestablishement of golf greens following winter damages - A field study

Abstract

Dead greens in spring due to winterkill is common on Nordic golf courses. The objective of this research was to evaluate drop seeding, spike seeding and slit seeding of creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.‘007’) and rough bluegrass (Poa trivialis L.) in comparison with an unseeded control treatment for reestablishment of annual bluegrass (Poa annua L.) putting greens after winterkill. Three trials were conducted on golf courses in Central Sweden (60–61° N, 15–16° E 70–170 m a.s.l.); two in 2017 with soil temperatures varying from 6 to 16 °C during the trial period, and one in 2018 with temperatures varying from 13 to 26 °C. On average for the three trials, turfgrass coverage 4 and 6 wk after seeding was better with spike seeding or slit seeding than with drop seeding which was not different from the unseeded control. Creeping bent grass and rough bluegrass coverage did not differ on average for three trials but slit seeded rough bluegrass had better coverage after 4 wk than any of the other treatments on average for the two trials in 2017. Together with the evaluation of seed mixtures in the SCANGREEN program, this research shows that slit seeding of rough bluegrass can be recommended for faster recovery of winterkilled annual bluegrass greens in central and northern parts of the Nordic countries. Rough bluegrass can either be seeded alone to enable faster golf course opening, or it can be seeded in mixture with creeping bentgrass as part of a long-term strategy to replace annual bluegrass with creeping bentgrass.