North Carolina Turfgrass – Ron Alexander, R. Alexander Associates, Inc.

Managing North Carolina soils in order to grow healthy turf can be difficult. In the eastern part of the state, we have sandy, droughty soils, which are low in organic matter, nutrients and nutrient holding capacity (cation exchange capacity). In most of the rest of the state, we have to contend with fine textured soils, high in clay and silt content. While these soils can hold water and plant nutrients, they are also easy to compact and poor in water acceptance and percolation. Further, when they are dry, they can become extremely hard.

Of course, there is an inexpensive tool that turf managers and landscape contractors can use to improve soil quality, thereby assisting them in establishing, renovating and maintaining high quality and utility turf areas. At the same time, this tool is economical to use and extremely functional. The tool (product) is called compost. Aside from being readily available and consistent in quality, compost use in turf applications has been well researched, proving it to be a highly effective product for improving turf growth and soil health. By improving ‘soil health’ through the addition of stabilized organic matter, we can not only improve plant growth, but also improve the sustainability of landscapes.

Compost provides many benefits to the soil, the plants, the environment and to the pocketbook of the end user. It is readily available in most parts of North Carolina and its use should be considered for all of your projects. Excellent compost products are produced by both the City of Raleigh (919-625-3175) and Mecklenburg County (704-621-7372). Compost is manufactured through the controlled aerobic, biological decomposition of biodegradable materials. The product has undergone mesophilic and thermophilic temperatures, which significantly reduces the viability of pathogens and weed seeds and stabilizes the carbon such that it is beneficial to plant growth. Compost is typically used as a soil amendment but may also contribute plant nutrients.

Compost Benefits

As previously mentioned, the use of compost can provide many soil benefits which in turn enhance plant growth. It can improve the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the soil in which it is blended. To illustrate the various benefits of compost, the most commonly identified ones are outlined below. It should be noted that all of these benefits are well documented through university research.

1 Improves soil structure and porosity — creating a better plant root environment

2 Increases moisture infiltration and permeability, and reduces bulk density of heavy soils — improving moisture infiltration rates and reducing erosion and runoff

3 Improves the moisture holding capacity of light soils — reducing water loss and nutrient leaching, and improving moisture retention

4 Provides plant nutrients

5 Improves the cation exchange capacity (CEC) of soils — improving their ability to retain nutrients for plant use

6 Supplies organic matter

7 Supplies beneficial microorganisms to soils and assists in their proliferation

8 May encourage biological disease suppression

9 Encourages vigorous root growth

10 Allows plants to more effectively utilize nutrients, while reducing nutrient loss by leaching

11 Enables soils to retain nutrients longer

12 Contains humus (humic substances) — assisting in soil aggregation and making nutrients more available for plant uptake

Turf Applications

The classic landscape construction project usually starts with an area of land that has been stripped of true (native) topsoil. Frequently, the general contractor sells off or improperly stores the topsoil from the construction site, rendering it unavailable or of questionable quality. The classic remedy for this situation has been to specify the importation of topsoil removed...

Arkansas Turfgrass – Arkansas Turfgrass Association

Burns Park Golf Course: Municipal Golf Course of the Year

Burns Park Golf Course is a 36-hole, full service, public facility located along the Arkansas River in North Little Rock Arkansas. As part of the 1700-acre Burns Park, the two golf courses encompass approximately 160 acres and are operated by the City of North Little Rock. The Championship Course was designed and built in 1958 and the Tournament Course was redesigned and opened in 1995. Burns Park offers two inexpensive, well maintained and challenging courses for the public.

In 2014, Dustin McNaughton was hired as the Golf Course Superintendent. In 2016, the mayor appointed a new Director of Parks and Recreation with the goal of making Burns Park Golf Course the best public course the State. With the new energy and fresh ideas, the courses have improved dramatically over the past 5–6 years.

Spring and early summer of 2019 proved to be a very trying time for many golf courses in the area and Burns Park was no exception. Extremely wet conditions and the prediction of the Arkansas River reaching flood stages altered plans for the golf course. Close monitoring of river conditions and anticipated record flooding put all City employees on Emergency Alert.

The course remained open and playable through Memorial Day (May 27th) but was forced to shut down completely at noon on June 1st as the flood waters crossed the road leading to the course. By the time the river crested, much of the course was under water, including 11 greens.

As soon as the water started to recede, and damage could be assessed, maintenance personnel began the task of cleaning up. Priority number one was to remove debris, sand and river silt from the greens that had been submerged.

As the sun dried the course, the final layers of silt were removed from the course by verti-cutting, heavy raking and brushing. The greens that had been under water were damaged and put on an aggressive fertilization schedule and within 30 days all but parts of two greens had made a full recovery.

In case the flooding wasn’t enough, in mid-June, with still wet conditions, heavy winds uprooted several huge trees and left debris throughout the course again.

Several golf courses in our area have recently closed, but with the knowledge and hard work of our Golf Course Superintendent and the hard work of a relatively small maintenance crew, Burns Park Golf Course is improving and thriving.

 

Cypress Creek Golf Club: Semi-Private Golf Course of the Year

Cypress Creek Golf Club is a public golf club that features Zoysia tees and fairways along with TifEagle Bermuda greens and 419 Bermuda rough. Utilizing five different sets of tee boxes for players of all skill sets and offering a variety of different membership options, Cypress Creek also welcomes the general public to come and play. While open year-round, we orchestrate several tournaments through the year while also investing in Junior golfers to attend different events during the season to spark their interest in the game. Target clientele ranges from young to old, members and nonmembers, families and children as well as couples. We arrange weekly scrambles and honor our veterans with tournaments throughout the year.

Amenities include our revamped fleet of Club Car golf carts equipped with state-of-the-art touchscreen GPS to enable the golfer to quantify yardages from tee to green and help gain the most precision out of their game. Staff includes a certified Club Professional on site, always able to troubleshoot and diagnose your swing with personal lessons. A transformed clubhouse offers everything from apparel, balls, bags, and gloves to food and a full-service bar. A friendly staff is found waiting and prepared to make sure you find everything you need. Their aim is to ensure the guest have the best experience possible.

Mississippi Turfgrass – Barry Stewart, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Sports Turf Science, Mississippi State University

Unlike most other crops, turfgrass soils are rarely exposed to tillage and therefore many turfgrass soils become compacted due to traffic. Our cultivation program is our best defense against soil compaction and the myriad of problems it can cause. In turfgrass, nearly everything we do — mowing, fertilizing, topdressing, rolling, playing games, etc. — happens on the horizontal plane. Turfgrass cultivation is one of the few things that happens on the vertical plane (I borrowed this from Dr. Trey Rogers at Michigan State). As we maintain and use turf soils, downward forces are applied and soil particles are pushed closer together. Soil pores, particularly macropores, are eliminated and the bulk density of the soil increases. If we think of an “ideal soil” we think of one that has 50% pore space and 50% solid space. When we consider that quartz is the dominant mineral in soils, then our ideal soil would have a bulk density of 1.33 g/cm3 given that the density of quartz is 2.65 g/cm3 (83 lbs/ft3). A bulk density range of 1.2 to 1.5 g/cm3 is a good working range for healthy turfgrass. Once bulk densities creep above 1.6 g/cm3 root growth begins to be affected and at bulk densities above 1.9 g/cm3 root growth nearly stops. Roots are not drills, they grow in the pore space, and compacted soils have less and less pore space, particularly macropore space and therefore limited root growth.

The second benefit of cultivation is the control of thatch and organic matter accumulation. In cultivation we break up the organic material accumulating at the turf surface. Sometimes the material is removed when we harvest the cores after aerifying or sweep up the clippings after we vertical mow or fraze mow. By keeping the rootzone in a favorable state of aeration, organic matter accumulation will be kept to a minimum as oxidation will proceed at its maximum rate. As organic matter accumulates and compaction happens, the rootzone is less well-aerated and organic matter decomposition slows down and organic matter accumulation increases. This leads to more moisture being held in the soil making it more vulnerable to compaction, and we begin on a downward spiral in which turf cover is lost. Topdressing is another tool in this battle with organic matter accumulation and will be the subject of a future article.

This article is written with warm season grasses in mind. The need for cultivation will vary with grass type and soil type. In general, native soils have a greater need for cultivation than sand-based soils. It is ironic that sand-based turf is more likely to receive cultivation than a native soil, but this is probably not surprising given the cost to establish and maintain grass on sand construction. Bermudagrass and zoysiagrass make up the vast majority of sport turf surfaces and require more cultivation. Some St. Augustine and centipede grass that receives traffic may also need occasional cultivation, but this should be done carefully. To ensure rapid recovery from any cultural practice mowing, make sure we have temperatures favorable for turf growth, 70 degree nights or 150 days with plenty of water available.

Core Cultivation / Hollow Tine Cultivation

Hollow tine cultivation is the cornerstone of any cultivation program. It should be a “showstopper” in that it should be a scheduled event. My mind’s picture of the benefit of core cultivation is that as our turfgrass soil becomes compacted, the elevation of our surface would decline. When we pull cores, we create a new large pore (the hole) and bring material back to the surface. As the cores are broken up and drug back into the holes not all of the material will fit into the holes and some will remain on the surface adding elevation to the surface. If the cores are collected and new material is top-dressed onto the site,

Arkansas Turfgrass – Barry Stewart, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Sports Turf Science, Mississippi State University

Unlike most other crops, turfgrass soils are rarely exposed to tillage and therefore many turfgrass soils become compacted due to traffic. Our cultivation program is our best defense against soil compaction and the myriad of problems it can cause. In turfgrass, nearly everything we do — mowing, fertilizing, topdressing, rolling, playing games, etc. — happens on the horizontal plane. Turfgrass cultivation is one of the few things that happens on the vertical plane (I borrowed this from Dr. Trey Rogers at Michigan State). As we maintain and use turf soils, downward forces are applied and soil particles are pushed closer together. Soil pores, particularly macropores, are eliminated and the bulk density of the soil increases. If we think of an “ideal soil” we think of one that has 50% pore space and 50% solid space. When we consider that quartz is the dominant mineral in soils, then our ideal soil would have a bulk density of 1.33 g/cm3 given that the density of quartz is 2.65 g/cm3 (83 lbs/ft3). A bulk density range of 1.2 to 1.5 g/cm3 is a good working range for healthy turfgrass. Once bulk densities creep above 1.6 g/cm3 root growth begins to be affected and at bulk densities above 1.9 g/cm3 root growth nearly stops. Roots are not drills, they grow in the pore space, and compacted soils have less and less pore space, particularly macropore space and therefore limited root growth.

The second benefit of cultivation is the control of thatch and organic matter accumulation. In cultivation we break up the organic material accumulating at the turf surface. Sometimes the material is removed when we harvest the cores after aerifying or sweep up the clippings after we vertical mow or fraze mow. By keeping the rootzone in a favorable state of aeration, organic matter accumulation will be kept to a minimum as oxidation will proceed at its maximum rate. As organic matter accumulates and compaction happens, the rootzone is less well-aerated and organic matter decomposition slows down and organic matter accumulation increases. This leads to more moisture being held in the soil making it more vulnerable to compaction, and we begin on a downward spiral in which turf cover is lost. Topdressing is another tool in this battle with organic matter accumulation and will be the subject of a future article.

This article is written with warm season grasses in mind. The need for cultivation will vary with grass type and soil type. In general, native soils have a greater need for cultivation than sand-based soils. It is ironic that sand-based turf is more likely to receive cultivation than a native soil, but this is probably not surprising given the cost to establish and maintain grass on sand construction. Bermudagrass and zoysiagrass make up the vast majority of sport turf surfaces and require more cultivation. Some St. Augustine and centipede grass that receives traffic may also need occasional cultivation, but this should be done carefully. To ensure rapid recovery from any cultural practice mowing, make sure we have temperatures favorable for turf growth, 70 degree nights or 150 days with plenty of water available.

Core Cultivation / Hollow Tine Cultivation

Hollow tine cultivation is the cornerstone of any cultivation program. It should be a “showstopper” in that it should be a scheduled event. My mind’s picture of the benefit of core cultivation is that as our turfgrass soil becomes compacted, the elevation of our surface would decline. When we pull cores, we create a new large pore (the hole) and bring material back to the surface. As the cores are broken up and drug back into the holes not all of the material will fit into the holes and some will remain on the surface adding elevation to the surface. If the cores are collected and new material is top-dressed onto the site,

North Carolina Turfgrass – Barry Stewart, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Sports Turf Science, Mississippi State University

Unlike most other crops, turfgrass soils are rarely exposed to tillage and therefore many turfgrass soils become compacted due to traffic. Our cultivation program is our best defense against soil compaction and the myriad of problems it can cause. In turfgrass, nearly everything we do — mowing, fertilizing, topdressing, rolling, playing games, etc. — happens on the horizontal plane. Turfgrass cultivation is one of the few things that happens on the vertical plane (I borrowed this from Dr. Trey Rogers at Michigan State). As we maintain and use turf soils, downward forces are applied and soil particles are pushed closer together. Soil pores, particularly macropores, are eliminated and the bulk density of the soil increases. If we think of an “ideal soil” we think of one that has 50% pore space and 50% solid space. When we consider that quartz is the dominant mineral in soils, then our ideal soil would have a bulk density of 1.33 g/cm3 given that the density of quartz is 2.65 g/cm3 (83 lbs/ft3). A bulk density range of 1.2 to 1.5 g/cm3 is a good working range for healthy turfgrass. Once bulk densities creep above 1.6 g/cm3 root growth begins to be affected and at bulk densities above 1.9 g/cm3 root growth nearly stops. Roots are not drills, they grow in the pore space, and compacted soils have less and less pore space, particularly macropore space and therefore limited root growth.

The second benefit of cultivation is the control of thatch and organic matter accumulation. In cultivation we break up the organic material accumulating at the turf surface. Sometimes the material is removed when we harvest the cores after aerifying or sweep up the clippings after we vertical mow or fraze mow. By keeping the rootzone in a favorable state of aeration, organic matter accumulation will be kept to a minimum as oxidation will proceed at its maximum rate. As organic matter accumulates and compaction happens, the rootzone is less well-aerated and organic matter decomposition slows down and organic matter accumulation increases. This leads to more moisture being held in the soil making it more vulnerable to compaction, and we begin on a downward spiral in which turf cover is lost. Topdressing is another tool in this battle with organic matter accumulation and will be the subject of a future article.

This article is written with warm season grasses in mind. The need for cultivation will vary with grass type and soil type. In general, native soils have a greater need for cultivation than sand-based soils. It is ironic that sand-based turf is more likely to receive cultivation than a native soil, but this is probably not surprising given the cost to establish and maintain grass on sand construction. Bermudagrass and zoysiagrass make up the vast majority of sport turf surfaces and require more cultivation. Some St. Augustine and centipede grass that receives traffic may also need occasional cultivation, but this should be done carefully. To ensure rapid recovery from any cultural practice mowing, make sure we have temperatures favorable for turf growth, 70 degree nights or 150 days with plenty of water available.

 

Core Cultivation / Hollow Tine Cultivation

Hollow tine cultivation is the cornerstone of any cultivation program. It should be a “showstopper” in that it should be a scheduled event. My mind’s picture of the benefit of core cultivation is that as our turfgrass soil becomes compacted, the elevation of our surface would decline. When we pull cores, we create a new large pore (the hole) and bring material back to the surface. As the cores are broken up and drug back into the holes not all of the material will fit into the holes and some will remain on the surface adding elevation to the surface. If the cores are collected and new material is top-dressed onto the site,

MTC Turf News – Barry Stewart, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Sports Turf Science, Mississippi State University

Unlike most other crops, turfgrass soils are rarely exposed to tillage and therefore many turfgrass soils become compacted due to traffic. Our cultivation program is our best defense against soil compaction and the myriad of problems it can cause. In turfgrass, nearly everything we do — mowing, fertilizing, topdressing, rolling, playing games, etc. — happens on the horizontal plane. Turfgrass cultivation is one of the few things that happens on the vertical plane (I borrowed this from Dr. Trey Rogers at Michigan State). As we maintain and use turf soils, downward forces are applied and soil particles are pushed closer together. Soil pores, particularly macropores, are eliminated and the bulk density of the soil increases. If we think of an “ideal soil” we think of one that has 50% pore space and 50% solid space. When we consider that quartz is the dominant mineral in soils, then our ideal soil would have a bulk density of 1.33 g/cm3 given that the density of quartz is 2.65 g/cm3 (83 lbs/ft3). A bulk density range of 1.2 to 1.5 g/cm3 is a good working range for healthy turfgrass. Once bulk densities creep above 1.6 g/cm3 root growth begins to be affected and at bulk densities above 1.9 g/cm3 root growth nearly stops. Roots are not drills, they grow in the pore space, and compacted soils have less and less pore space, particularly macropore space and therefore limited root growth.

The second benefit of cultivation is the control of thatch and organic matter accumulation. In cultivation we break up the organic material accumulating at the turf surface. Sometimes the material is removed when we harvest the cores after aerifying or sweep up the clippings after we vertical mow or fraze mow. By keeping the rootzone in a favorable state of aeration, organic matter accumulation will be kept to a minimum as oxidation will proceed at its maximum rate. As organic matter accumulates and compaction happens, the rootzone is less well-aerated and organic matter decomposition slows down and organic matter accumulation increases. This leads to more moisture being held in the soil making it more vulnerable to compaction, and we begin on a downward spiral in which turf cover is lost. Topdressing is another tool in this battle with organic matter accumulation and will be the subject of a future article.

This article is written with warm season grasses in mind. The need for cultivation will vary with grass type and soil type. In general, native soils have a greater need for cultivation than sand-based soils. It is ironic that sand-based turf is more likely to receive cultivation than a native soil, but this is probably not surprising given the cost to establish and maintain grass on sand construction. Bermudagrass and zoysiagrass make up the vast majority of sport turf surfaces and require more cultivation. Some St. Augustine and centipede grass that receives traffic may also need occasional cultivation, but this should be done carefully. To ensure rapid recovery from any cultural practice mowing, make sure we have temperatures favorable for turf growth, 70 degree nights or 150 days with plenty of water available.

 

Core Cultivation / Hollow Tine Cultivation

Hollow tine cultivation is the cornerstone of any cultivation program. It should be a “showstopper” in that it should be a scheduled event. My mind’s picture of the benefit of core cultivation is that as our turfgrass soil becomes compacted, the elevation of our surface would decline. When we pull cores, we create a new large pore (the hole) and bring material back to the surface. As the cores are broken up and drug back into the holes not all of the material will fit into the holes and some will remain on the surface adding elevation to the surface. If the cores are collected and new material is top-dressed onto the site,

The topic of synthetic turf is likely to spark spirited debate among sports field managers, athletes, and even just your average sports fans. Strong opinions certainly exist and can make for entertaining conversation. While a number of issues are likely to be covered in such a discussion, none are more important than potential impacts of synthetic turf on human health. Fortunately, a growing collection of research is providing valuable information.

Established as one of the original Major League Soccer franchises by Robert Kraft in 1994, the New England Revolution called the old Foxboro Stadium home until the completion of Gillette Stadium in 2001. The Revs’ original training ground was at the Foxborough State School. While it has “state” in the name, it certainly was not “state-of-the-art.”

The Swamp. Just the name evokes a visceral reaction from every college football fan in the south. Florida Gators beam with pride at the mention of their legendary stadium. Other SEC teams’ fans may respond with less enthusiasm, but no one can question the fact that Steve Spurrier-Florida Field is an iconic place to play college football.

Annual bluegrass weevil (ABW) (Listronotus maculicollis) is the most damaging insect pest of golf course turfgrass in the northeastern United States (McGraw and Koppenhöfer 2007). The pest was discovered in New England in 1931, but until recent years, was largely confined to the northeastern states and not considered to be an issue in Virginia. That situation has changed drastically.