As the end of summer nears, now is the ideal time to begin planning for dormancy.
Impending End Of Summer Means Changes In Turf Management
Posted in General, Summer Turf Management by Curtis Williams
BY DALE MILLER, AmeriTurf Agronomist
Summer is in full swing with the end actually not that far away.
As grass is slow to change in the good sense – quick is generally bad for grass – it is important to make sure you stay ahead of the plant, plan for what you know is coming and stay open minded for things you don’t expect.
Summer is all over the map in the southern U.S., with thunderstorms being the only means to rain in some areas. Other summer climate events include tropical moisture in Florida, monsoons in Arizona, and “Marine Layer” fog in California.
A couple things for sure though are well-documented and have not changed, at least in our lifetimes. Summer Solstice being a very important one.
The day length is the most important thing from that event; days are now getting shorter, and the sun angle is going back down.
This has a profound effect on grass. The “physiological clock” ticks and the plant goes from the light capturing mode of springtime and early summer to storage mode and hardening off. There will be winter dormancy for some, and at least semi-dormancy for the rest of the country.
This physiological fact is important to understand as the wrong practices toward the end of summer will impact what the plant wants to do naturally and will create fall, winter and spring growth and performance challenges.
Leaves begins to be less of an issue, but stolons, rhizomes and root mass should start to increase at this point. This is due to “storage,” or carbohydrates needed to make it through the short days and winter months with enough to come out fresh and strong in the spring.
If not, well, there is your poor spring transition typically explained. There are other causes for poor transition, some natural, most self-induced but one major one is lack of carbohydrates and adequate supply of carbon to convert Nitrogen to Amino Acids. Disrupt this process or influence it in a negative manner, and conditions will quickly deteriorate all the way to plant death.
To manage this natural physiological event, do the best you can to build carbohydrates from now until next spring and make sure you don’t do things that promote more leaf, or remove or reduce root mass, stolon or rhizome production.
Heavy cultural events should be completed by now, allowing the plant to store, rather than recover. Events that require recovery late in the summer are going to impact this storage as the plant will try to recover as opposed to store carbohydrates.
As management of turf today is not agronomically sound in all cases, we have to do a few other things to help the plant.
Lowered height of cut at this point is not going to help anything, especially in fairways. We often notice how the quality of cut declines after July because the mowers are cutting stems more than leaf. Cutting stems causes loss of carbohydrates far worse than cutting leaf.
Raise the height up slightly and maintain or even increase the rate of growth regulators like Primo; we can still have excellent playing surfaces at higher cuts. There are many excellent superintendents out there who prove this year after year. Light grooming, double cutting and frequent topdressing will help speed surfaces at higher heights, as opposed to more aggressive cutting or too low heights.
Increasing use of products that promote carbohydrate storage and programs that do the same are very beneficial this time of year – all the way to spring.
Remember the plant has to combine Carbon with Nitrogen to make Amino Acids. Increasing Nitrogen without a carbon component and there will be issues.
Increase carbon base, Potassium and Phosphorus, and you will improve plant response and initiate hardening off and storage.
Increase micronutrient inputs to help with the color loss associated with stems as opposed to leaf.
Increase Magnesium inputs to help stimulate chlorophyll production. As the day length decreases and photosynthetic period does as well.
The plant works on photosynthesis and any support we can give it is beneficial.
Slightly increase soluble Calcium levels to make certain the storage areas in the plant can grow. Calcium is a primary component of cells and is critical to strong cell integrity and growth during periods of initiation.
As summer ends and the plant goes into semi-dormancy, and if we do a better job of helping it get there and increasing carbohydrate storage, the plant will look far better far deeper into the winter and come our far better, much more quickly in the spring. Then we get to do it all over again.
The life and job of a superintendent never ends relative to the grass we grow, especially in the South where we don’t go fully dormant.
AmeriTurf sales reps and agronomists are fully aware of the requirements to take care of the plant, the soil and that which influences it.
Please discuss this with your sales representative or agronomist soon and ensure the summer is managed the best you can and that the chance of making it to winter, through winter and transition back in spring is as smooth as possible.