Viridescent - the Asian Turfgrass Center blog

Nozzle Selection for Spraying Pesticides and Fertilizer

One of the topics I will discuss at next week's Sustainable Turfgrass Management in Asia 2010 seminar is nozzle selection, spray droplet size, and water volume. Depending on the product (fertilizer? herbicide? fungicide?) being applied, its mode of action, and the reason for the application, one can choose the nozzle type that will produce the most effective spray pattern on the turf.

The Turf Diseases blog has some good posts on this topic, including photos that show the drastic differences in spray patterns between different nozzles and tips on improving disease control by proper nozzle selection.

Don't Neglect Your Nozzles by Dr. John Kaminski

Mazel Tov! It's Nozzle Talk! by Dr. Megan Kennelly

Should I Water That In? by Dr. Lane Tredway

I also recommend reviewing the guide to nozzle selection that Tee-Jet publishes, available for download here.

Asian Turfgrass Field Day, March 9

I visited Phoenix Country Club, Siam Country Club, and Laem Chabang Country Club yesterday to inspect the sites and trials for the March 9 turfgrass field day. Here is what you can expect at the field day.

On the morning of March 9, we will travel by air-conditioned coach from the Amari Orchid Resort and Tower to the nearby Phoenix Country Club. At Phoenix, we will look at off-type bermudagrasses on the putting green, including a collection of off-types from other golf courses at Thailand. Darren Moore did his M.Sc. thesis on the phenomenon of off-type bermudagrasses, and he will discuss this with the field day attendees. I will be stationed at one of the zoysiagrass fairways, discussing this grass and its management and how it compares with bermudagrass and seashore paspalum. Matt Roche will be at another putting green with off-type bermudagrass, and he will be discussing how to choose the type of putting green grass that will be right for your facility, and how different grasses (such as the off-types on display) are evaluated at a research station.

 

Our next stop will be the Plantation Course at Siam Country Club where we will discuss preparations of putting greens for tournament play (an apt site for this -- Siam CC hosted the Honda LPGA Thailand tournament last weekend!) and management of new ultradwarf bermudagrass cultivars. Siam CC has seashore paspalum fairways, and I will be talking about the management of these fairways.The Plantation Course has one of the most interesting greens you will ever see (pictured below). This is a nearly 2000 m² TRIPLE green of Novotek bermudagrass, comprising the 4^th and 9^th from the Pineapple nine and the 7^th from the Tapioca nine. It takes two hours to mow with a Toro Flex 21 pedestrian mower. I wonder how many sprinkler heads are required to provide irrigation to this green?

We will have lunch at Siam CC and then transfer to Laem Chabang CC. At Laem Chabang we will see some plots of wetting agent trials, fungicide trials, herbicide and surfactant trials, and phytotoxicity trials showing the effects of certain DMI fungicides, fertilizers, and Primo Maxx on Tifdwarf putting greens.

The field day will conclude with a round at the chipping course near the clubhouse and a dinner at the Club. Wear comfortable attire for the field day -- golfing attire or similar would be appropriate. The locker room facilities at Laem Chabang CC will be available if you would like to take a shower before dinner.

Bermudagrass White Leaf

I recently wrote about bermudagrass white leaf, a mollicute disease seen in Asia on bermudagrass, at the Turf Diseases blog. See the bermudagrass white leaf post here. If you have this problem on your grass, it will probably go away in time as healthy plants grow over the dying chlorotic plants. For more information about ATC's investigations of bermudagrass white leaf, download the Field Day Book from 2008 at the Turf Information page of the ATC website.

Relieving Turfgrass Stress: Part 2, Air in the Soil

In a previous post I wrote about relieving turfgrass stress by ensuring that grass blades are cut cleanly. After ensuring that mowers are sharp and are mowing the grass at the optimum height, what is another way to relieve turfgrass stress?

Turfgrass stress can be reduced by ensuring there is enough air in the soil. Golfers don't like aerification and greenkeepers are often under pressure to skip aerification because on the surface the greens appear to be fine. But when there is not enough air in the soil, roots do not grow, and grass without roots does not provide a good playing surface for very long.

The black layer in the soil above is because of waterlogged conditions. Roots are not growing in the saturated soil, but can you see the old aerification hole in the center of the photo? Do you see that vertical strip through the soil profile with no black layer? Do you see the white roots growing in this aerification hole? When there is enough air in the soil (and I would suggest that about 25% air by volume is a good starting point), the roots can grow. The reason for hollow tine core aerification is to physically remove organic matter from the soil while allowing more air into the soil, and the reason for solid tine aerification is to introduce air into the soil. Organic matter in the soil creates small pores that hold a lot of water. Healthy turfgrass creates large amounts of organic matter, and this organic matter must be managed in order to maintain adequate air in the soil. For a look at some more photos of roots and aerification practices, click here.

The solution to the black layer problem or to the problem of too much organic matter in the soil is really a simple one: make more air in the soil. This is done by keeping the soil as dry as possible, by physically removing organic matter, by regularly topdressing with sand to maintain aeration porosity, and by venting or other types of solid tine aerification, as shown below.

So the next time you suspect your turfgrass may be suffering from too much stress, think of ways that more air can be introduced into the soil. More air in the soil is a sure way to reduce stress and improve turfgrass conditions.

ATC's Turf Science Seminars, March 15 & April 15 (ターフサイエンス セミナー2010)

Asian Turfgrass Center's turfgrass science seminar at Shinjuku on January 18 was a sellout, with all 100 spaces sold. The upcoming seminar on March 15 will deal with soil science, and the seminar on April 15 will focus on managing the plant to create the desired playing surface. These seminars are approved for GCSAA education points. Download the registration form here or click here for more information and a photo gallery of images from the January 18 seminar.

Turf Seminars at Osaka, Ishikawa, and Tokyo

I was at Japan this month for seminars at Osaka and Ishikawa (for Royal Turf Co.) and at Tokyo (in a seminar organized by Asian Turfgrass Center). At Osaka and Ishikawa, I spoke about successful interseeding of creeping bentgrass. The focus of my seminar was how to modify the growing environment of the turfgrass so that existing grass can grow well, and also how to create the desired growing environment for establishing new seedlings if improved bentgrass varieties such as 007 or Tyee are to be introduced.

 

At the Royal Turf Co. seminars, Dr. Richard Hurley from Rutgers University and Moriso-san, greenkeeper at Higashi-Hirono Golf Club, also gave presentations about 007 creeping bentgrass and successful management of putting greens at Japan.

Then on 18 January at Tokyo I gave a full-day seminar about Turf Science for the Greenkeeper, starting a series of three seminars on this topic by speaking about plant growth and cell expansion, photosynthesis, water use of turfgrass, and how the scientific principles can be applied by greenkeepers in their work. This seminar (and the upcoming ones on March 15 and April 15) are supported by Syngenta, The Toro Co., and Simplot. Click here for a photo gallery of images from the 18 January seminar.

The Wow Factor, Seashore Paspalum and Dollar Spot

The Wow Factor, Seashore Paspalum and Dollar Spot is now posted on the Turf Diseases Blog and may be of interest to those who manage seashore paspalum in Asia.

I will be contributing some posts to the Turf Diseases Blog on topics related turfgrass diseases in Asia. For information about all types of turfgrass diseases on warm and cool season grasses, and for advice on the management of these diseases from expert plant pathologists, you will want to read the Turf Diseases Blog this year.

Asian Turfgrass Center 2009 Report

I prepared a short annual report with an overview of the work undertaken by Asian Turfgrass Center in 2009. You may be interested to learn that I wrote 20,504 words for publication in fourteen articles, that ATC websites were visited by people from 88 different countries, or that I spoke at conferences in eight countries. You can read all about those details and more by downloading the Asian Turfgrass Center 2009 Report.

 

March Turfgrass Seminar Registration Now Open!

Registration is now open for the Sustainable Turfgrass Management in Asia 2010 conference, being held from 8 to 10 March at Pattaya, Thailand. Click here to go to the registration page, where you can find the registration forms available for download in English or in Thai.

The Thailand GCSA along with the Asian Turfgrass Center are working now to put together the final details of the field seminar, the expert speakers are preparing their materials, and travel plans are being made for many people who will travel from outside Thailand to attend this conference. We hope to see you here in Thailand for a fun and educational event.

And don't forget, for those who want to earn GCSAA continuing education points, the conference has been approved for 1.75 points.

Golf Course Renovation, Grass Selection, & Manilagrass

I visited the Philippines a few times last month and was again impressed by how well manilagrass (Zoysia matrella) performs there. The classic East Course at Wack Wack Country Club in Manila is undergoing a restoration project that leaves the manilagrass greens untouched. The grass on these greens is relatively free of disease, has a very low fertilizer requirement, and provides a fast and firm putting surface. By using native grasses on the fairways (primarily Axonopus compressus, known as Carabao grass in the Philippines) and on the greens, Wack Wack CC's East Course provides a classic test of golf and uses grasses that require almost no inputs apart from mowing and irrigation.

Why do I mention these grasses? Because the use of the native grasses is surprisingly uncommon when golf courses are built or renovated in Southeast Asia today. There are some situations where bermudagrass (Cynodon) may be the right choice, and there are occasions when seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum) is the right choice, but for many golf projects, using native grasses such as zoysiagrass or carpetgrass would be a better choice. Why?

• The native grasses require less fertilizer than bermudagrass or seashore paspalum
• The native grasses are generally more resistant to diseases, insect, and weed invasion than or bermudagrass or seashore paspalum
• Pesticide use on native grasses is minimal
• It costs a lot less to maintain native grasses
• Some of the best courses in Southeast Asia use them! Sentosa GC in Singapore has zoysia fairways and roughs, the aforementioned Wack Wack CC has carpetgrass and the greens are zoysia, Hong Kong Golf Club has carpetgrass and zoysiagrass on most of the property, and the best new course in Asia Pacific for 2009, Banyan Golf Club in Thailand, uses native zoysia for fairways and roughs
• The course presentation and playability with native grasses is still very good
• There is a lot more flexibility in the maintenance when native grasses are used

What do I mean by "flexibility in maintenance"? Above we see a native manilagrass (Zoysia matrella) lawn beside swimming pools at the Anvaya Cove development near Subic Bay. At the swimming pool, with virtually no maintenance, zoysia is a foolproof grass. It just grows along, slowly, providing the desired groundcover. Below we see the exact same grass at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial (as an aside, do go there if you are ever at Manila -- the cemetery is a beautiful, quiet, and moving place, with 17,202 graves of military dead of WWII).

The native grasses can be maintained to look green and lush, or dry and close-cropped to the ground, and the native grasses don't die. There is less flexibility with imported bermudagrass or seashore paspalum. Without the optimum amounts of water, fertilizer, and pesticides, the bermudagrass or seashore paspalum cannot provide a good playing surface in Southeast Asia. With native grasses, there is a lot of flexibility in the type of surface that can be created. But don't try to get too flexible with seashore paspalum or bermudagrass, or those grasses will fail.