Viridescent - the Asian Turfgrass Center blog

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.

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.

Golf Course Visits and Tournament Sponsorship in Philippines

I was at the Philippines last week to play in the Founders Cup tournament at The Orchard Golf and Country Club. As sponsors of the tournament, Asian Turfgrass Center along with Bernhard and Company were able to enter a team in the sponsors division, and playing off scratch (I don't have an official handicap at present, unfortunately!) along with Steve Wilson, Business Development Manager Asia Pacific for Bernhard, we made a respectable showing at the challenging Palmer and Player courses over which the tournament was contested. The Palmer course has Tifeagle bermudagrass greens, while the Player course has greens of Sea Isle 2000 seashore paspalum. During the tournament, course superintendent Jelly Palmes had the greens on both courses in excellent condition, rolling at a good speed and providing a superb playing surface. Below is the 7^th green of the Player course, showing its seashore paspalum green with the par five 9^th hole in the background.

 

I had planned to be at the Philippines for the Founders Cup and to meet other friends in the golf course industry. It turned into a busy week, as I visited Manila Golf Club on the day of my arrival, played in the Chairman's Cup tournament at Sherwood Hills the next morning, went to Wack Wack Country Club and saw the renovation project there, and played practice rounds at Orchard for the Founders Cup. In less than five days I had been to five different golf courses, and later in the week I also went to Manila Southwoods and to TAT Filipinas.

I was at TAT Filipinas Golf Club in October for a turfgrass advisory visit and I was there again this week to meet delegates from the East Asian Seas Congress 2009 who were making a field trip to see the sustainability initiatives at TAT Filipinas under the direction of club president Edna Paña and manager Joe Dagdagan. I spoke with Dr. Mok Mareth (pictured at right), the Senior Minister of Cambodia's Ministry of Environment. We discussed golf and the environment, two subjects which Dr. Mareth and I are both passionate about.

Five Ways to Improve Turfgrass Conditions

I can actually think of ten simple ways to improve turfgrass conditions -- these are only the first five ways, and I will write more later about another five ways to improve grass. The article I wrote on this topic has been published in Golf Business Asia and can be downloaded here. So what do I think are the first five ways to improve turfgrass conditions?

1. Set course maintenance standards. If we have a certain level of grass quality, and want to reach an improved level of playability or appearance, we need to define what that standard is and what work must be implemented in order to achieve the desired quality level. For more details, an article I wrote on this topic can be downloaded here in English and downloaded here in Chinese (中文). A simple example is grass quality and tolerance of weeds in the fairways. If there is no standard for this, than at what weed threshold are the fairways acceptable, or unacceptable? When I was a golf course superintendent I was not a big fan of these types of standards, thinking them extraneous, but I now think that written standards, no matter how simple, are the starting point for any turfgrass management (or turfgrass improvement) program.

2. Choose the right grass. I cannot overemphasize this enough. There are certain grasses that are well-adapted to certain growing conditions and that can be managed to provide the desired playing surface. There are other grasses that are less well-adapted to your growing conditions and that require a tremendous amount of maintenance in order to produce the desired playing surface. Or perhaps you struggle to achieve the type of playing surface that you want. Would a different species of grass or an improved variety of the one you are currently growing help to improve turfgrass conditions? It seems like a lot of wasted resources to manage grass that is not well-adapted to your site. For more information about this, you can search for the information you are looking for. There are some excellent turfgrass specific information resources available online, and I wrote about the best of them (in English) and you can also download the article about information resources in Chinese (中文). Also, you may wish to read an article I wrote for Golf Business Asia about managing and choosing warm-season grasses. And you can see a selection of photos of different warm-season grasses, along with some advantages and disadvantages of each, at this photo gallery.

3. Fertilize the right amount. This is critical for improving the grass. If I want to be healthier, one of the first things the doctor will tell me to do is to evaluate my diet, right? And I should eat a balanced diet with the right amount of fruits and vegetables and vitamins and minerals and so on. Well, grass is the same way, except it is a lot simpler. With grasses, we can conduct a routine soil nutrient analysis (a laboratory test of the soil's chemical properties) to determine how much of the essential plant nutrients are present in the soil, and how much should be added as fertilizer. In many soils, there is already enough phosphorus to meet the needs of the grass, and in some cases there is enough potassium as well. If there is not enough, then we simply add more. The key element to get right in the fertilization program is nitrogen. This is like me, if I am on a diet, being concerned about how many calories I eat every day. Eating more calories than I burn each day will make me gain weight, while burning more calories than I eat results in me losing weight. If the grass gets too much nitrogen it will grow too quickly, and if the grass doesn't have enough nitrogen it will become yellow and grow too slowly. The goal is to control the growth rate of the grass to create the desired improvement to turfgrass conditions by applying exactly the right amount of nitrogen. For many grasses, a good starting point for the amount of nitrogen to apply is about 3 g N m^-2 month^-1, during the seasons when the weather is conducive to vigorous grass growth. The exact amount of nitrogen to apply can be adjusted based on the turfgrass performance. For more information about this, see this article I wrote for Golf Course Seminar (in Japanese, 日本語) or this article from the Hawaii GCSA newsletter.

4. Mow with a plan. After choosing the right grass and applying the right fertilizer, there is no way to get the desired quality without mowing properly. That means using mowers with sharpened blades, set at the proper mowing height, and operated at the optimum mowing frequency for a particular area. And as long as the mowers are going to be sent out to mow the grass, why not mow an attractive pattern into the grass? This may be a type of stripe or checkerboard or even no stripes at all, but it takes a plan to achieve the desired appearance after mowing. Get the mowing right and the grass conditions will almost certainly improve.

5. Keep the grass as dry as possible. Or perhaps more accurately, keep the soil as dry as possible. How is that going to improve turfgrass conditions? If the soil is kept dry, there will be more air space in the soil. When the water content of the soil is high, there is not much space for air. Grass roots grow better when there is plenty of air space in the soil, and if you can establish a healthy root system, the playing surfaces will be more stress tolerant and the grass plants will be more healthy. To really manage the soil moisture, I find it is extremely useful to use a soil moisture meter such as the Hydrosense from Campbell Scientific, the Theta-Probe from Delta-T Devices, or the TDR Meters from Spectrum Technologies. For most turfgrass sites, I like to maintain the soil moisture at more than 10% (by volume) and less than 25%. You can find the optimum range for your site, and by using one of these meters, you can monitor the soils as they dry, only applying water when the soil reaches the critical point when the grass will begin to wilt. I wrote about soil water management extensively in this article for Golf Course Seminar (in Japanese, 日本語) and in Irrigation for Bentgrass Greens: Theory and Practice (for the Kanto Golf Association and also in Japanese, 日本語). If you are interested to know more about this, please send me an e-mail inquiry or leave a comment here.

Waterlogged Soils and Turfgrass Performance

A fascinating project looking at turfgrass growth in waterlogged conditions is being conducted at Singapore's HortPark by graduate student Vivek Govindasamy and his advisor Dr. Kenneth Marcum, Senior Researcher with CUGE Research - Turf Science. At Singapore there is a lot of rain, averaging almost 2.5 meters annually, the soils are often saturated with water, and in low-lying areas with poor drainage the grass is sometimes underwater.

We don't know how different warm-season turfgrass species will respond to waterlogged soils, and Vivek's project will give some idea about which grasses can tolerate waterlogged soils most effectively, and may provide some idea as to what mechanism allows for that tolerance. Grasses are being grown in plastic tubs that maintain water at levels to either mimic normal soil moisture levels, waterlogged soils, or completely immersed turfgrass plants. Among the grasses being tested in these conditions are seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum), zoysiagrass (Zoysia matrella), and carpetgrass (Axonopus compressus).

Vivek is measuring the chlorophyll content of the grass leaves as an index of plant health and will eventually be inspecting the roots to search for possible aerenchyma development in the grasses most tolerant to waterlogged conditions. The results of this research project will be very useful in that they will provide guidance on which grasses should be chosen for planting in areas susceptible to waterlogged soils. The upcoming CUGE International Turfgrass Seminar on 29 and 30 October may provide a chance to learn about some preliminary observations from these experiments.

More Grass Photos From ATC

I have posted a selection of photos of different grasses on the Asian Turfgrass Center photo galleries at flickr. The photo galleries at www.asianturfgrass.com are one of the most viewed portions of the site, and the photos at flickr are easier to find by searching, viewers can leave comments on the photos, and there are more options for viewing and using the photos. I hope you find them interesting, please sign up here to receive updates when new photos are posted, and please let me know if there are any grass-related photos you would like to see.

Turfgrass Research at Mauritius

I was at Mauritius last month and visited most of the golf courses on the island. Mauritius has some of the most visually striking golf courses I have ever seen. I was surprised (and impressed) to see beautiful evaluation plots of grass at Paradis Golf Club, where course superintendent Ajaye Ladsawut is maintaining a nursery with different varieties of bermudagrass, seashore paspalum, and even some zoysiagrass. This is an amazing site for turf research plots, right at the base of a World Heritage Site, the rugged Le Morne Cultural Landscape (see below) which served as a shelter for runaway slaves. The grasses are being grown on two different rootzones, a dark rock sand (foreground above) and a calcareous coral sand (background above); the purpose of the grass evaluation nursery at Paradis Golf Club is to determine which grasses perform the best, and in what soil, for a new course in planning stages now and for possible course improvements at Paradis.

The Paradis Golf Club has seashore paspalum (originally from Durban CC) on the greens, a local bermudagrass is the primary species on tees and fairways, and there are also areas of blue couch (Digitaria didactyla), St. Augustine or Buffalo grass (Stenotaphrum secundatum), Zoysia matrella, and Sporobulus. The irrigation water is rather high in salt as the course sits right on a lagoon, but all these grasses manage to grow well.

The grass evaluation plots at Paradis are very well-maintained and are given nearly the same maintenance treatments as the grass on the golf course. The Bel Ombre paspalum is from a nearby golf course and has a slightly different growth habit and stolon color compared with the Durban CC paspalum on the greens at Paradis.

This is a seashore paspalum fairway (with patches of bermudagrass at right) on Ile aux Cerfs, also at Mauritius. One of the most challenging things in the management of seashore paspalum is to keep other grasses out. The native bermudagrass here is quite salt tolerant and grows vigorously. Rock salt is used here to control most weeds in the seashore paspalum, and the use of salt is a good strategy for weed control in seashore paspalum when soil conditions allow it. Seashore paspalum is beautiful but it can also be a high maintenance grass and will tend to be overtaken by other grasses when grown without intensive and expensive maintenance.

Turfgrass at Dubai

I was at Dubai this week to see some golf courses and to learn more about turfgrass management here. There are many camels in the desert -- these ones are just outside the Al Ruwaya golf course at The Tiger Woods Dubai, which I visited for two days. The course looks spectacular. Three holes are completely grassed now, and the scale of the project is really mind-boggling. I was there in July of 2008 when rough shaping was just underway. What last year was just a vast expanse of sand now looks like a golf course, and one that will be a thrill to play. With huge grass nurseries, landscape materials being installed in abundance, an incredibly complex irrigation system being put together hole-by-hole, and the creation of such a beautiful course in the middle of the desert, this project is fascinating. The grow-in superintendent at Al Ruwaya is Cameron Thompson, who was previously at Amata Spring Country Club in Thailand.

Most of the courses at Dubai use hybrid bermudagrass, as on the Majlis course at Emirates Golf Club, site of the Dubai Desert Classic. But seashore paspalum can also be used at Dubai, as on the par 3 course at Emirates Golf Club shown above. Water is obviously an expensive resource in the desert, and golf courses use treated effluent water to irrigate the turfgrass, in some cases using a reverse osmosis plant to further purify the water before it is applied to the grass. Because of seashore paspalum's high salinity tolerance, salt is sometimes used to control weeds in the turf, and that practice was being employed on the par 3 course at Emirates Golf Club. Application of granular salt at a rate of about 50 g m^-2 can provide control of some grassy and broadleaf weeds without causing phytotoxicity to seashore paspalum.

The bermudagrass golf courses at Dubai are usually overseeded with perennial ryegrass during the winter months. This is The Els Club earlier this year when the perennial ryegrass was the primary playing surface. Because of the heat during the summer months (temperatures above 40°C are common), little golf is played, but during the winters the weather is quite clement and golf courses at Dubai are busy. The bermudagrass grows slowly at Dubai during the winter, nearly reaching dormancy, and the perennial ryegrass surfaces then provide a playing surface that can tolerate the heavy traffic during the winter months.

Grass Variety Differences

I was at the ATC Research Area this afternoon and was struck again by the dramatic differences in quality between the different grass varieties, particularly between the putting green bermudagrasses. I'm standing here on bermudagrass plots, and the different colors are the differences between the grasses. Whether we look at leaf texture, color, stand density and algal invasion, ball roll, or susceptibility to bermudagrass white leaf, there are some striking differences between the grasses we have planted side by side here north of Bangkok.

One interesting thing we have observed, first on fairway height bermudagrass and now on putting green height bermudagrass, is that the bermudagrass white leaf infection seems to be variety-specific; some varieties are very prone to this infection, and others seem not to get the infection at all. Because the bermudagrass white leaf infection cannot be controlled with pesticides, it is important to choose a grass variety that is relatively resistant to this unsightly problem. In this photo (taken at the research area on 18 March 2009), note how the Novotek bermudagrass at left has none of the white leaf infection, even though it is adjacent to a heavily infected plot of what we think is a mutated selection from TifGreen 328.

We see huge differences in turfgrass performance when we grow the grasses here at our research area. It is very informative to view the performance of these grasses as they grow side-by-side.

More about Field Day and Seminars

The R&A website now has an update about the Asian Turfgrass Center's research plots, the Sustainable Turfgrass Management seminars held this month, and sustainable golf course management in Southeast Asia.