Viridescent - the Asian Turfgrass Center blog

Sunshine, Zoysia, and Grass Performance in Asia

There are four grasses in the image above (click on it to get a larger view). We are looking at Tifeagle and Novotek (both are Cynodon hybrids), Sea Isle Supreme (Paspalum vaginatum), and a fine-bladed zoysia, probably Zoysia pacifica. This is a test on a shaded green in Manila. The green is maintained for seashore paspalum. The seashore paspalum can handle this shade, although it has a relatively coarse leaf blade compared to the zoysia. Both types of Cynodon fail to produce an acceptable putting surface in this type of shaded condition under which both seashore paspalum and zoysia can produce a good stand of turf.

In fact, this zoysia produces a really superb putting surface, as seen at right, a photo I took on the 18^th green at Wack Wack Golf and Country Club during last week's Philippine Open. It requires very little in the way of fertilizer, few pesticides, and is able to tolerate the low sunshine levels and tree or building shade that can cause Cynodon, with its higher light requirement, to fail. Wack Wack recently underwent a renovation and the Club made a wise choice to keep the native zoysia on greens and the native carpetgrass everywhere else. There are beautiful mature trees across the property, and other grasses would not produce such fine surfaces in these low light conditions, but the zoysia and Axonopus thrive.

Many people ask me "what type of zoysia is that?" My best answer is that it is probably a type of Zoysia pacifica (previously called Zoysia tenuifolia), and I base that on a paper published in 2005 by Akamine et al. in volume 33 of the Journal of the Japanese Society of Turfgrass Science entitled "Morphological Characteristics of Zoysia tenuifolia Willd." In the research project reported in that paper, Akamine et al. found that Z. pacifica leaves are folded in the sheath, as compared to Z. matrella leaves which are rolled in the sheath. Upon close inspection, I found that the fine-bladed zoysia from the greens at Wack Wack has folded leaves, while the leaves of a typical Zoysia matrella from Japan were rolled.

For more information about sunshine, shade, turfgrass performance in Asia, and links to a lot more information about assessing the sunshine hours close to your location, here is a video I've recorded with Dr. Larry Stowell from PACE Turf about light.

World Cities Plotted by Climatological Normals, February

February is another good month, on average, to grow grass in Bangkok, Chennai, Colombo, and Mumbai. Why? With average temperatures more than 25°C and sunshine well above 200 hours for the month, the growth of warm-season grasses can easily be controlled by turfgrass managers through adjustments in the amount of water and nitrogen applied. 

Hainan Island is sometimes referred to as the "Hawaii" of China, but Sanya is considerably cooler and has a lot less sunshine than does Honolulu in February. For about six months of the year, Sanya is a lot more like Hilo than Honolulu, and that means slightly cooler temperatures and significantly less sunshine. 

Cynodon, Paspalum, and Zoysia at Putting Green Height

Golf course putting greens in Southeast Asia are usually planted to either hybrid bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon x C. transvaalensis), seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum), or zoysia (Z. matrella or Z. pacifica). I saw this test recently at a golf course in Southeast Asia. This is a putting green in an area with extensive cloud cover for much of the year. Can you identify the species being grown here? Which are bermuda, which are paspalum, and which are zoysia?

This green is being maintained at about 4 mm, the test plots have been established for more than three months, and there are obviously some differences in how the grasses perform at this mowing height. This test corresponds exactly with what I have observed on the performance of these grass species at low mowing heights across a broad swath of Asia.

World Cities Plotted by Climatological Normals, January

This chart shows a selction of world cities, plotted by average temperature, sunshine, and precipitation for the month of January. Bangkok, Chennai, Colombo, and Mumbai look like splendid places this month, at least for the growth of warm-season grasses. It will normally be warm, sunny, and dry in these cities, allowing turfgrass managers to control the growth with fertilizer and water applications, without concern for a lack of sunshine. 

World Cities Plotted by Annual Climatological Normals

On these charts, a selection of world cities are plotted according to their average annual temperature and average annual sunshine hours, with the size of the bubble for each city proportional to the average annual precipitation. The display of information in this way allows us to identify quickly some differences between the normal climate in different locations. Miami and Honololu, for instance, are very similar in average annual temperature, and almost the same in sunshine, but Miami has much more rainfall than Honolulu. 

The charts are shown with the x and y axes going to zero in the plot above, to get some sense of the range of variation in the data, and in the chart below the data are plotted to fit the chart, so that we can more easily identify the location of the cities. Atlanta has a similar annual temperature to Osaka, and similar precipitation, but there are about 40% more sunshine hours in Atlanta each year than in Osaka. That difference is clearly something to consider if we think about how, for example, ultradwarf bermudagrass greens would perform, or should be managed, in those different locations. 

Photosynthesis is affected by temperature, light, water availability, and leaf nitrogen content. Turfgrass managers control the nitrogen by judicious application of fertilizer, and the water availability is controlled partly through precipitation and partly through supplemental irrigation. Light and temperature, then, stand out as the uncontrollable influences on photosynthesis. In the warm-season areas of the United States, there tends to be relatively high sunshine. It is normal to have 2500, 3000, or even 3500 sunshine hours in a year. So in the United States, much of the grass selection, when it comes to warm-season (C₄) grasses, is just a matter of temperature -- "is this a warm-season area, by temperature, or not?" 

In Asia, there tends to be less sunshine. If we compare Hong Kong with Miami, we see that Miami is slightly warmer, and Hong Kong has a bit more precipitation, but there is a huge difference in sunshine hours, with Miami having on average about 70% more sunshine hours than at Hong Kong. Does this have an affect on turfgrass performance? Yes! We see Zoysia matrella thriving in Hong Kong, and Singapore, and Tokyo, all cities where the sunshine hours are relatively low. Bermudagrass, on the other hand, performs relatively poorly in these same cities, and requires special care to keep in a playable condition. 

List of Climate Charts: China, India, Japan, and Global

I've made many climate charts this year, from the static ones that can be downloaded and printed, to the interactive ones that can be viewed and modified in a web browser. This is a list of all the charts that are available, starting with the interactive ones that show the changes in normal temperature, rainfall, and sunshine hours through the year.

Climatological normals for 50 world cities

Climatological normals for 46 world cities

Climatological normals for major Chinese cities, in English

Climatological normals for major Chinese cities, in Chinese

Climatological normals for major Indian and surrounding cities, in English

Climatological normals for major Indian and surrounding cities, in Hindi

Climatological normals for major Japanese cities, in Japanese

Climatological normals for major Japanese cities plus Atlanta and Bangkok, in Japanese

Climatological normals for Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kolkata, Miami, and Tokyo

I have also made a series of static charts that can be viewed online or downloaded and printed. These charts are from the dataset with climatological normals for 46 world cities.

The static charts were made using the ggplot2 package in R. The interactive motion charts were made using the googleVis package in R.

World Cities Plotted by Climatological Normals, November

This chart shows a selection of world cities, plotted by their average temperature, precipitation, and sunshine hours for the month of November. An interactive and customizable chart with the climatological data is available at this link.

How does November look? Well, at cities such as Bangkok and Mumbai, on average, it looks pretty good for warm-season grasses. The rainy season has ended, sunshine hours are way up, and average temperatures are still close to an optimum for warm-season grasses. The Barclays Singapore Open will be on at Sentosa in November. Temperatures are good for warm-season turf, but look at the sunshine hours! On average, there are only 125 hours of sun at Singapore during November. The Zoysia matrella fairways will be in superb condition, I'm sure, for they thrive in these conditions. The bermudagrass greens will be superb as well, but it takes a lot of careful work to maintain high-quality bermudagrass at Singapore, mainly because of the relatively low light conditions.

World Cities Plotted by Climatological Normals, October

This chart shows a selection of world cities, plotted by their average temperature, precipitation, and sunshine hours for the month of October. An interactive and customizable chart with the climatological data is here.

In October, the temperatures in much of East Asia are at an optimum for cool-season grass growth. Shanghai, Osaka, and Tokyo finally see their average temperature move less than that of San Diego after a long summer. The Japan Open is held in the middle of October every year, an ideal time considering the weather and the typical playing of the event on a course with creeping bentgrass greens. 

In South and Southeast Asia, we can again see that there is more precipitation and less sunlight than in American cities with similar temperatures. October and November mark the end of the rainy season at places such as Bangkok and Kolkata, moving into the drier and sunnier months of the northern hemisphere winter.

World Cities Plotted by Climatological Normals, September

This chart shows a selection of world cities, plotted by their average temperature, precipitation, and sunshine hours for the month of September. During September, many Asian cities are clustered at the bottom right of this chart, indicating a relatively warm temperature and relatively low sunshine hours. 

For many cities in Southeast Asia, this is the beginning of the end of the rainy season. Day lengths near the equator are relatively constant throughout the year, but in places such as Guam, Kota Kinabalu, Bangkok, and Chennai, it is the upcoming winter months that have the most sunlight hours. We will see Bangkok, for example, move from being near the bottom of the chart in sunshine hours in September, to near the top of the chart in sunshine hours by December.

A Report From the 2011 Golf Course Maintenance Management Conference

I've participated in many turfgrass seminars and conferences in the Philippines, and last week's Golf Course Maintenance Management Conference was the best so far. With 130 attendees, the conference room at The Orchard Golf and Country Club was filled to hear the presentations from Roberto "Boy" Escaño about drainage, from Siam CC's Sittichai Dusadeeporn about tournament preparation, and from Buddy Resurrecion on rules, maintenance, and marking the course. I also spoke about warm-season grasses and their adaptation to the Philippines climate, utilizing this chart to demonstrate some unique aspects of the climate in Southeast Asia that lead to better performance for Zoysia and Axonopus species compared with bermudagrass or seashore paspalum.

The conference was organized by the Philippine Turfgrass Association in cooperation with the Federation of Golf Clubs Philippines and the Asian Golf Industry Federation (AGIF). Delegates included golf course superintendents, managers, and owners, along with others who work in the turfgrass and golf industries. The panel discussion covered a range of topics including how to optimize turfgrass performance in shade, what steps can be taken to publicize and promote golf in the Philippines, and how to encourange more people, and especially young people, to play the game.

A cocktail party at the close of the first day's sessions, sponsored by Hunter Industries, gave the conference delegates a chance to discuss many of these turfgrass and golf course management issues in more detail.

The second day of the conference saw field sessions on spraying and sprayer calibration, on aerification and organic matter management in the soil, and a practical seminar on marking the course, with special attention given to water hazards, lateral water hazards, and out-of-bounds. After lunch, the conference closed, with many delegates playing a round of golf on the Palmer Course at The Orchard, and others opting for a tour of the course, the golf course maintenance facility, and some of the innovative water harvesting and cleaning programs implemented at The Orchard.