When I was a golf course superintendent, one of my favorite practices of the year was preparing our putting surfaces for the winter season. You may guess that was because it finally meant the end of another long season. Don’t get me wrong—that definitely was a bonus. However, the challenge and importance of winter preparation practices always intrigued me.
Winter annual broadleaf weeds like hairy bittercress, black medic, and speedwell are already here and taking hold in the newly formed thin areas and bare spots left behind after a challenging summer. Water testing, increasing spray coverage, and using adjuvants, especially when making low-volume applications out of ride-on spreader-sprayer units, will achieve this.
Currently, in a good portion of our ATS regions, the leaves are changing colors and falling. Cooler temperatures have arrived, and the days are getting shorter. A sure sign old man winter will be arriving soon. With this comes the closing of the 2023 golf season, and golf course superintendents will soon be strategizing and executing winter preparation plans for their golf courses. As these plans commence, the focus will be on fall fertilization, leaf cleanup, irrigation winterization, and making final snow mold applications, to name a few.
As of October 1, there are at least 13 different manufacturer early order programs. That doesn’t include separate programs offered by distributors like Advanced Turf Solutions. Is your head starting to hurt and your stomach getting twisted in a knot trying to keep track of it all? It is a lot to process and digest, so I thought we’d take a few moments to discuss ways to make the process more manageable and profitable.
Late fall fertilization has been promoted as a way to extend the color and health of cool-season grasses into early winter. This practice yields several benefits in the following growing season, including earlier spring green-up, improved turf density, increased tolerance to spring diseases, and fewer weeds.
Colorants, pigments, and dyes are being used more than ever before as research comes out yearly. Each category has a specific use around the course, but all of them can be tank-mixed with fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, and wetting agents to resist the fading effects of UV sunlight on the products you use.
Fall is in the air and it is the best time for aeration and overseeding. Whether you have already done a total kill and are planning on renovating, or you will be doing an aeration and overseed, there are several key points to remember.
