The Endless Summer Of 2016

How can we sum up 2016? How about hot, rainy and LONG!? Long is an understatement. In the transition zone, when you see warm season turf being mowed in November, something is not right. Though warm season turf had a great climate this year, even with the extreme temperatures and rain, the warm, lengthy season brought challenges. For instance, normally, trying to time out your overseeding on warm season turf is tough, but when you cannot get it to stop growing, that offers up another challenge.

So, what am I trying to say here? 2016 was tough? 2016 was unusual? Yes, it was to both. But, this weekend brought widespread frost to the region, and for warm season turf growers, a finality to this endless summer: warm season turf has finally gone south for the winter. I think we can all agree that the best thing to do with 2016 is to let it pass.

With that said, let’s look toward next year and use what 2016 gave us as a stepping stone for both warm and cool season turf.

Warm season turf growers experienced double the grow time over what they normally experience. That means the carb storage going into winter should be at a much larger capacity than normal and overall turf quality should be the highest we have seen in 5 or 6 years. So, just because 2016 was great for warm season turf, that doesn’t mean 2017 will be. Don’t take your foot off the gas in 2017. Push your warm season turf as you would in a cool year. Continue to gain ground. With the winterkill we experienced two years ago, most of us will agree that warm season maintenance practices are just as important with warm season turf as they are with cool season turf. Let’s ride this train before mother earth derails us again.

On the other side, with cool season turf, we experienced conditions that were worse than we normally see. So, building cool season turf through the winter months and using plant protection products is even more important. In Kentucky and Tennessee, I would generally say that most turf growers could get by with fewer applications in the winter, especially for snow mold applications. This year, I feel they are more vital. Using organic fertilizers for winter feed is a great way to help strengthen the plant for what’s to come, and two or more fungicide applications this year will give you a great start to the unknown 2017 season.

If we have learned anything from Mother Nature in the past few years, no matter what we predict or feel it’s truly up to her.

Brad Nevitt
Golf Sales Manager