Over the last several years as part of our aerification process on the greens, we have been overseeding with bentgrass seed to incorporate more bentgrass into the turf stand. Newer bentgrass varieties compete very well with the poa annua that comprises most of our greens.
Promoting bentgrass over poa annua is beneficial because bentgrass is more heat tolerant and requires less water, nutrients and fungicides. These are the exact reasons why I have tailored my maintenance programs to give the bentgrass a competitive edge over the poa.
Bentgrass seed is extremely small. One pound of bentgrass seed contains about six million seeds. On a typical 4,000 square foot green like #1, we spread about 24 million bentgrass seeds. Most of those new plants did germinate, however most will probably not survive. In interseeding situations, the established plants have an advantage because they are mature and can withstand more stresses. However, even if only 10% of the new plants survive, that is 2.4 million new bentgrass plants we did not have before.
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| a handful of bentgrass seed |
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| close-up of bentgrass seed |
