The greens have responded nicely to the fertility and maintenance regimen they've received this fall. I've seen a nice increase in bentgrass plants, as well as improved greens color, density, and rooting. All of these factors will help the plants store more carbohydrate reserves. These reserves are very important in helping the plants winter hardiness.
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| 12" roots coming out the bottom of the cup cutter |
Certainly, there are no guarantees how the plants will endure the winter weather, but I feel good about where the greens are now and heading into winter. Mother Nature did a good job this winter of selecting out the weak poa plants. Although it was tough to see that much dead grass, in the end we came out stronger because of the amount of new bentgrass that we now have. These plants are significantly more winter hardy than the poa plants that died this past winter.
Below are a few photos of greens 5, 10 and 17, which were the hardest hit this winter. As you can see from the comparison photos taken last week, the greens are stronger than ever heading into winter.
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| #5 green taken 4/11/14 |
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| #5 green taken 10/9/14 |
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| #10 green taken 4/11/14 |
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#10 green taken 10/9/14
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| #17 green taken 4/11/14 |
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| #17 green taken 10/9/14 |