Mother Nature never ceases to amaze me. While it is spring in Michigan, the disparity in weather conditions we've seen for the last several weeks has been significant.
On April 10th, 2" of snow fell, followed by .75" of rainfall. Just five days later, we experienced the exact opposite. We had beautiful weather with temperatures in the 80s. We also had 9-17 mph winds and humidity that dropped to 15%. Unfortunately, that combination resulted in some significant localized dry spots.
Despite our hand-watering efforts, we were unable to keep up with the evapotranspiration rates, and some of the Poa annua turf suffered moisture stress. Greens #18, #9, #8, #10, and #16 were the hardest hit due to the biotype of Poa annua that exists on these greens.
On April 10th, 2" of snow fell, followed by .75" of rainfall. Just five days later, we experienced the exact opposite. We had beautiful weather with temperatures in the 80s. We also had 9-17 mph winds and humidity that dropped to 15%. Unfortunately, that combination resulted in some significant localized dry spots.
Despite our hand-watering efforts, we were unable to keep up with the evapotranspiration rates, and some of the Poa annua turf suffered moisture stress. Greens #18, #9, #8, #10, and #16 were the hardest hit due to the biotype of Poa annua that exists on these greens.
The plants will recover, but they will not look aesthetically appealing for the next few days. As I have stated in previous posts, Poa annua is not very heat tolerant. With that being said, it takes extreme weather conditions for us to see that kind of stress in April.
Throughout the last few days, we have replenished soil moisture levels and feel good with where those levels are at. Today, we applied a wetting agent, calcium, and humic acid to aid in the plants recovery.
I would expect the plants to respond positively to today's application. They will continue to improve as we move through the weekend.
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| moisture stress on #2 green |
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| close-up of moisture stress and green plants starting to recover |