In early June, Tropical Storm Barry formed in the Gulf of Mexico and moved northward along the west coast of Florida and then made landfall and traveled into the lower southeast. While fortunately a very weak tropical storm, Barry did dump three to six inches of rain and provided some very much needed relief to the severe drought that has been plaguing the state. Yet, we continue to be close to 10-inches below normal for year to date rainfall. Lake Okeechobee, the primary backup water supply for South Florida, remains barely above its all-time historical low level. The South Florida Water Management District’s Phase 2 and 3 water use restrictions remain in place, and, even when the current drought eventually ends, permanent restrictions will likely be imposed because of the need for ongoing conservation and to prevent additional salt intrusion into the Floridian Aquifer.

With the advent of typical scattered summertime thunderstorms, the impact of the drought has been minimized at some facilities around the state. It is still very important that we all strictly adhere to the water use restrictions for the good of the industry. At courses where non-restricted alternative water sources are being used for irrigation, making the local community fully aware of this point is strongly encouraged.

While the drought situation is definitely severe, temperatures throughout the state remained mild and pleasant throughout the spring. This was beneficial from the standpoint of keeping evapotranspiration rates relatively low and minimizing the impact of a reduced amount of water being available for course irrigation. Especially in Central to North Florida, daytime highs in the low to mid-80’s and nights in the 60’s were occurring up until the last three to four weeks. While sufficient for bermudagrass green-up, sustained active growth had not resumed and environmental conditions were ideal for cool season overseeding grasses.

On TAS visits in the past two to three weeks in the northern part of the state, the transition process out of the overseeding cover on greens, tees and fairways has been slow and cool season turfgrasses are still persisting and competing with the base bermudagrass for moisture, nutrients, and sunlight. There have unfortunately been a number of reports of problems and "hard" transitions at courses from Orlando northward to Jacksonville.

Besides the temporary setbacks in overall course conditioning and quality, it is very important that the transition process be completed as quickly as possible so that the base bermuda has at least 100 growing days without competition so that it is able to reestablish a dense and healthy condition. As a result of ongoing efforts to increase heat, drought, and disease tolerance of cool season grasses, overseeding covers persist much longer into the early summer. Cultural management transition practices alone are not as effective for producing the desired complete redevelopment of a dominant bermudagrass turf cover. If a moderate to high percentage of the overseeding cover is still present in early July, conducting spot or broadcast applications of a sulfonylurea herbicide to produce a complete chemical transition in a timely manner should be given strong consideration. For a further review of this subject, refer to Dr. Fred Yelverton’s article, "Spring Transition, Going, Going, Gone"published in the March/April 2003 of the Green Section RECORD. This article and many others can be easily accessed through the Green Section RECORD archives at http://turf.lib.msu.edu/gsr.

Source: John Foy, jfoy@usga.org or 772-546-2620