As temperatures increased from south to north through the mid-Atlantic states, bermudagrass greenup showed the scars of this past winter’s weather. Not all warm-season turf tolerated the unusually “normal” winter that had extended durations of cold temperatures and snow cover lasting weeks. In recent winters, snow cover has lasted days or hours. Throughout my travels, most winter injury coincided with areas of shade, wet swales and north-facing slopes where snow cover lasted longer. When snow melts during warm temperatures, the crowns become active, take in excess water and then are susceptible to freezing and crown hydration injury. The most-injured turf was in concentrated traffic areas. Restricting cart traffic and redistributing golfer foot traffic makes a significant difference in winter survival, but not all winter injury can be prevented regardless of the management strategy – you can only reduce the risk.
Unsurprisingly, spring dead spot disease broke through preventative fungicide applications. More interestingly, several golf courses in Virginia confirmed both spring dead spot and take-all root rot pathogens in fairway samples. While take-all root rot is less common, if your course has large areas of injured bermudagrass that seem excessive for spring dead spot, have a sample sent to a university-based plant diagnostic lab for accurate diagnosis. For enhanced disease control, extend fungicide applications to fully cover the potential infection periods and incorporate wetting agents to help move the active ingredients to the crown and rootzone. Most (not all) fungicides for spring dead spot control require watering-in, so be diligent with ample irrigation immediately after application before the product has time to dry on the leaf blades. After fungicides dry, trying to move the active ingredients to the potential infection areas with irrigation will yield poor results.
The beauty of bermudagrass is that each week in the spring when daylight and temperatures increase brings surprising amounts of recovery. Areas that look to require regrassing through sprigging can quickly change to needing just a few pallets of sod or even just some plugs. Exercising patience is not easy, but many areas will recover with time, nitrogen and water. Growing temperatures have not been consistent, so pump the brakes on any major regrassing plans to allow for growth and truly evaluate the need closer to the end of May, which is a better time for regrassing anyway. Reach out to your regional USGA agronomist to evaluate any suspected winter injury or disease at your course and discuss recovery options.
Northeast Region Agronomists:
Darin Bevard, senior director, Championship Agronomy – dbevard@usga.org
Elliott L. Dowling, regional director, East Region – edowling@usga.org
Brian Gietka, agronomist – bgietka@usga.org