It has been a beautiful fall, with much of the country experiencing warmer weather than usual. This has led to some courses delaying or deferring cultural management practices to prioritize the fall golf season. However, moving cultural management practices to later in the fall can be risky. Here are some reasons why you should try to avoid it.
Day Length
The amount of daylight decreases notably during the fall. Chicago, for example, will lose around one hour and 20 minutes of day length during the month of October. Losing this amount of sunlight has a negative effect on photosynthesis and carbohydrate production in the plant. As a result, recovery from injury or cultural management practices like aeration is lessened.
Temperature
In St. Louis, the average high temperature drops from 75 F for the month of September to 63 F in October, and the average low temperature drops from 53 to 44 F. Additionally, the typical first frost in St. Louis is around the end of October. Decreases in temperature overall and occasional dips below freezing slow down turfgrass growth and recovery from aeration and other cultural practices. If practices are done too late in the fall, recovery may not be realized until temperatures improve again in the spring.
Exposure During Winter
If voids in the turf from cultural practices are present heading into winter, the risk of desiccation is increased as the grass around these voids can dry more quickly in cold, dry air. Weed pressure from winter-germinating weeds like Poa annua can also be amplified by voids left from late-season cultural practices. Having the greens completely healed from aeration before winter will reduce the risk of desiccation and weed pressure and help ensure optimal putting green health for next season.
If your course is going to aerify or conduct other cultural management practices later in the season to optimize fall golf, making efforts to minimize the surface area impacted by these practices can help ensure recovery is achieved before winter weather arrives. It may also be better to delay cultural practices entirely until the spring in some cases. If you have any questions about how late-fall cultural management practices can impact your course, please reach out to your local USGA agronomist.
Central Region Agronomists:
Zach Nicoludis, regional director, Central Region – znicoludis@usga.org
Tom Gould, agronomist – tgould@usga.org