There are
many different situations that can lead to winter injury of turfgrass. Possible causes include plant dehydration or desiccation,
crown hydration damage, ice sheet formation limiting gas exchange, and freeze/thaw
cycles. As weather changes every year,
it’s always possible to incur winter injury on some part of the golf course due
to one of these scenarios.
Two situations
in particular stick out this year with the recent weather and those are freeze/thaw
cycles that may lead to crown hydration injury and ice sheet formation. Normally, freezing and thawing cycles can be
beneficial by fracturing apart tight soil and sand particles thereby creating
new space for oxygen and water movement. On the other hand, very quick
freeze/thaw cycles can result in turf loss due to crown hydration injury or ice
sheet formation that does not allow gas exchange.
Three days
ago the turf was covered with about two inches of snow, but that quickly
changed as it melted away during the warm temperatures followed by a fair
amount of rain. While the ground was
still frozen roughly 5-6 inches below the turf surface, there wasn’t a lot of
room for the water to go other than stay on the surface.
Our staff saw the forecast coming and acted quickly in removing as much water as possible from greens to avoid turf damage.
Temperatures quickly dropped below freezing
again last night which has led to ice sheet formation in multiple areas where
there was standing water. This situation
has the potential to lead to turf loss, especially in areas covered by annual bluegrass
or “Poa annua”. Annual bluegrass, the predominant turf
species of putting greens in northern climates of the United States, has a
higher susceptibility to winter injury than creeping bentgrass.
With that
said, there are many times when annual bluegrass has survived during harsh
conditions so only time will tell whether or not mother nature has been nice to
everyone this year!
