A Plant Out of Place

WEEDS are defined as a plant out of place according to my college weed science professor. With that being said we have quite a few out of place plants on the golf course. Due to budgetary constraints a pre-emergent was not applied to our secondary roughs (also called by some native areas or fine fescue). Currently we are applying some post-emergent controls to large broadleaf plants around tee boxes and other high visibility areas. The tell tale signs that it is working is the curling up and bending over of these plants within 24 hours of application.

Pre-emergent products were applied in a timely manner this Spring to fairways, tees and rough. According to a recent United States Golf Association Green Section update many of these applications are not lasting as long as they should due to the higher than normal soil temperatures breaking down the product in the soil. A follow-up application was made but only works when there is adequate moisture in the soil and enough irrigation to move the product into the soil. With the drought, neither of these conditions were present and the second application was not as effective as planned. There are post-emergent products available to control these weeds. However, adequate soil moisture is needed for them to work effectively and temperatures need to be lower than what we have had to not cause damage to the turf we have on the tees, fairways and rough. A very tough situation which has led to hand-picking weeds as time and labor allows. Good news is the first frost will take out most of these annual summer weeds. On average this will occur in mid-October but can happen earlier in October.