| Abstrakt: |
Despite significant changes in sand introduction to putting greens the past 15 years, putting greens in eastern Pennsylvania are still vulnerable to excessive levels of organic matter (OM) which can lead to catastrophic turf loss. The objective was to benchmark current trends in OM and sand introduction on putting greens in eastern Pennsylvania along with N rate, core aeration frequency, soil moisture, firmness, trueness, budget, percentage bentgrass cover and construction method. From 74 courses, 221 greens were sampled for %OM at four depths. The average %OM in the top 0 to 1 inches was 2.8% and ranged from 0.6 to 10.8%, while the average in the 1‐to‐2‐inch depth was 1.8% (0.5–5.9% range). The average sand introduction rate was 15 ft3 sand 1,000 ft–2 yr–1 (range = 1–67) and the average N rate was 2.4 lb N 1,000 ft–2 yr–1 (range = 0.5–4.5). Seventy percent of greens were cored aerated two times per year. Correlations were weak between %OM in the 0‐to‐1‐inch depth and sand rate (r = –.33), N rate (–0.11), and core aeration frequency (–0.18). These weak correlations were surprising and counterintuitive yet not uncommon for a benchmarking study of this nature. Higher budget courses do more sand introduction and core aeration and have greens that are truer, drier, firmer, lower in OM and use less N than lower budget courses. Superintendents can compare their greens to others in similar categories and use the results to help justify more resources and/or maintenance practices.Core Ideas: Higher budget golf courses do more sand introduction and core aeration.Higher budget golf courses have greens that are truer, drier, firmer, lower in organic matter and use less N.Seventy percent of putting greens had organic matter levels less than the standard recommendation of 3‐4%.The top inch of the greens had the highest organic matter which averaged 2.8% and ranged from 0.6 to 10.8%.Superintendents can use the results to justify more resources and or maintenance practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
Plný text