Cyclones and Flooding: Injury to Turf?
I had planned on writing on the second part of Turf Decline, but recent events here and also in Australia have changed the order in how I want to release articles.
Tropical storms like the one that hit the New York area in November; and as the tropical storm season resumes in the Southern Hemisphere damage to turf can be expected.
Although turf injury is not a high priority when dealing with potential damage to human life and property, what kind of turf damage could occur to turf in the path of the tropical storm?
Salt water intrusion into ponds or into the soil profile often is a major concern. Turfgrasses vary in their tolerance to salt with couchgrass, zoysiagrass, and creeping bentgrass having excellent salinity tolerance while other cool season turfgrasses being considerably more susceptible.
After the storm passes be sure to test for soil and water salinity if you think the potential exists for salt water intrusion.
Most turfgrasses, especially the warm season turfgrasses have a high degree of tolerance to water submersion. The biggest concern would not be the actual water flooding the turf but the soil deposition and debris that flooding may cause. Be sure to remove debris and core cultivate if any soil surface sealing has occurred from soil deposition.
If soils are saturated, combined with high air/soil temperatures, anaerobic conditions can occur causing rapid root loss. For more information on anaerobic soil conditions visit the greencast website and search for TechNotes-SH issue 11 (2011).
Do You Have an Ipad?
The Ohio State University Golf Course Certificate Program has released course material in the form of an electronic book, specifically an IBook ®. The electronic books include written material, photographs, and videos organized in an interactive format. There are two books currently available entitled, "Golf Course Management" and "Golf Course Management: Advanced". The books are free to download. The only requirement is that the download must be from an iPad. To find the books search iBooks ® using the book titles
