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Why are our greens so slow???


This is a common question these days here at HCC. Every spring our Poa greens go to seed (notice the yellowish grass in the picture). This is a natural part of Poa's life cycle. If you play late in the day, it will be worse, much worse. The plants go to flower with the sunshine and become big and bushy. This creates a very slow and rather bunpy putting surface. We apply a growth regulator to help regulate the growth throughout the day. Currently (today) we are near the tail end of the last application. We were scheduled to apply this morning, but rain and very windy conditions prevented us from doing so. We will attempt to go with the sprayer on Wednesday morning. You will notice some of the Grounds Dept. staff out on the greens performing a number of practices to combat the seed head production (verticutting, brushing, double cutting and possibly afternoon mowing).

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