August 3, 2011
Here is a really useful post from Mark Newton, Superintendent of Ames Golf and Country Club.
It is about some work that he has been doing on moss control on his greens. This is a work-in-progress. We'll follow up later and see how the area looks next spring.
From Mark:
Here are two photos showing our progress with Quicksilver at Ames Golf and Country Club since June of last year on number 18 green (one of the worst ones when I arrived). As you can see we have made considerable strides in eliminating the moss. I am hopeful that after our fall aerification in September and by the beginning of 2012. Ames Golf will be basically moss free for the first time in over 12 years.
As per our discussion before, here is our program on our moss treatments, cultural practices and other items.
Last fall 1 week after our core aerification (1/2” tines on 2” spacing, 4 inch deep) we started the heavy moss treatments. These started on September 14th, and were sprayed every 14 days at the 6.7 oz / acre rate for three consecutive treatments, also included was a spreader sticker and tank buffer to get the PH to 6.5. Also we bumped the fertility way up on the greens, putting 3 sequential applications of 7-7-7 fertilizer at .4 lbs of N per 1000 every 2 weeks, also increased our mowing height to .140 with two rolls per week to help keep green speed. This gave us the most control and reduction in the moss, reducing the population by 40-50% and in some spots completely eliminating them.
This year we are continuing the applications but on a more regular basis with lower rates. The label gives us .4lbs of AI per acre per season. That is 26.8 oz of product per acre in total. To date and future applications are shown below:
- April 6th 2 oz/acre Complete
- May 10th 2 oz/acre Complete
- May 24th 2 oz/acre Complete
- June 17th 4 oz/acre Complete
- June 27th 2 oz/acre Complete
- July 11th 1 oz/acre Complete
- July 25th 1 oz/acre Complete
- August 7th 2 oz/acre
- August 21st 4 oz/acre
- September 6th Greens Aerification
- September 13th 6.7 oz / acre + Spreader Sticker
*Note – Greens height in spring start up was .140, lowered to .120 by May 15th and remained at that height until 2 weeks ago with all this heat back to .130 so I don’t have moss free but dead greens. On a normal year would still be at .120 with 1 heavy roll every Thursday, light topdressing every 3 weeks and 1 verticut / month when weather permits
In this program we also have bumped up our fertility of the greens from prior years, and included more applications of Daconil Ultrex to further aid in the moss treatments. These treatments other than the last one on September 13th will be put in with our regular spray program of Garys Green Ultra at 9oz/M, Tuff Turf at 4.5 oz/M, PK Plus at 4.5 oz/M, primo at .125 oz/M, and then a rotation of Fungicides. These include, Daconil Ultrex on every treatment (ranging from 5lbs/a to 10), Headway, Banner, Heritage TL, Instrata, and Emerald. Pending on weather a Banol or FORE application might be made.
Additionally for cultural practices we tend to keep greens a little dryer than in previous years with more hand-watering and deep watering. We also make sure that when we do a verticut we are always spraying the next day to not only aid in the recovery and have the best chemical controls, but to decrease the chance of spore transport and giving open areas where it can establish.
As the two photos illustrate on #18 green (one from June 2010 and another from August 2011) we have seen a dramatic shift and percentage of moss in a little less than 11 months from the start of our program. With this falls aerification and heavy moss treatment on September 13th we look to eliminate most if not all the moss by 2012.
Our plans for the future once we are mostly clean will still be using quicksilver sparingly once a month to make sure we never end up in this situation again, but are still planning on this same program put into place this year for 2012 or until we see full eradication of the moss.
Hope this helps and if you need any other documentation just let me know! Thanks!
PS – One side note is I wish we were given a larger amount of AI per acre per season with this product when it is specialized towards moss. I would love to do the 3 sequential applications this fall and not just the one final hurrah after aerification.
Mark Newton
Ames Golf & Country Club
Course Superintendent
Cell 515.509.1387
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