Turf

Winter 2012

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WInTer PreP By Joe Lara Turf Colorants Extra Protection From Winter Injury As with most environmental challenges faced by turfgrass managers, winter dam- age can vary greatly by region. The winter season of 2012 was very mild throughout the Midwest and Western u.S., with little to no snow cover. However, open and dry winter conditions like these can cause winter desiccation of both creeping bent- grass and annual bluegrass, damaging turfgrass and delaying spring green-up. Many golf course superintendants and sports turf managers use synthetic covers as well as anti-desiccant sprays and heavy sand topdressing to offset winter injury and speed spring green- up. In addition, many superintendents now use turf colorants as an extra level of winter protection in combination with snow mold fungicide applications. using permanent turf colorants such as Green lawnger can decrease winter injury and promote rapid spring green-up of treated turfgrasses. Turf colorants have been demon- strated to improve turfgrass performance throughout winter seasons. university research shows that turfgrasses treated with permanent turf paints absorb more solar radiation in the winter and spring. This elevates soil and surface tempera- Iowa State University 9 100 tures, creating a more desirable microcli- mate. In studies conducted in Iowa, turf colorants that were applied in december were still visible on the plots during green-up in March and april. even after the colorants were no longer apparent, there were still improvements in natural turfgrass color. WT Editor's Note: Joe Lara is product manager at Becker Underwood. Visit www.beckerunderwood.com. University of Arizona 75 6 50 3 25 0 0 March April May Canopy Temperature (°F) Clipping Weight (g) 18 www.westernturfmag.com Visual color rating (1-9) Control Green Lawnger Synthetic Cover Anti-Desiccant Sand Topdress Control Green Lawnger Synthetic Cover Anti-Desiccant Sand Topdress Control Green Lawnger Synthetic Cover Anti-Desiccant Sand Topdress Control Green Lawnger Control Green Lawnger

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