Never too early

To say it has been a strange year weather-wise would be an understatement the size of a PGA Tour green. When you mention winter, people ask, “What winter?” Couple that with a mild spring and early summer, and it would seem that golf course superintendents have to be on their toes this year when it comes to their fertilization programs with liquids, foliars and biostimulants.
   
Much like insect activity, the theme for feeding turfgrass the nutrients it needs to develop a good rootzone in 2012 has been “early, early, early.” The warmer-than-normal temperatures have ramped up things a month to six weeks early, and superintendents have taken note.
   
Jeff Harris, superintendent at Kearney Hill Golf Links in Lexington, Ky., started fertilizing around March 1 this year compared to his normal early to mid-April schedule. His program generally consists of biostimulants every two weeks, tweaking the program if things get really stressful.

“It has been in my mind that it’s going to be a long year, so that’s why I started doing my fertility early,” says Harris, who says he can’t remember May 15 ever feeling like July in 14 years as a superintendent. “March was very warm, and April was a bit colder but not enough to make a difference. We haven’t had frost since I don’t remember. We’re already hitting the mid-80s and 90s, and that’s a month ahead of schedule.”
   
For all intents and purposes, Harris says it’s already mid-summer in his region. Usually, he and his crew can’t mow the roughs enough at this time of year, but they already almost don’t need to be mowed but only “cleaned up.”
   
“This is the first year I can’t remember when no one has complained about our roughs,” he says. “We’re keeping it cut with no trouble. Usually in April and May we can’t stop. The rough is extremely thin, and it’s extremely early for that. Usually it’s July when I’m backed off this much.”
   

In addition to the warmer temperatures, Harris says his region got little rain in April, so areas they don’t irrigate have already started to dry.

With the extended season due to the mild weather, he is slightly concerned about his early fertilizer use becoming a budget issue. However, with his course being government-owned, he is somewhat put at his ease by the fact that his budget will start anew on July 1, the start of the new fiscal year. Other courses, however, may not be so lucky.
   
“It definitely could be a budget issue, but the season isn’t over yet, so who knows what may happen,” says Gary Grigg, vice president/agronomist with Grigg Brothers. “I can understand that as a consideration, though.”
   
Harris

But from a supplier’s point of view, Grigg says the year has been a good one so far, with sales fast and furious much earlier than normal.
   
“Everybody’s out applying early,” he says. “Usually we get slammed in April to get stuff out to our distributors. This year it happened in March, so we’re a month ahead.”
   
Echoing Harris’s comments, Gregg feels the theme this year is simply “early,” with no tweaking of a superintendent’s normal liquid, foliar and/or biostimulant program. It’s all a matter of timing.
   
“The timing is different, but the programs aren’t any different,” he says. “Considering our products, our programs wouldn’t change any. We have an early-season product that is the same no matter when the early season is. But for the bulk of the season, I believe we’ll sell more Gary’s Green this year because of it being early.”
   
Doug Middleton, vice president of Lebanon/Ocean Organics, agrees that the warmer weather has only affected superintendents’ fertilizer application timing and not the mix or volume. But going further, he believes this could have positive implications for the rest of the year.
   
“You want to take advantage of the good growing weather to grow as healthy a stand of turf as you possibly can,” says Middleton. “A smart superintendent will look at this and say, okay, well if I started getting good growing weather in March, I’m going to take advantage of it and have the best root system I can going into summer.”
   
While out doing his field work, Middleton says superintendents have been asking if now is the time to start their biostimulant programs, and he has answered with a resounding “Yes.” He believes this category of product is now established enough that people know it’s not only a curative measure but a proactive one as well.
   
“Therefore, a huge amount of users will use these products now barring catastrophic rain, which would keep the sprayer from going out,” he says. “They’ll use them because they’re part of their plan. There’s a percentage of people who, when the weather is bad, will all of a sudden say, ‘I have to do something different, I’m hurting.’ Those are the people who maybe haven’t tried products in this category before and all of a sudden say, ‘What the heck, I should try this.’”
   
Like Grigg, Middleton has seen an early spike in sales, but overall, he expects sales to remain steady despite the abnormal season.
   
“Foliars, fertilizers and biostimulants are still geared toward greens, and even during the economic upheaval, the one thing superintendents have maintained focus on is greens management,” Middleton says. “Everyone is aware that your greens are what keep people coming back. So our business has remained fairly steady because we’re so greens-focused.”
   
Middleton says he has never seen such an early start to the season before, especially everywhere north of the transition zone. But after an historically warm March and a cool April that served to slow down turf physiologically, he believes that mid-May became normal compared to Mays in past years. Still, with “hot” weather already appearing in the Midwest, he believes overall that turf will undergo more stress this season than usual. But while the turf may be stressed, he doesn’t believe golf courses will be from a business perspective.
   
“The early season was so healthy and so good for business because we got decent weather for the golf business and courses got early play,” he says. “In some respects, what we’re seeing is that there has been a sigh of relief that maybe we’re not quite on the edge of collapse that we previously were living on. So the benefit has been a psychological one, plus all those dollars early on dropped to the bottom line as pure profit because the courses weren’t completely staffed up yet.”
   
Grigg also takes a positive look at the strange meteorological goings-on that have forced supers to begin their early-season programs that much earlier.
   
“[Superintendents’] budget money might get spent, but their income should be way up because of people playing golf earlier,” he says. “From our standpoint, it’s all good news. It looks like everyone will have a good year.”

Jason Stahl is a Cleveland-based freelance writer and frequent GCI contributor.