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I’ve been in the business long enough to know that you don’t have to wait long to hear of the next best thing coming into the industry. These products are typically focused on issues that are real pains to golf course superintendents and turf managers alike. We all succumb to be victims of affluence…that is, it is never enough.
In the words of one of my key influences in my career, Dr. Joe Duich, he taught me that “Superintendents are often the victims of their own futility.” This means we often create our own problems and issues, and we many times do it without the need to have made any change at all.
I recently heard of a new chemistry coming from overseas that is orchestrated to control Poa annua without taking down bentgrass and other desirable grasses. For those of us in the warm climates, you can correlate this new product with the feelings you had when the first turf type Seashore paspalum grasses came out. Again, I’ll quote a late friend of mine, Rick Tatum who worked hard in the Florida environment and once told me that he “just had a feeling that Seashore paspalum was not right for me at the time…everyone that put it in was dealing with Dollar spot…a disease not seen often or at all until people started putting in the “new” type of grass.” He was right of course. But it wasn’t just the grass being in the wrong situation at the wrong time. It was more related to how to manage the grass that we were all still learning.
But for those trying to manage a mixed stand of grass and hoping to eradicate Poa without losing much surface area (just a weak perimeter from clean up passes on the green is often times less than 2% decline and unacceptable to members and players), the sound of a product that has no side effects is intriguing to say the least. I have to say, it is working quite well and only in the early stages of EPA registration and evaluation.
My doctor once told me when I inquired about my diet that “We are living, breathing organisms and we most certainly react to what we do to it and what we feed it. Do everything in moderation and pay attention.” It’s funny how I gave the same advice to my students with regard to managing turfgrass and staffs…and I give similar advice to clients around the world. Turfgrass is a living breathing organism…period. It respond quickly to some things but not so fast or obvious to others. We cannot do the same things over and over to it expecting it to always react the same. It is a fluid, dynamic environment…just like the staffs we manage and we have to be in tune with that always. Making proper changes and anticipating needs of change and inputs is what makes one turf professional stand out from another. Just know that no solution comes in a bottle. Not now, and not ever. But there are products that can really make a difference if we understand them fully and apply them to our overall holistic approach to managing our turfgrass environments best.
Don’t make quick decisions to go all in on any one product. A few years back a product came online that also controlled Poa in various turf stands. A client of mine called me only after the damage had been done. He applied the product to all of his fairways without doing any tests (clearly stated on the label to do so). Since he had seeded his fairways each season with whatever he could get most economically, he had a hodgepodge of varieties of his target species. Many of those varieties were not tested by the manufacturer and of course succumbed to the effects of the chemistry, killing off nearly 60 percent of his fairways. My father once taught me…believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see. This is strong advice that has served me well. Nobody knows your turf better than you. Don’t get complacent, always think out of the box and make sound decisions that fit your overall plan…even if it includes something new…especially if it includes something new.
About the author
Carmen Magro serves as the vp of business development at Stevens and formerly the head of Agronomy Management Solutions, which recently merged with Stevens. He's a frequent GCI contributor.