We are knee deep into our first winter with the new MiniVerde greens at the Players Club. Managing MiniVerde through the winter, like all the other seasons, is very different from managing bent grass. We have sought out advice from the MiniVerde growers and many other superintendents who manage this relatively new grass to help ease the learning curve. We have gathered as much information as possible and are working to adapt it to our specific situation. There are no cookie cutter answers as to the best way to manage any type of grass; every place and grass is different. We are in the process of trying out different things to see what works best for us. I want to talk about what we are doing through the winter months to maintain great putting surfaces, but also set the greens up for a successful spring and summer.
MiniVerde goes into dormancy with the onset of cold, short days and a few frosts. Mowing heights of the greens are raised in the fall as the days shorten and temperatures cool. One reason for doing this is to add leaf surface so when the leaves shrink down in the winter the greens don’t become too fast to putt on. Another reason to raise mowing heights is that having more leaf surface helps the plant store more carbohydrates that it needs to survive the winter and reemerge in the spring. The greens are rolled more frequently as mowing heights are raised to maintain a smooth, consistent ball roll. At the same time the grass is also losing it’s color, going from green to brown. In the fall we start treating the greens with a green pigment to maintain the color. Pigment treatments are made more and more frequently as the fall progresses. Once we believe the plant has stopped growing we treat it with a stronger concentration colorant. Most people still call it “painting” but now we use organic colorants that don’t harm the grass or our sprayer pumps. The greens will be retreated multiple times throughout the winter to keep the color as consistent as possible.
Bermuda grass is a lot like an ice berg, you only see a small part of it. It may look brown and dead on top but just below the surface is a network of stolons, rhizomes and roots that are very much alive. These living plants still need adequate moisture and nutrients. The greens are still irrigated as needed with a goal of 12-20% soil moisture to prevent desiccation and death of the plant. We also apply small amounts of nitrogen, potassium and micro nutrients every three to four weeks through the winter. Those treatments will increase in rate and frequency as the temperature rises in the spring. We continue to mow or roll the greens a few times per week depending on the weather to keep the putting surfaces clean and smooth.
All of this is done in an effort to maintain consistently green and smooth putting surfaces. So far, this winter has been anything but consistent. When the weather turned cold in November the greens went dormant faster than expected. Mid December the weather warmed, the grass came out of dormancy and started to grow again. The same thing happened again in mid January. The problem is when these quick warm ups cause the grass to grow again putting speeds slow and all the colorant we applied gets mown off. When it gets cold again the grass goes straight from green to brown and that lost color is hard to recover. It is an inexact science but we are learning and getting better everyday as we look forward to spring.
Grayson Grainger
