Tis the season for Poa seedheads....ughh.

Every spring, the mixed stand of bentgrass and Poa annua (annual bluegrass) that covers our greens, tees, and fairways gets a 'white hue' in the form of seedheads.  While aesthetically unappealing, these seedheads also can make the greens a little bumpy and 'wiggly'.

In order to reduce the effect of seedheads, superintendents spray a cocktail of growth regulators at calculated times during the spring.  Unfortunately, the temperature models and observational techniques used to properly time these applications are inconsistent in providing results.  The last two years, we have had 60-80% control, while this year I would guess closer to 35-45 depending on the green.  My best guess would be that the unusually cold and wet spring had something to do with it.

One common misconception is that we can just 'get rid' of the Poa (or 'Po' as many golfers like to mispronounce).  If you take time to look at the patches of seedheads, you will soon realize that our greens, tees and fairways are between 50 and 85% Poa annua.  If we were to 'get rid' of it, we would be playing on mostly dirt.   Short of completely re-seeding the entire golf course, the Poa is here to stay.  While it is not as desirable a species as pure bentgrass in terms of disease resistance, putting quality, and root length, it can provide great conditions when properly maintained. 

We will always do our best to control the seedheads with the technology available to us.  With the limited performance of the chemicals this spring, we will have to do a little extra grooming and rolling to try and keep the greens putting as true as possible.  Seedheads should mostly be gone in 3-4 weeks depending on the weather.

Below is a link to a USGA article about seedhead control (a lot of turf nerd stuff mostly, but interesting nonetheless). 

http://www.usga.org/turf/green_section_record/2008/jul_aug/managing_poa_seedheads.pdf

Little white Poa seedheads covering about 40-50% of this photo. 

The golf ball is sitting on a patch of bentgrass.  As you can see, the lime green Poa annua surrounds it entirely.  Fortunately, it appears we did get some seedhead control, since not all of the Poa has the little white seedheads.

The darker green turf that the ball sits on is bentgrass.  One of our larger patches on 12 green.

A little closer look at seedheads from the fairway perspective.