Roots Hanging On

This time of year is usually the most hectic time for superintendents that are growing bentgrass in the south. We are 40 days away from September and we are 57 days away from our fall aerification. The fall aerification is the big date for the greens. This is when we can open them up with our big holes and allow them to breathe a little better. That is also when we start to grow our roots back and get our greens healthy. During the heat of the summer and the rainfall that usually accompanies the heat in Georgia, our roots shrink until they are almost nonexistent. Luckily this year, that hasn't been the case so far.  We have seen the roots lose some mass and also lose some length, but pulling samples today, they are still holding a sample together at an average of about 3.5"-4". This is very promising. In past years at this time, we haven't been able to hold a sample together below 1" or so.  We credit this to cooler temps mostly, but also to our Curfew application in the spring. We do not have the nematodes feeding on the roots as we have had in years past and this has helped tremendously. We also have to credit our soil penetrant that has helped us keep our greens as dry as possible in this extremely wet summer.  Without these three factors, there's no telling what our greens would look like right now.  There won't be a single golfer who will see what our roots look like, but every one of them notice the greens are healthy. Without healthy roots, the grass wouldn't be healthy.

This is the sample that the roots are holding together.  The first thing we look at when pulling a profile is how much the roots can hold together.  This is extremely good for July 22. (Notice the clean sand near the top from our past aerifications.)

The other thing we look at is the actual roots. The white color of these roots tells us that they are still relatively healthy. The presence of root hairs is also very promising because that is the part of the root that takes up the nutrients and water.