7/2/2013 - By Harrell's

Experienced superintendents understand the value of “hardening-off” the plant long before winter dormancy. Many supers will incorporate 2 – 4 pounds of actual Potassium into their greens aerification program in August or September. Potassium will help to thicken the cell wall thereby helping the plant survive winter desiccation and the freeze/thaw cycles that are so common in the Northeast. Harrell’s Polyon 0-0-50 coated K is the only micro coated K on the market. Because it’s coated, it will release slowly over 16 to 20 weeks and because it’s a micro, it can be easily worked in the soil.

As the days become shorter and temperatures struggle to reach 50 degrees, superintendents will normally spray greens, tees and fairways with a cleanup spray. This second to last spray of the season has proven to be very beneficial in helping to manage Dollar Spot the following spring. Snow Mold, both Pink and Gray, can be devastating to untreated turf.

Preventative Snow Mold applications are made from mid to late November. On greens, in recent years, nothing has performed better than Instrata applied at the rate of 11 ounces per thousand square feet. On tees and fairways, Instrata at 5.5 to 6 ounces per thousand square feet has performed very well. This past winter, courses in Western New York saw excellent results on fairways treated with Tourney (registered in NY in 2010) at 16 ounces per acre combined with Daconil Ultrex applied at 5 pounds per acre. Many superintendents will supercharge their fungicide sprays by adding Harrell’s Fungicide Activator to their spray mix using one pint per 100 gallons of water. Harrell’s Fungicide Activator is a critical add-on when spraying large acreage with 1 to 2 gallons of water per acre.

Here are a couple of rock solid turf tips that many Harrell’s customers took advantage of this past winter. Around December 1, they sprayed their greens with 6 ounces of Harrell’s Fleet. Fleet is a soil surfactant penetrant. Fleet proved to be very helpful for removing standing water from the surface of greens during freeze/thaw cycles and after snow melt, greens treated with Fleet were firm and ready for play. Finally, Harrell’s PAR, a green pigment that is fast becoming the industry standard for enhancing the color of turf throughout the growing season, was applied at 16 ounces per acre with the final spray of the year. Greens, tees and fairways treated with PAR emerged from under the snow looking like they were in mid-season condition.

By Harrell’s Sales Representative in New York, Peter J Salinetti, CGCS