Accelerating Re-Establishment of Putting Greens Following Winterkill.

The winter of 2013-2014 left many golf course superintendents in the Great Plains region looking for re-establishment solutions following widespread winterkill. The objective of this study was to develop management recommendations to accelerate re-establishment of creeping bentgrass putting greens in the spring. The study was conducted on a creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera) ‘L-93’putting green (>90% death) in early spring, and ended mid-summer. Plots were established using a strip-split plot design with three replicates. Main plots were heat treatments which included a turf colorant (Foursome, Quali-Pro, Pasadena, TX) applied at 4.4 L ha^-1, a clear 3.5 mm plastic tarp with ventilation holes manually punched on approximately 3 cm centers, a white woven permeable tarp (GreenJacket, Genoa City, WI), black landscape fabric, and an untreated control. A seeding treatment was stripped across the main plots with no seed, or seed at 98 kg PLS ha^-1, which were split to receive 0, 9.6, or 48 kg ha^-1 N, every 14 days. Seeding treatments were seeded at a depth of 1 cm. Soil volumetric water content (VWC), and soil temperatures at 1.3 cm depth were collected immediately prior to removal of heat treatments. Seedling quality (0-9) and percent turf cover were collected weekly after germination. Repeated measures analysis was used in JMP for seedling quality and percent turf cover. The clear 3.5 mm plastic tarp yielded the highest soil temperature at 26°C, followed by the white woven tarp at 21°C. The white woven permeable tarp yielded the highest germination uniformity for nearly all rating dates and had the highest turf cover across rating dates. Increasing soil temperatures with tarps, and seeding the turf immediately in the spring, cultivated seedlings with high TQ, more turf coverage, and resulted in playable conditions two weeks earlier than non-seeded treatments.