Thatch Control, Winter Painting, and Plant Growth Regulator Management on Golf Course Putting Greens

Evaluating ‘Champion’ Bermudagrass in the Field with Various Rates of Nitrogen, Trinexapac-ethyl (Primo), and a Granular Thatch Reducer (Thatch-X) Golf course putting green grasses normally receive stresses from increased traffic, low heights of cut, high potentials to pests due to weakened resistance, and frequent removal of clippings by losing viable food sources. Additionally, in the transition zone, putting green grasses must cope with a broad range of temperatures which set up a unique situation for the golf course manager in choosing the best putting green grass for these stressful weather conditions. Their decision depends on a number of factors, of most importance the turf management plan. The discovery of the perfect turf management program drives turfgrass research to identify management practices which will stretch the adaptation limits associated with both types of turfgrass for the highest quality. A field experiment was conducted from June 2004 to June 2006 to investigate the best management practices for reducing thatch accumulation and increasing root mass of ‘Champion’ bermudagrass (C. dactylon (L.) Pers. X C. transvaalensis Burtt-Davy). The treatments included all factorial combinations of three rates of N [244 (low), 488 (medium), and 732 (high) kg ha yr over 20 applications], with and without Trinexapac-ethyl (TE), and with and without Thatch-X. Nitrogen was applied biweekly as ammonium sulfate, TE (1EC) was applied biweekly at 0.025 kg a.i. ha following each nitrogen application, and Thatch-X was applied once per growing season in July at the label-recommended rate of 146 kg ha.