Why Are the Greens Slower In the Summer?

 Everyone has to remember, bentgrass and poa annua are cool season grasses.  The OPTIMAL temperature fot cool season grasses is 60-75F.  July our average temperature was 82.  With the ocean being so warm, the nighttime temperatures averaged 73 for July.  Combine this with almost 6 iinches of rain, the cool season grasses thin out.  Remember, the grass cannot go inside to the air conditioning.  The grass also undergoes a phisiological change when it is hot.  The plant swells as a survival mechanism.  I also observe not as clean of a cut during hot weather.  We do everything to protect the turf.  Being new, I have opted for a turf health approach to managment.  On July 8, the USGA issued a regional advisory.  I will post some of these going forward.  The long term outlook was for hot weather.  They advised raising mowing heights and changing the greens rollers from grooved to solid rollers as a pro-active approach.  We made the decision to raise the height by .005 inch on both golf courses.  We opted to protect Seaside greens, due to their construction by raising another .005 this week.  Solid rollers were put on the greens mowers.  Today, we put them on Newport.  What is the difference?  Take a look at the picture.  The roller on the left is a Wiele or grooved roller.  The grooves pinch the grass and stand it up for a more aggressive cut.  The right roller is a traditional smooth roller.  The ones we are using are 20 pounds.  The smooth roller being less aggressive, helps further thinning of greens.  You will notice most of the thinning greens have a lot of trees around them.  It does not take much to tip the scales in a negative direction.  We utilize a spray program of various growth regulators, fertilizers, fungicides, insecticides and biostimulants.  One wrong mix spells disaster.  The weekly spoon feeding of fertilizer products help manipulate the plant into thinking it is in 75 degree comfort.  Think about it.  We also treat the greens every two weeks with a soil spray to help prevent our root systems from becoming dysfunctional.  Ever see a putting green look very pale or almost white?  That is a possible sign of root dysfunction.  When the roots cannot absorb water and nutrients, the plants can die rapidly.  It truly is a delicate balancing act in summer.  While this is the basics, I just want to inform everyone there is more to it than meets the eye.  When it is hot and humid, the best things we can do is deal with the slower speeds, understand what we are doing, vent the greens with small aerifier tines and this fall, we will have some of the finest putting surfaces around.  In July and August, I definitely manage defensively.  Defense wins championships!