Enhancing Your Spring Green-Up
By Scottie Hines, CGCS
Spring is here, although it is tough to notice with the amount of snow remaining on the ground. The weather forecast seems to be trending to a more seasonable pattern. The sun’s intensity is increasing greatly as well which means it will not be long before we are clear of snow and looking to kick the season off as quickly as possible.
The spring green-up can be enhanced with a couple key products to push the plants along just a little quicker. This is especially true on putting greens and tee boxes.
As the sun intensifies in the month of March, an application of Quali-Pro Foursome turf colorant can darken the leaf tissue just enough to help gather in that solar energy and help warm the surface soils to the point where things start actively growing or breaking dormancy. This is also a great time to follow-up with any fungicides to clear up any remaining snow mold activity or break-through.
Once the plants have broken dormancy and the ground has thawed application of 0.5 lb. Nitrogen/1000 sq. ft. of Spring Valley’s 10-15-10 starter fertilizer will really give the plants the boost to active growing. 10-15-10 is 100% Ammoniacal nitrogen source which will be quickly available to the plants. A SGN of 90 will help ensure complete coverage for even spread and even green-up on the more closely mown areas such as greens and tees.
If greens and tees still seem to be slow, a follow-up application can be done 10-14 days after the initial application.
Need further assistance? Give me a call or email me today!
shines@tessmanseed.com or 800.882.5704
A 1993 graduate of Penn State University with a B.S. in Agronomy (Turfgrass) Scottie Hines has been working in the golf world in some manner for over 35 years. Having been at several top private golf clubs including Laurel Valley Golf Club, Oakmont Country Club, Baltusrol Golf Club and, most recently, Windsong Farm Golf Club.
He was an assistant golf course superintendent for three U.S. Opens (’89 Senior, ’92 women’s and ’94 Open) and a superintendent for the 2000 U.S. Amateur.
When not on the greens, you can find him at the local curling club, cheering his children on to victories while wearing his kilt.
Scottie joined Tessman Company as in inside sales person in 2018.