Winter Kill question for supers and GCAs

[A.G._Crockett]

So here in Southeast, we've had a pretty epic run of continual cold weather by our standards.  Though it won't impress those of you from the NE, in North Carolina, we've been above freezing for only a couple of hours since back on 12/30, and won't be for at least another 24 hours.  And it had been cold before that; most of the courses with Champion Bermuda greens covered their greens earlier that week around 12/27; the covers have now been on continually for almost two weeks, which is, I think, unprecedented here.  Lows each night for the past several days have been single digits, and highs have only been in the 20's.

To add to the problem, there was snow last week in much of the area, and even where there wasn't a large accumulation, it has stayed on the ground now for 4 days.  Here in the RDU area, we only got about an inch, but courses are still 75% covered 4 days later.  Temperatures won't rise to freezing until around noon tomorrow after dropping back into the high teens tonight, so it'll be at least Tuesday or Wednesday before the majority of the snow and ice are gone. 

Though winter kill is always unpredictable and uneven, what are your guesses about what this will mean, not only for "standard" bermuda fairway grasses, but also for the hybrid bermuda greens?  Is there an outer limit to what the covers can accomplish in these conditions?  Are there issues created by the greens being covered this long?

There have been years where I was sure there would be winter kill and there wasn't, and years where there was, unexpectedly, a significant amount.  Not sure what to think about this year, because I've never seen a stretch of weather quite like this.

[ChipRoyce]

AG - here in Cary watching the same thing. Keeping fingers crossed

[Mike_Young]

Have had covers on greens in LaGrange , Ga since last Sunday.  The covers are black and absorb when the sun is out so you would be surprised how warm it can get under that tarp.  When they stay covered for a week it can actually even green up if not careful.  I find the biggest problem is desiccation when the grass is dry and weather is windy and cold for the other parts of the course.  Seems to happen more on north slopes.

[A.G._Crockett]

Have had covers on greens in LaGrange , Ga since last Sunday.  The covers are black and absorb when the sun is out so you would be surprised how warm it can get under that tarp.  When they stay covered for a week it can actually even green up if not careful.  I find the biggest problem is desiccation when the grass is dry and weather is windy and cold for the other parts of the course.  Seems to happen more on north slopes.

Mike,
Any ballpark predictions about what we might get up here for winter kill in fairways, etc.?

[Mike_Young]

I would guess that if conditions were wet, ice and snow cover you would be ok...JMO

[A.G._Crockett]

I would guess that if conditions were wet, ice and snow cover you would be ok...JMO

Thanks, Mike.

Actually, if anything, it was a bit dry for this time of year on dormant bermuda when the temps crashed the week between Xmas and New Years.  We had .4" of rain on 12/20, but it hadn't rained for nearly two weeks before that, and there had been nothing for another week after that when the temps first crashed.  FWIW...

[Anthony_Nysse]

Something to consider is the type of grass, too. 419s and common bermudagrass are much more susceptible to winter kill than the newer varieties or zoysia.

[SB]

Here's a good presentation. 


http://turf.okstate.edu/educational-materials/files/Winter%20kill%20presentation2.pdf


In the south, we rarely get winterkill from extreme low temps.  This recent long term spell does have me a little worried, although as Mike points out, the covers should help considerably since the days were sunny.  The times I've seen the most damage in the south is when we get heavy freeze/thaw cycles.  In 2015 in North Carolina we got heavy snow/ice, then it would melt and refreeze over and over.  We lost acres and acres of fairway turf, and you could see it was in areas where the snow would melt and then freeze.


As Mike says, I'm most worried about desiccation right now, which also kills the turf, but it's from the turf drying out as opposed to temperatures.  We've had almost no humidity for a couple weeks.

[A.G._Crockett]

I had a long conversation about this topic with the super at my course on Tuesday. 

He felt that winter kill was more likely later into the year when perhaps the bermuda had started to come back a bit, and then there was a prolonged cold spell, but the bottom line is that the whole thing is VERY unpredictable.  He said that at some point later in the winter, he would bring in plugs from areas that were historically prone to winter kill and put the plugs under grow lights inside to see if the turf would "bloom".

As to the question of bermuda greens staying covered for two full weeks, while temperatures stayed below freezing for over 200 consecutive hours, he basically said that this is unknown territory for supers with bermuda greens.  He is a bent grass guy, but said that he suspected that if any of the bermuda courses have trouble, it'll be the more recent conversions.  Chapel Hill Country Club and The Neuse are two in this area that just converted this summer, for instance.