Is winterkill becoming a bigger problem?

[Jason Topp]

Minnesota courses with a lot of poa on the greens are dealing with a lot  of winter kill this year.


There have been years with bad winter kill in the past but the issues seem to be occurring more frequently over the last 10 years.


1. Does anyone know whether the frequency of such problems is actually increasing?


2. If it is more frequent, Does anyone have insight as to causes? It seems like snowmelt, rain, followed by a hard freeze and then snow cover is a more common winter weather pattern here.  I also wonder whether lower cutting heights on greens plays a role.

[Joe Hancock]

Jason,


My observations (not backed by scientific research or data) is that the higher budget courses are the most likely to suffer winter kill in areas that have cool season grasses.


I won’t speculate why that is so.

[Anthony_Nysse]

Jason,


My observations (not backed by scientific research or data) is that the higher budget courses are the most likely to suffer winter kill in areas that have cool season grasses.


I won’t speculate why that is so.

Not so much. Scanning through twitter the last week, I think the higher end courses are less effected because they have much more bentgrass because they have regrassed or are just newer courses.


Seems like some of the smaller budget courses have less, positive drainage, inability to remove snow and ice or install covers.

[Tyler Kearns]

Jason,


The freeze thaw cycles during winter can be devastating to turfgrass. I think Poa can handle being under ice for 30 days while bent grass is more like 60 days before damage will be evident in the spring. Thankfully, we had a lot of snow cover and a bitterly cold winter here in Manitoba, so the greens have come out exceptionally well this spring.


Tyler

[Jon Wiggett]

My experience of this is that it usually happens in three different cases though sometimes clubs are guilty of more than one.


1. The grass goes into winter overly stressed usually through being mown too short for the time of year in an attempt to produce mid-summer playing conditions in late autumn. This leaves the grass very susceptible to disease through the winter.


2. The club does not allow the grass to go dormant before the winter sets in through overfeeding. This leaves the grass susceptible to disease through the winter which is exacerbated by there being available nutrients in the rootzone area. This is usually caused by the club trying to create mid-summer playing conditions in late autumn.


3. The rootzone is water saturated to a good depth. An ice layer forms on the surface and is then covered by snow. The grass is starved of oxygen by the ice layer and water saturation and can be killed within a matter of 10 days or so. This is usually down to poor drainage often caused by drains being too shallow and also poorly maintained.


As others have noted, grass types play a big role with poa being very susceptible.


Jon

[Wayne_Kozun]

With temperatures warming up a bit there is a higher probability of ice which can be a death knell for greens with lots of poa.  We had that problem here in the Toronto area after a major winter ice storm about 7-8 years ago and it primarily effected the higher end, older course, like St. Georges, Hamilton, Scarboro, etc.

[A.G._Crockett]

To answer the original question, yes.  I never really heard the term until within the last 20 years; now it's discussed every year, and some years is just brutal.  Really, I just attribute this to larger extremes in the climate; the summers are hotter (thus the conversion from bent to bermuda hybrids on greens) and the winters are wetter and colder (thus winter kill).  I don't mean to politicize this in ANY way, but I'm 67 and have lived my entire life in the Southeast; this is NOT the climate I grew up in.

I don't think there will be much this year, but in the winter of 2018, we had an epic cold spell in the Southeast from just before Christmas into late January.  There were courses that had to keep their bermuda greens covered for over three week straight, during which there was also a large snowfall that hung around on the ground for an unusually long time. 

IMO, the winter kill had literally nothing to do with the budget of the golf courses.  I saw really top end places that got hammered, and lowest budget munis that were unharmed.  And I saw the reverse as well.  There was no rhyme or reason to it; it seemed like every course was sort of a micro climate.

[John Emerson]

Where you can almost bet your course will experience some winterkill is during the following weathers scenarios.  A water inundated soil profile followed by a hard, deep, cold freeze.  Example-snow then a really really warm day to cause quick melting then very soon after that a very cold snap that hangs on for a few days or a week.  The water can’t drain fast enough through the profile and basically your putting the roots in an ice block. 

[Jim Sherma]

It’s not only greens. After the horrible rains last year I’m seeing rough that is very spotty with a lot of little bare patches between the tufts. As the rough is getting very thick and full with spring the ball is nestling into near unplayable bare spots surrounded by thick heavy 3 inch rough. I assume it will all fill in and be fine but it’s a real crap shoot for now.

[Joe Zucker]

That's an interesting question.  I have no idea if it's a bigger problem, or maybe just more apparent today because we are used to better conditioned courses?  Assuming winterkill is getting worse, I wonder if it is exacerbated by the tighter cuts and more manicured nature of conditions we usually play today.


I know little about agronomy, but it seems possible that if conditions are stressed more in the summer, they may be less resilient in the winter.  Climate change is definitely a real thing, but I'm skeptical if that could be the cause.  There have always been hot and cold summer/winters, so I would be surprised if grasses were that sensitive to weather changes that have always happened (though likely at a lower rate previously).  I'm happy to be corrected, but those are my impressions.

[Craig Sweet]

Thaw...freeze....too much ice.  It seems like it use to happen one winter out of 15. Now, almost yearly.

[Wayne_Kozun]

That's an interesting question.  I have no idea if it's a bigger problem, or maybe just more apparent today because we are used to better conditioned courses?  Assuming winterkill is getting worse, I wonder if it is exacerbated by the tighter cuts and more manicured nature of conditions we usually play today.

After having a very bad winter several seasons ago my club now raises the height of cut over the last month or two of the season so that the grass on the greens is taller and hardier as it goes dormant and gets covered with ice and snow through the winter.

[Jon Wiggett]

That's an interesting question.  I have no idea if it's a bigger problem, or maybe just more apparent today because we are used to better conditioned courses?  Assuming winterkill is getting worse, I wonder if it is exacerbated by the tighter cuts and more manicured nature of conditions we usually play today.

After having a very bad winter several seasons ago my club now raises the height of cut over the last month or two of the season so that the grass on the greens is taller and hardier as it goes dormant and gets covered with ice and snow through the winter.

Wayne,


raising the height of cut and ensuring the grass is dormant before winter used to be taken as common sense yet today most clubs seem to expect summer conditions in early winter and the same the day after the thaw.

[Ken Moum]

Thaw...freeze....too much ice.  It seems like it use to happen one winter out of 15. Now, almost yearly.

I grew up in northern Minnesota in the 50s and 60s (Thief River Falls to be precise) and I can't think of a winter where any courses made it through without winterkill.


In the early 70s I was in Bemidji, and the superintendent there had a unique way of dealing with winterkill.  As soon as the snow was permanently gone, he'd put peat on the greens with winterkill.  He said it warmed up the soil much quicker and got the Poa seed to germinate sooner.


His greens pretty much always were in good shape before the other courses in the area.


I don't think winterkill is some "new" thing in Minn.  It's just that people have short memories.


K

[Howard Riefs]

Oh, I accidentally read this as "Winterfell."


Carry on...

[PCCraig]

White Bear is in pretty rough shape early this year with spots of significant winterkill. Our greens aren't cut aggressively short, but with the slopes when the snow melted during a January rain storm the water pooled and froze hard for the rest of winter.

There are a bunch of clubs here in town that did not make it through winter well. Typically speaking the clubs that have been aggressive in promoting bent vs. poa on their greens seem to have minimized the damage from the ice.

Of course there is the option of gassing greens and starting over with pure bent, but few clubs can afford the tens of thousands of dollars per green, not to mention lost revenue, to complete the project.

[Anthony_Nysse]

Of course there is the option of gassing greens and starting over with pure bent, but few clubs can afford the tens of thousands of dollars per green, not to mention lost revenue, to complete the project.

And that's the key. In cases like this and also heat stress, higher bentgrass population allow for a better chance to come aware without injury. Poa just isn't a grass that's likes any stress. (Except at Oakmont)

[Jason Topp]

Thaw...freeze....too much ice.  It seems like it use to happen one winter out of 15. Now, almost yearly.

I grew up in northern Minnesota in the 50s and 60s (Thief River Falls to be precise) and I can't think of a winter where any courses made it through without winterkill.


In the early 70s I was in Bemidji, and the superintendent there had a unique way of dealing with winterkill.  As soon as the snow was permanently gone, he'd put peat on the greens with winterkill.  He said it warmed up the soil much quicker and got the Poa seed to germinate sooner.


His greens pretty much always were in good shape before the other courses in the area.


I don't think winterkill is some "new" thing in Minn.  It's just that people have short memories.


K

Thanks Ken.  You may be correct. I would be interested if there was any data demonstrating trends or non trends. 

[Ian Andrew]

We get winter kill in Southern Ontario and the Montreal area quite regularly.
[/size]Tends to be devastating about every 10 years.
[/size]
[/size]Ottawa and Montreal are having a tough spring this year.
[/size]Fairways are wiped out and some green damage.
[/size]
[/size]The increasingly warmer winters have created more ice and more problems in recent years.
[/size]2013/2014 was absolutely awful for Toronto.