Where's all this bermuda grass coming from?

[Dan Herrmann]

But we're up here in Philly - We don't want no stinking Bermuda grass! 

[Joe Bausch]

Whatever happened to that hybrid, uhhh tri-brid, that supe Spackler was working on in his home/office?  That mixture of Kentucky Bluegrass, Featherbed Bent, and Northern California Sensemilia sounded awesome.

 

[Jason Walker]

According to our superintendent, and articles I've read, the USGA was encouraging courses in the transition zone to consider bermuda as an all season grass back in the 1960's.  Our course Tavistock planted it, and then went the route of zoysia in the 1980's.  Archie mentioned Pine Valley (about 10 miles away), and from what I've read they really were the vanguard on turf experimentation back then, and they still have remnants of both those grasses today, as we do.

In our case, we actually gassed the entire golf course for our restoration in 2006, so the bermuda survived that, only reemerging during the hot and dry summer of 2010.  It's a ridiculously nasty weed and I've posted before about it.  For about three months a year here it's perfectly fine to play off of, but during green-up in the spring and going dormant in the fall it's horrible.   It's gotten to be such an issue in a couple of places on our course, a consultant recently recommended giving in and trying to plant a hybrid-type bermuda to try and out-compete it and deal with it.

I've seen it at a number of courses here--some who regrassed as recently as two years ago--and unless something drastic changes, it's sure to be one of the bigger ongoing problems superintendents will have to deal with.  

[Carl Johnson]

. . .  It's [common bermuda] gotten to be such an issue in a couple of places on our course, a consultant recently recommended giving in and trying to plant a hybrid-type bermuda to try and out-compete it and deal with it. . . .

Good luck with that!

[Dan Herrmann]

Jason - well said.   I wonder how long it'll be before courses in metro NY and Long Island see it.

[Tom_Doak]

I've even seen small patches of bermuda in Traverse City.  I don't know how the heck it got there -- maybe from my golf shoes the last time I visited Bermuda!  It doesn't get hot enough at home to spread very far, though.  In Philadelphia, it would have a few weeks of growing weather and if it gets some rain, it will multiply.

[Dave Taylor]

My home course on the Eastern Shore of Maryland has all but decided to regrass our fairways with Latitude Bermuda. We already regrassed one of our two grass practice areas as well as our short game area and it has done fantastic. For those not familiar, Latitude looks nothing like common bermuda, is very thin bladed and is supposed to get green earlier and stay green to Nov 1. Even though we had great condiditons this year, bent seems to get more difficult and expensive by the year to maintain good playing conditions. We also have had real problems on 3-4 holes with common bermuda taking over.

To the supers here: What can you tell me about Latitude and does it seem like a good move in Maryland?

Thanks.

[Dan Herrmann]

Methinks climate change is real, and thismisma manifestation.   I jest wish the darn weed would go back south and leave us alone!

[Wayne_Kozun]

I agree that climate change is real but it doesn't mean that we will never have cold winters.  It is just pushing the whole temperature distribution to the right by increasing the Mean a wee bit, but we will still have some nasty cold winters.