Growth Regulators on the golf course

 Two weeks ago when we applied our growth regulator to the golf course I had several people ask what the "little white dots" were all over the golf course in the morning.  The "dots" are actually marking foam we use to see where we have made an application.  Using foam to mark our pass is much more economical than using the green dye we use on our greens.  As the temperature rises the foam disappears.

Mitch Sivley applying Legacy to the driving range

So why do we use "growth regulators" on the golf course anyway. Using growth regulators helps to suppress topical growth of the plant while redirecting the growth of the turfgrass plant to lateral and root growth.  Suppressing the topical growth of the turfgrass plant means faster and more consistent putting green surfaces throughout the day and on fairways and roughs means less clippings which in turn means we don't have to blow clippings as much. We have used Primo Maxx growth regulator on our greens for many, many years and we have used Legacy growth regulator on our fairways and roughs for the past couple of years.  Use of growth regulators on the roughs and fairways also means that we can go from mowing fairways three times per week to only mowing them twice with no reduction in fairway quality for the golfer.  This helps to save manhours, fuel, and wear and tear on our equipment.

Willie Hamby applying Primo Maxx around the putting green
and clubhouse grounds

Some areas on the golf course are too small for us to apply the growth regulators with our large, ride on sprayers so we have improvised and use our walk behind sprayer for these areas.  This is the same sprayer we use to paint the greens in the winter but it does a great job around the putting green and the clubhouse grounds.

 

No More Clippings

I have been having a real issue over the past few months with the amount of clippings being left behind by our rough mowers.  I was having to send out two tractor mounted blowers and an outfront blower to disperse the clippings which meant I was spending a fortune in fuel and manpower not to mention the excessive amount of unnecessary noise that this process created.  Well I think I have come upon a solution that might help some others.  For the past two years we have been applying Legacy Growth Regulator to our fairways with great success.  I wondered if it could work on the roughs and after speaking with a representative from Sepro I decided to give it a try.  We applied Legacy at a 15 ounce per acre rate to the roughs around the middle of July and have had, what I consider to be, success.  The amount of clippings have been greatly reduced and the roughs have a better, greener appearance.  Each time we mow the roughs we have had to spend less and less time blowing clippings and yesterday we did not have to send the blowers out at all.  Great success and I know our golfers will appreciate the reduction in noise.