Recovering From Dry Patch

The last couple of months have seen greenkeepers and groundsman working with reduced staffing and cutting back to only carry out essential maintenance. Many normal practices undertaken by the Professional Turf Manager have gone by the way. A lot have been told to rain in the spending or had their budgets drastically reduced. One thing that unfortunately seems to have been ignored is water management. This is either down to lack of time, budget or because it was not considered by some as essential maintenance. The majority of turf managers’ would traditionally start applying their spring summer moisture management product in March, just as we went into lockdown. Just to make things worse we have had a very dry period since then. Who would have predicted this with the exceptionally wet and prolonged autumn and winter? Some turf is already starting to show sign of hydrophobicity including chlorotic patches and areas of tissue death.

If you did not manage to start your moisture management programme in March, now is the time to establish where you are with dry patch and moisture distribution through profile. If you have a moisture meter, than by taking numerous readings from areas all across the turf will give a good indication of moisture content and importantly any changes in the uniformity.

If you don't have a moisture meter, then just simply pour a bucket of water on the suspected hydrophobic area and see if it is readily accepted into the rootzone or if it runs across the surface and doesn't infiltrate easily.

To check the depth of Hydrophobicity, take a core and add drops of water every inch of the profile and time how long it takes to dissipate. If the drop takes more than one minute for the drop to dissipate then you have hydrophobic soil. Watching each drop will show how bad it is at various levels through the profile.

Starting a wetting agent programme when you already have hydrophobic soil is like shutting the door after the horse has bolted. Once you have established that there is dry patch present then this needs to be addressed before you can move on to a preventative programme. Use specific curative products such as Aquatrols Aqueduct. This is available in a liquid form (Aqueduct) or in granules (Aqueduct Flex). Both are proven as highly effective at curing localised dry patch.

Depending on how bad the dry patch has become, you may need to apply more that just the one application. Once you have cured the dry patch then you are ready to start on a programmed approach to prevent further hydrophobic problems and ensure you have moisture evenly throughout the rootzone. Use a combination wetting agent that is formulated to brake down the surface tension, penetrate into the profile and hold moisture in the soil. Continue a four weekly application of wetting agent until late summer and then switch to a penetrating wetting agent for the winter months as well.

If your turf has suffered from dry patch many areas may have thinned out. This could be a blessing in disguise as it was the weaker poor quality grasses that suffered the most and it has given an opportunity to fill in thin or bare areas with high quality grasses. However, if we don’t fill in the gaps annual meadow grass will soon take over. Remember that the new grass will grow in the soil and not a thatch layer so concentrate on thatch removal and surface preparation.

Choose the correct grass for your site. Many dwarf ryegrasses are now so fine that they are being used in a wide variety of situations, the best of which are even being used on bowls and golf greens. Ensure that you don’t just buy any seed, look at the quality of the cultivars, these can be found in the BSPB book. (if you would like a copy, contact your Collier Turf Care Representative).