Lets Kill Some Grass

Its not every day you get to show up to work and start filling a tank with Glyphosate. I have to say it was one of the more nerve racking things I've done around a course, just the knowledge that whatever I spray and potentially wherever I drive the grass will die had me a little on edge.

This year we are converting our old Vamont Bermuda Fairways to Latitude 36 Bermuda, one of the newer hybrid Bermuda grasses. Latitude 36 has a finer leaf texture, better color and wear resistance and is much denser than Vamont making it a better playing surface in season and out of season. Everyone here is very excited about the "upgrade" to our Fairways, especially those of us on the maintenance staff, despite the added stress, labor, and worry the process adds.

4 weeks ago we began spraying our fairways with Glyphosate (Roundup), for effective control of Bermuda grass it takes 3 applications spaced 10-14 days apart while the plant is actively growing That allows the Glyphosate to be translocated throughout the plant and into the roots, stolons, rhizomes and other leaf tissue giving good control. We had planned to begin this process the middle of April so we could have the time to let any turf that hadn't died begin growing again prior to the second and then third applications, the weather however did not cooperate. With a cool April and lots of rain the soil temperatures stayed down causing the Vamont to no break dormancy until almost the last week of April, a few hard frosts didn't help anything either.

We had to wait for the Vamont to come out of dormancy and start growing prior to the Glyphosate applications because we need the plant to be transpiring so the chemical can move through the plant, otherwise it won't kill anything and just delay the process. Once it broke dormancy and started growing it began raining, and since Glyphosate is taken up through the leaves and not the roots or soil that meant we were very limited on when we could spray and how much we could accomplish. The first 25 days of May boasted 21 days of rain, throwing a giant wrench into our plans.

Despite this we have pushed through and with the sprigs scheduled to arrive tomorrow we have sprayed all 22 acres of fairways twice and half of them a third time. It took us a minute to figure out a good rate with the Glyphosate, a balance between enough chemical and wasting it as the plant can only absorb so much. We've settled on a rate with the second app and have seen really good results, and should have no problem getting the third app out prior to sprigging. Below are some photos one the past 4 weeks.


Peter Danaher
Assistant Superintendent
Talbot Country Club
peter.danaher88@gmail.com

Boss had a great idea of adding dye to the tank as well as using foam to make it as obvious as possible where we sprayed. 

1 week after first application of Glyphosate. Starting to see the Poa go off color. 

1 week after first application, Poa is dying, Bermuda has slowed growth and is just barely showing chlorosis. 

1 week after second application. Starting to see some of the Bermuda die. 

No thats not a skip, we're saving that piece, it shows the difference clearly, 1 week after the second app which had Finale as well as Glyphosate. You can also see how wet its been out here. 

10 days after second app which had 64 oz Glyphosate per acre and 100 oz Finale per Acre. Finally some dead Grass.

Mostly Dead. 

Little bit of regrowth