Three-Dimensional Canopy Management for Maintaining Golf Course Fairways and Winter Overseeding.

Warm-season turfgrasses often produce excessive thatch, grain, and stemminess which impact management and turf quality.  These problems may lead to winter overseeding failure and difficulties with spring transition.  A field study was conducted to investigate morphological changes of three warm-season turfgrass species as affected by three-dimensional canopy management (3DCM) and to determine how these changes impact overseeding establishment and spring transition.  Plots consisted of ‘Tifway 419’ bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon x C. transvaalensis (L.) Pers.), ‘Cavalier’ zoysiagrass (Zoysia matrella (L.) Merr.), and ‘Sea Isle I’ seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum Swarz) mowed at 1.9 cm.  Plots were sodded August 2006 over a modified rootzone containing a Booneville (fine, smectitic, thermic, chromic, vertic Albaqualfs) soil amended with coarse sand. Sub-plot treatments consisted of three grooming frequencies (groomed every mowing, groomed weekly, and none) and four overseeding transition rates (rapid, ideal, slow, and none).  Data collected included turf quality, thatch thickness, ryegrass germination rates, spring green-up, leaf area index, biomass production, light incidence within the canopy, and weed/disease development.  One year of data suggest improved turf quality with increased grooming frequency.  Frequent grooming seemed to increase shoot density, increase Poa annua L. pressure in the winter, and slow green-up in the spring.  Data on overseeding establishment and spring transition will also be discussed.