Winter injury is a complex problem with no guaranteed prevention. We know a lot about the mechanisms that cause winter injury and we have several options to reduce the risks, but whether you experience injury or not often comes down to timing and luck. Getting in front of potential winter injury by raising mowing heights prior to dormancy, improving growing environments, and improving surface drainage plays a critical role in prevention.
So, what can be done now that we are in the middle of winter and have a few months left to go? One thing is to help water move off surfaces when possible. Standing water can lead to crown hydration. Plants will absorb water during a warmup, which can lead to damage if temperatures drop. Depending on how much water needs to be pushed from the surface, or in some instances snow and ice, this can take a lot of labor. Even if you want to remove water or snow, you might not have that ability based on reduced winter staffing. Even if you can’t get to every potential trouble spot, trying to get water moving in the highest-risk areas will help.
If you suspect winter injury might’ve happened, the article “How To Sample for Winter Injury on Putting Greens” will show you how to check. This process is simple to do and knowing if you have damage as early as possible is important so that you can let people know what to expect and start planning for how to recover.
Northeast Region Agronomists:
Darin Bevard, senior director, Championship Agronomy – dbevard@usga.org
Elliott L. Dowling, regional director, East Region – edowling@usga.org
Brian Gietka, agronomist – bgietka@usga.org
