TURF COMMS X . JULY 30,-ES PURPOSEi To pass on what we Immrn willingly and happily to otners in the profession so as to improve turf condition» around the country. VERTIDRAIN - People are always asking me what new things I'm seeing as I go around the country. Well, 1988 has to be the year for TGR and Vertidrain. Both these products sold well this early spring and got lots of use. host superintendents are using the Vertidrain to aerify greens. Most greens thus aerified have been with solid tines. I'm a little reluctant to approve of that approach, I prefer the hollow tines over a "sheep's foot roller" approach. Apparently the contractors are claiming a need to use the solid tine first to loosen up the hard pans. They have been breaking hollow tines too frequently in many of the old soil base greens. liy advice for tines as deep greens and as they'll some tees is use the 3/4 inch hollow pull a core, rather than the solid. But, if you can't penetrate the layers present than go to solid as a last resort. There is just a little bit of rippling that occasionally occurs when doing greens. One superintendent did his green when his greens chairman was away. The greens were done with 3/4 inch hollow tines to a nine inch depth on four and one-half inch centers. When the chairman came back and saw the results he claimed he couldn't see any difference between the disturbance to the putting surface from using a Vertidrain or the old aerifier with 5/8 inch tines on two inch centers. TURFCOMMS is published at unpredictable intervals by the editor and publisher: Douglas T. Hawes, Ph D Certified Professional Agronomist Specializing in Golf Course Mai ntenance Consulting 240B Roundrock Trail Piano, Texas 75075 (214) (367-0176 Subscription cost is tlO. Send checks to Doug Hawes at the above address. This superintendent is claiming much better ability to go in once a week and soak the greens all the way down. He then coast thru the rest of the week with very light watering. Before when he tried that approach he was unable to get good uniform moisture penetration. Thus his greens often dried out from both bottom 
and top. Another superintendent with bermudagrass fairways on a black 
gumbo used his Vertidrain to aerify fairways. He claims a member told him recently that if aerification would continue to improve the fairways the way the last aerification did than he had that member's permission to do them again. This superintendent used solid one inch tines and went to a 12 inch depth. He also 
claimed to have made a nice piece of drip irrigation line out of 
an old but still pressurized steel line buried a little too shallow. TGR is a growth regulator put out by 0 M Scotts. It retards Poa much more so than creeping bentgrass. It is in need of more research as to rate and timing, but has a greater degree of safety on greens than Prograss (that's another article). A lot of TGR was used this year and some last. When used on bentgrass fairways and greens for Poa annua control the results has looked promising. However, when used at the full recommended rate disease has often followed. That disease was usually Pythium. It always just attacked the Poa for faster removal. Removal at a rate much faster than desired by some of the users. The 1/2 rate is safe on greens. The full rate safe on collars if you don't have too much Poa. Poa reduction appears to be best at collar and fairway height. The full rate has been used by numerous superintendents on greens. Some but not all have experienced a browning of the turf that lasted for three or more weeks. If a hard frost occurs within two to three weeks of application the turf will turn a purplish brown. In the fall it will remain that way for most of the winter. A hard frost is a frost with a temperature 25° 
F or below in this case. Repeated 1/2 rates including summer applications have worked well for a superintendent or two. Early spring applications at full rate give definite seed head control for six weeks or more. There will be seed head production at the end of the six weeks, but the seed heads will be small and will not elongate very much. 0 M Scotts is saying the best control is obtained with fall application. Superintendents and golfers like the spring application for its seed head reduction. One early user I talked with has made two fall and three spring applications. He is happy with the amount of control he has obtained. He claims it does not work well in shady locations. I have seen spot applications made and was impressed with the results. It is too early to say how good this material is. TGR should not be used in the spring on green which have been treated with Ronstar unless you wait three weeks before applying the second chemical. It does not appear to make any difference which is used first, as far as is currently known. DR. HARRY NIEMCZYK ON GRUB CONTROL - GCSAA Conf. Houston, '88 NOTES Š When 3/4 inch of thatch present only Proxol moves thru it. Post treatment with irrigation does NOT move pesticides thru thatch. When no thatch, Triumph and Turcam do move two to four inches deep in soil. We are getting enhanced microbial degradation with some insecticides in the soil like Oftanol. The microbes adapt to the pesticide present (food to them that do) and begin to use it as an energy source. Thus those microbes that can break it down multiply in the soil more rapidly than other microbes. Then the next time you put Oftanol down all those microbes gobble it up in no time flat. If Oftanol does not work in the fifth year of use (maybe third), diazinon and carbaryl (Sevin) won't work either. The microbes that can break down the Oftanol also break down these two. Triumph and Dursban are good alternates. RUBIGAN: Visited one former big time Rubigan user that had given up on the product and another that had not. The first sure had just as much Poa annua on his greens this year as he had in the past. The second's greens did appear better. A third big time user is only using it in the fall. He says spring use stunted his bentgrass too much. Why the mixed results? I don't know. What kind of luck are you or your neighbors having with Rubigan for Poa control????? GOLF A BETTER TEST THAN BASEBALL - Red Barber, famous retired basebal1 announcer, plugged golf over baseball on Public Broadcasting's Morning Edition on July 15th. He said, professional golf was a better test of athletic ability than 
baseball. He made that comment when comparing the British Open 
to the situation in baseball where managers have little ability to control players performance by punishment or reward. TURF TECH A COLLECTION OF OPINIONS ON COMPUTERS, SOFTWARE. AND APPLICATIONS FOR THE TURF INDUSTRY By Jonathon L. Scott, CGCS What is a "typical" computer system? If you can answer that one., you might want to check with the White House to see i-f they need another astrologer. The -fact is, what is typical -for one is atypical Łfor another. Each person must decide -for themselves just what it is the computer is supposed to do. If it is used to keep records and provide a means to -forecast budget expendí tures, a certain amount of memory arid storage space is required. If the main use will be word processing and telecommunications;, memory is not as important as the 
peripherals such as printer type and modem selection. And, if you like games., wel 1 , it is absolutely necessary to have the 1 at est color monitor and joy-stick. You must ultimately decide what system is "typical" for your needs and balance that against what you can afford. For almost all turf management needs (you always say "almost" in this business) a system containing the following will work wells 1. A computer with at least 640k of Random Access Memory or RAN, expandable to 1 megabyte or more and having an operating speed of at least 6 megahertz 2. Two floppy disk drives with no 1 ess than 360k storage eachH or at least one floppy and a hard drive with a minimum of 20 megabytes (MEG) 3. A graphics type monitor capable of at least E.'GA (Enhanced Graphics Adaptor) mode, either monochrome or color, and 12-14 inch diagonal 4. A graphics type printer, dot matrix or ink jet.., capable of near-letter quality type and various print modes including pictures 5. A 1200 or 2400 baud modem;, preferably external, for telecommunications with bulletin boards such as Turfbvte or networks 1i ke Compuserve 6. A simple, easy to learn integrated program like First Choice by PFS containing a spreadsheet, word processor, data base with graphics, and a communi cations program. Obviously, there are many more items you can add as you get more involved with computing, b ut t h ese s i x c omp on en t. s w i 11 p r o v i cl e you w i t h all you need to get started. There are many variations on computer memory size, expansion capabilities, monitors, drives, etc., and that is the reason most of us get confused when talking with a computer salesperson. If you insist that he or she stick to your basic component needs, you should find this system affordable and enjoyable. In the next few months, we will explore each of these components in more detail and define just what these variables are and what they ar e used f or . LJnt i 1 then , you have my phone number . end