Skip to main content

Greenspeed, Rolling and Height of Cut....the Relationship.

It is easy to get used to a particular way of doing things.  For years we at our course have cut the greens daily during the growing season.  This was just the way we did things.  We felt that this was the best way to provide smooth consistent playing conditions on our putting greens.  For the most part this statement was true.  Two years ago we purchased a roller for our greens.  Most of the literature I had read warned that rolling the greens too frequently lead to compaction and wear damage on the green collars.  It suggested that greens be rolled a maximum of 4 times a week.  Other articles suggested that adequate green speeds could be achieved if you cut at a higher than normal height and rolled more often.  So this is what we did........because that was just the way it was done.....

We had our greens mower set at a bench height of 0.125" and we rolled 4 times a week.  Green speeds averaged 7-8' on the STIMP meter.  This sucked!

So I tried rolling more.  We rolled 6-7 times a week and then saw speed rise to maybe 9' max.  Ok but not quite there.  I also didn't see any of this compaction or wear damage that everyone warned about.  NONE! But no matter how often I rolled I just couldn't get the speed up past 9'.

So last week I come across an article by Greg Evans called "Wuthering Heights"http://www.gregevansmg.co.uk/greenside.php .
He made a very convincing argument why green heights could safely go lower.  My greens were in great shape and I was bored so I though, "why not??"

So I dropped my bench height down to 0.110".  I didn't want to go crazy just yet.  So I went out and cut my greens then got out the good old STIMP meter.  They clocked in at just shy of 8.5'. whoopeee.  So I thought maybe I'll try giving them a roll.  Rolled and STIMPed again.  BOOM!!  10'!!

So even though the height of cut was lower, the green speed weren't significantly different than the previous HOC. But the lower HOC combined with rolling gave me the speeds I wanted.

So then I tried only rolling.  Speeds were at 9.5' on the STIMP meter.  This wasn't significantly different from the cut and roll that I did the day earlier.  According the the USGA, the average golfer can't tell the difference of a foot on the STIMP meter.

So now I'm thinking "why am I cutting seven days a week?"  If I can cut four times a week and still achieve the same consistency and speed why not?

This lead me to think that the HOC on the greens only offers the potential of a high STIMP reading.  Rolling brings out the potential.

So this week I am only going to cut my greens 4 times.  I will roll every day.  Each day I will take a reading before and after I roll and compare the two.  So far, after rolling I am seeing a jump of approx 1.5' on the STIMP meter.

Cutting the greens causes stress.  It probably causes more stress than rolling.  I don't know this for sure because I'm not a scientist.  But if I'm right, my greens will be faster and healthier if I only cut 4 times a week and roll 7!

Furthermore, the cost of purchase and maintenance is much higher for a greens mower than a roller so rolling more and cutting less should save money in maintenance.

Have some fun and reverse the frequency that you cut and roll and give it a try.  What have you got to lose??

EDIT:
So here is my graph in progress comparing the green speed to the different rolling and mowing practices this week.  This is an interactive graph and will be updated in real-time as I collect the data so check back daily.


Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Turfgrass speedo is still my most important tool for managing turf growth after 4 years.

It wasn't the easiest year for growing grass , but the conditions were still pretty good. Almost 4 years ago exactly, I came up with the idea of comparing actual clipping yields to the "ideal" clipping yield or the clipping yield adjusted using the Growth Potential Model . Since then, it has proved to be a much more useful tool to manage growth than I originally thought .  It has been almost a decade since I started making observations on plant health and playability and how it relates to the clipping yield. I have been constantly searching for ways to get the growth rate right as often as I can and this tool seems to be the best way I have seen so far, and might ultimately, be the best way going forward. To prove this point I will discuss in a future post, the success I've had with pest control in the past few years (for the most part (Not withstanding the times where I think my greens are dead but they actually aren't...thanks T)). Never needed less There are
Read more

Do you have enough?

I recently discussed how we can use fertilizer ratios to simplify how much fertilizer we apply to help us keep above the MLSN guidelines . When we get a soil test done it is a static amount of nutrients found in the soil. Even if you are above the MLSN guidelines at the time of testing, it doesn't guarantee that you will remain at or above the guidelines as the grass grows and consumes nutrients. There is math that you can use to determine exactly how much nutrient you need to apply to ensure that you remain at or above the MLSN guidelines. For many, this is much too complicated. For that reason I made a quick cheat sheet to help you determine how much of each nutrient you can expect to use each year based off a few different annual nitrogen rates. Nutrient use is based primarily on nitrogen use so the left 2 columns are a few different nitrogen rates. The columns for each nutrient are in PPM and are designed to help you look at your current soil test PPM (mehlich 3) and determin
Read more

How to quantify nutrient content in liquid fertilizer

In a recent post, I discussed how it was actually cheaper to spray soluble vs granular fertilizer. What about if we use pre-mixed liquid fertilizer? How do we even figure out how much nutrient we are applying with pre-mixed liquid fertilizer?  Before I learned that you could simply dissolve soluble fertilizer in water and apply it in a sprayer, I was a big user of pre-mixed liquid fertilizers. One of the issues I initially had was figuring out exactly how much of each nutrient I was applying. The math wasn't as straightforward is it was with granular fertilizers. It turns out, it's actually not that difficult but requires an extra step.  First, we need to convert the liquid volume into a mass. Many products will have the product density displayed on the label or you can look in the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) for that information as well. No SDS? Should you be using products without an SDS? Even if this information isn't included on the label it is very easy to figure out. All
Read more