What Lies Beneath

Another week has passed and finally we are seeing some signs of spring! They say in the Peace country you hear spring before you see it and the sounds of running water are surely a welcome tell tale sign. As the snow recedes however, there is always a little anxiety present about what lies beneath. If, like me you are the owner of a large dog with an active digestive tract, you know a little spring cleaning will be imperative!

Fortunately Links is not as enclosed an area as most back yards, and while we have our full share of critters who go when and where they have to, for the most part we let nature take care of the outdoors litter box. As a greenskeeper, I'm more concerned about what might be growing rather than showing under the snow.

Snow mould is our principal concern early on while prepping the course for play. Snow mold is a fungal disease that appears in the early spring as the snow melts. There are two types of snow mold: Grey snow mold (also known as Typhula blight) and pink snow mold (sometimes referred to as Fusarium patch). Pink snow mold infects the crown of the plant and can cause more severe injury than gray snow mold which only infects the leaf tissue.

Snow mold damage looks like circular patches (3"-12") of dead and matted grass. Depending on the severity of the outbreak, the circles can coalesce and become a large mass.  Both gray and pink snow mold can be found  together. Pink snow mold owes its name to the pink color of the web-like mycelium growing on the grass surface. While the grass is wet, the mycelium starts out white and resembles cobwebs. As it matures it turns its pink or salmon color. The mycelium quickly disappears as the grass dries.

Gray snow mold is similar to pink snow mold except that its mycelium remains whitish-gray. Gray snow mold is also distinguished by the presence of tiny black mycelial masses (sclerotia) on the grass blades and leaf sheaths of infected plants. Pink snow mold does not have these.

Snow mold occurs after an extended period of snow cover on ground that is not completely frozen. It can also be caused when fertilizer or weather causes a flush of growth late in the fall. Snow mold also grows under leaves that were not cleaned up or in long grass that wasn't properly mowed before winter set in but those conditions are usually found in the rough or areas most golfers want to avoid. Its the tees and greens that get our attention first.

There are fungicide sprays for both preventive and curative treatments of snow mold. Snow mould is ugly, and while most damage will recover in time, our relatively short playing season means we can't always wait for Mother Nature. Normally, once an area has dried, the infection will cease and new turf will grow back. To speed up the process, infected areas can be raked to encourage drying. Over-seeding may be needed and if the damage is extremely severe, topdressing can be applied or areas can be repaired like a bare patch and plugged out.

In an ideal world the snow would vanish over night and be instantly replaced with beautiful green grass. While we all know that's not going to happen, it won't be long now before equipment starts to roll!