Topdressing of turf is not a new thing to our industry, in fact early records dating back to 1875 show that,Old Tom Morris, Head Greenkeeper of The Old Course, St Andrews, Scotland was a keen advocate of this practice, of which he carried out back then to keep his greens firm and true.
It is common knowledge within our industry that Old Tom discovered this practice after a slight accident of spilling a wheelbarrow of sand onto a green, whilst replenishing a nearby bunker. After spreading around and brushing in of the sand, Old Tom quickly saw the benefits of superior looking turf, on the effected area, as apposed to the other areas which had no sand applied. After this important discovery, Old Tom regularly apparently often used the phrase "Moar Sand Honeyman!" ("Moar" being "more" in Old Tom's strong Scottish accent and Honeyman being his then Assistant, at the club).
As a practice, topdressing has many agronomic benefits to turfgrass, These being:
- To provide a true, smooth and firm playing surface.
- To increase putting green speeds. research shows optimum speeds will be seen around 8 days following topdressing (Nikolai, 2005).
- For the reduction and dilution of organic matter or thatch.
- The filling in of slight depressions and small hollows within the surface, leading to less scalping through mechanical practices.
- Provides turf crown protection in less than ideal environmental conditions.
- For the protection of newly planted grass seed.
- Prevent grain by encouraging upright growth, in conjunction with other practices such as brushing, grooming and verti cutting.
Turfgrass is a living system. Plants are constantly producing both living and dead leaf and root matter. Dead matter is broken down naturally by microbial activity. Within this process, a certain amount of plant available nitrogen is produced, which is then re available for turfgrass use (mineralization). It is only when the accumulation of organic matter is faster than natural decomposition, that problems occur. Higher levels of organic matter can cause rootzone characteristic and performance problems ie: soft/spongy surfaces, the proneness to more moisture retentive rootzones, poor playing characteristics and increased disease occurrence, just to name a few.
Regular topdressing in conjunction with sound cultural practices can lead to a reduction or maintaining a desired level of organic matter, providing us with the desired surfaces we enable to achieve in turf management. With the slow growing species that we look to manage and encourage in links management, tied in with the very low amounts of nutrients and water that we apply, organic matter levels are maintained around the 4 percent mark, through fortnightly light dustings of topdressing and without the need to aggressively hollow core or scarify the surfaces to control the build up of organic material. It is also important to note that yearly organic matter loss on ignition tests are carried out across 5 greens at the club, to constantly monitor progress and fine tune the topdressing programme even further, if need be.
References
Nikolai T. 2005. The Superintendents Guide to controlling putting green speed. J Wiley and Sons Inc, Hobeken, New Jersey, USA.
