By Cole Stover, Chas Schmid and Alec Kowalewski, Oregon State University
Oregon State University hosted the second annual Central Oregon WinterTurf Roundtable discission meeting on Feb 9, 2024, in Bend, OR. Attendees represented 14 different golf courses from Deschutes County, Oregon. During this meeting attendees were provided a research update regarding objectives being explored in Central Oregon. Specifically, evaluating which environmental conditions lead to winter injury and exploring cultural practices to mitigate damage or enhance spring recovery. After this quick update, attendees were divided into three groups and considerable time was allocated to the roundtable discussion. Each group loosely followed a handful of outlined winter kill and winter injury-related questions, while a representative from Oregon State University facilitated the discussion and recorded notes. These are some of the general comments provided during this roundtable discussion process.
- All golf courses use a combination of aerification and sand topdressing, applied in the fall, to improve winter drainage. Superintendents in this environment feel standing water during the winter months leads to excessive ice formation during freeze/thaw periods, and improved drainage is an option for mitigating this issue.
- A popular winter kill prevention method used this year was sod removal from known collar dams, a practice that has been locally termed “sod canals”.
- Most golf courses started the winter season with a grey/pink snow mold fungicide application in October.
- All superintendents felt better about this winter and anticipate little to no winter kill or injury. This is likely due to higher-than-normal temperatures, resulting in considerably less snow and ice accumulation (Figure 1).
- In the winter of 2023/2024, none of the superintendent applied cover to the turfgrass for winter kill prevention. Several of superintendents in the area have been using covers to improve turfgrass recovery and establishment in the spring months, just after snow melt.
- Most superintendents felt their snow mold fungicide applications made in October or November were likely no longer effective in February because little snow cover was present during October, November, and December. In February, just prior to a large snow event, several golf courses received a follow up fungicide to greens only.
Due to mild weather, the winter of 2023/2024 in the Pacific Northwest is very promising and little winter kill is expected. This is in great contrast to the previous winter, which produced record winter kill and turfgrass injury in this area. The USDA-SCRI WinterTurf research team is excited to evaluate the local weather data and drone images being gathered at the Deschutes area golf courses over the last two years to compare environmental conditions to develop predictive models for winter injury and recovery methods.