Shades of green: use an integrated approach to manage shaded creeping bentgrass

摘要

Among cool-season turfgrasses, creeping bentgrass possesses only a medium amount of shade tolerance. On shaded tees, fairways and greens, this factor, coupled with traffic, divoting and increased disease pressure, often results in poor bentgrass performance. Plants grown in shade receive less light for photosynthesis and thereby store less energy (carbohydrates). This fact, coupled with an undesirable increase in leaf elongation and succulence in the shade (due to increased gibberellic acid (GA) production), imply that the plant has less stored energy, in terms of roots and stolons, to persist and recover from use. A common observation is that shaded bentgrass plants are top-heavy: they put all of their energy into maintaining a shoot system, resulting in a very shallow (less than 2 inches deep) root system. Due to decreased evapotranspiration (ET) in the shade, shallow roots, during adequate rainfall periods, may not pose a problem. However, if drought occurs, shallow roots, coupled with tree-root competition, can spell disaster.