Winter Ice Damage and Excelsior Mats Cancel The title field is required!

1. Norma O'Leary

   

   1 posts
   
   4/15/2012 10:04 PM

   I have been using Excelsior Mats to cover my greens for the past 5 winters or so with a great deal of success up until this year. I have sustained a substantial amount of ice damage on most of my greens. As I have always done, when I put the covers down, I overlapped each cover a couple of inches (it saves on a boat load of turf staples). There is a considerable amount of turf loss wherever the covers were overlapped. In addition, most of my covers are 4 – 5 years old, so thinning a bit. I did replace 7 of them with brand new ones last fall.
   
   Interestingly enough, I sustained significantly more damage under the new covers compared to the older ones they were next to. I also have damage in completely uncovered areas so I am not willing to concede that I would have been better off without covers, but it does seem that for some strange reason, the covers were a bit TOO insulating for the conditions this winter. This winter was very open with little snow cover, or ice either for that matter, but was also quite mild. We received about 12" snow in late February and that was about the only time when enough snow/water/ice could have had a chance to accumulate on my greens. This coincided with the GCSAA National tourney and trade show, so I can't say I physically observed any problems at that time, but it is about all that makes sense to me. It also makes sense to me that my turf loss is a result of Crown Dehydration vs. Crown Hydration since the crowns would seemingly have been very dry throughout the winter.
   
   So my question is to you Northern Supers that use the Excelsior mats. Do you overlap them? And if so, have you ever experienced similar problems in the overlap areas? (I have plenty of turf loss in the non overlapped areas as well. It is just painfully obvious where my covers were overlapped).
   
   Also, last fall was the first time since the days of Mercury that I did not use PCNB on my greens. A fellow superintendent indicated to me that he feels that he receives more turf loss to ice problems (mostly Poa) whenever he does not use PCNB. Anyone have a comment on this notion?
   
   My one green that is perfect had snow cover all winter since December. It was the only one that did. My two worst greens are among my best drained green and my poorest drained green – so go figure.
   
   Thanks for any comments you might have,
   
   Norma O'Leary, Silver Bay, MN

   
   
   
   
2. Steven Flagstad

   

   0 posts
   
   4/16/2012 4:04 PM

   Norma,
   We always overlap ours and have no problems with that, I decided to try the narrow mats again 4x100, with the reasoning behind that they would have less stitching allowing them to expanded thicker than the wider mats, we also had them made thicker as I noticed the mats have been getting thinner in the recent years. The new mats we purchased last fall were great, we have no damage on any of the greens we used them on. We do have some thin areas on a few greens were we used our older thinner mats on, basically in all the drainage areas. I monitored this winter with concern about the warm temps we had, the last week of December I could still pull out the staples by hand, there appeared to be a inch of frost at the most. We did receive some rain again the first week of January and had minimal ice under the mats after that point. The greens that I have some issues with are the ones that had snow cover all winter. The previous year I purchased several new mats, (the wider ones) and received severe damage on several of the greens we used them on, and them greens had all the snow melt off them while the greens that remained snow covered came out great, its really hard to figure it out.
   
   I have been using these mats for 15 years and honestly had nothing but great success with them until switching recently to the wider mats, I do believe they are much thinner now than in the past so that was my reasoning to switching back to the narrower mat and having them made heavier.
   
   I have not used PCNB for several years now I really haven't seen that as a problem.
   
   Steve Flagstad
   Nemadji Golf Course

   
   
   
   
3. Norma O'Leary

   

   1 posts
   
   4/16/2012 7:04 PM

   Thanks for the response Steve. There is nothing real consistent with the damage I have sustained. Needless to say, the 18 degree nights are only making my turf go backwards. I suppose I just have to learn a little patience. It is still pretty early. I've had the irrigation system fired up for two weeks now! Thats a record!