Annual Bluegrass - Twelve Years Later

Golf Course Management (GCM) just released an article titled, “Annual bluegrass update: 12 years later.” The 12 years is in reference to a former 1996 article from GCM titled “A historical perspective of annual bluegrass control.” Both works were authored by Nick Christians, an Iowa State University professor of horticulture, and both look at the progresses made with superintendents and their 85 years of struggle to control annual bluegrass on golf course turf.

As course managers should already know, Bluegrass (Poa annua) is the grass that is the widespread low-growing plant that is a common weed of cultivation and occurs as a constituent of lawns. It is often treated as a weed. It is also sometimes the most suitable lawn grass for many sites, and can form most of the entire grass sward in some lawns.

While there is probably no other weed that is so widely adapted to variations in mowing height, site conditions and cultural practices, the fact is that Poa is hard to control. So has 12 years of research brought superintendents any closer to eliminating it from golf course turf?

Click here to find out.