5/8/2015 7:05 AM
Good morning fellow Superintendents. I have been ask a turf question by my club vice president that is about another clubs intent to seed Princess into their Champion greens. Before jumping to conclusions let me explain a little. this person is very good friends with other high ranking members at the other club and they constantly compare/ask questions of each other as a way of learning and of making sure they may not be making mistakes. I do not know the course superintendent and try not to get into a situation where anything I can say would go against whatever he is trying to do. I have a great working relationship with the Vice President where I can be honest about my feelings towards sticking my nose in other superintendents business. That said, I also do not mind telling him if it something I would or would not do if asked about the other course.
I was ask by my VP if I had ever heard of seeding Princess (possibly princess 2) into live Champion Bermuda!
Before going any further, Has anyone ever done this or heard of it being done?
I gave him my opinion that I have not heard of any bermuda seed that can be used on greens, let alone seeded into live bermuda greens. I told him that the method of choice would be to spray Roundup and Fuselade to kill the champion, wait two weeks and repeat the application then wait two more weeks to be sure its dead. then you could sprigg in a new greens turf (the no till method). I let him know upfront not to hold my statement as fact until I researched it for him. I told him that simply seeding bermuda into an live, aggressive Champion would never take. I also told him that I thought that princess was more of a fairway/tee/rough type turf. In my opinion doing this would be a waste of money and time. This was what he thought also. I again told him I would ask other superintendents around the nation to make sure my thoughts were correct.
Any input other then to stay out of other courses politics? (wish I could)
To be honest I think my VP is only trying to help keep them from wasting money. he said that they did their greens three years ago (I am guessing planting the Champion) and seem to always take the cheap way out which is why their back to this point.
Also just to clear something up. The guy running the course was moved up from the crew after many of years of service because it was all they could afford. He has done a great job for a club without any money. I think he sits behind a group of members that make the real decisions. He is basically a do-it-all type of person which I have only met once. This is actually the first time he has ask me about a project they are going to attempt.
I will talk to my VP after getting more information but I already know that my first advice will be for him to tell his friends to bring in the USGA agronomist for their opinion. It would be money well spent.