Theodore W Piersol said: My 16 yr. old Bentgrass greens seems to have survived the brutal cold winter in SE. Pa. The small percentage of Poa is a different story. It seems to have died off as apparent by the tan blotches on my greens. Turfpath has an article depicting what happen to my greens. My concern is what to expect this spring. Will the poa quickly germinate or is it now a good time to heavily core and reseed, and hope to reduce the population of annual bluegrass, any experiences out there. Also do I need to topdress more often to keep the greens smooth until things fill in.
Our Poa checked out this winter as well. I think the tipping point was in mid-November when highs were in the mid 60's on Sunday and -16 on Tuesday. Do you have a link to the article you read?
On one course with a high percentage of bent I am glad the Poa crashed. I'm simply mowing at a high height and rolling to allow the bent to do what it does.... creep and fill the void. I don't verti-cut... ever, but I would not even consider it now.
On the other course were the Poa population is higher we are doing pretty much what Clay is doing. I do have a fair of bent within the stand so we pumped it the other day with 1/2# of N from ammonium sulfate and watered in. Again the effort is to fill as much of the void before the Poa seed bank has a chance to germinate and do it's thing.
Take advantage of the situation. Now is a great window to increase the bent populations.