Blog Posts

January 13, 2020 by NYS BMP ·

For many reasons, management of annual bluegrass weevils (ABW) presents incredible challenges to golf course superintendents in New York State. These reasons include:

1) The small size (about 1/8 inch in length) and cryptic nature of ABW adults make monitoring difficult.

2) As the life stages progress and ABW transitions through the egg and larval stages, observing ABW becomes increasingly difficult because most stages occur within the turfgrass stem. Complicating things further, as larvae mature they emerge from the turf crown into the surrounding soil and proceed to feed on the crown and roots of the plant. Following the last larval development stage, larvae pupate below ground and the next adult generation emerges. This generation of ABW is more widely distributed on the golf course, and thus more difficult to find and diagnose than the previous generation.

3) ABW development is highly asynchronous, meaning that the life stages of different individuals overlap, resulting in the presence of more than one life stage at a single time.

Collectively, these factors make ABW a difficult insect to monitor and manage in an economically and environmentally sustainable way. However, by using proper scouting methods along with a well-informed decision-making process, the effectiveness and efficiency of ABW management can be improved at your facility. Traditionally, ABW management has focused primarily on scouting for and treating adults. However, to enhance control and to manage insecticide resistance in ABW, managers are encouraged to broaden their monitoring and management efforts to include ABW larvae in addition to adults.

The new NYS BMP and Cornell University joint publication Diagnosis and Decision Making for Sustainable Annual Bluegrass Weevil Management provides the information superintendents need to establish a successful ABW monitoring and management program for both adult and larvae ABW.

Related content on the NYS BMP blog:

• Case Studyon IPM Methods to Control ABW at Bethpage Black Course
• Detailed instructionson two different designs for easily creating a vacuum basket for monitoring ABW.

January 7, 2020 by NYS BMP ·

Through a cooperative approach between the golf industry and friends and neighbors outside the industry, best management practices have been developed that benefit all parties. Because of limitations, such as budget, staff, clientele expectations, and management decisions, not all golf courses can achieve all of the best practices described in the 2nd edition of Best Management Practices for New York State Golf Courses. However, planning for improvements over time and making small changes that meet the goals of BMPs can be achieved.

For example, while a sophisticated washwater recycling system may be too expensive for many facilities, blowing clippings off mowers onto a grassed surface is easily achieved and markedly reduces the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus in clippings that end up in washwater. With a bit more of a budget, facilities can utilize the information from the NYS BMP case study on a proto type low cost wash operation that protects water quality at Locust Hill Golf Club in Rochester. Additional case studies of BMPs implemented on golf courses in the state can be found in the Case Studies section of this website.

To adapt BMPs to an individual facility, superintendents should assess their individual site, consider their available resources (such as budget), and understand that implementing BMPs will be an on-going process. In addition, superintendents should consider multiple approaches to achieving BMP goals that can successfully protect natural resources. For example, the following describes an incremental approach to developing a nutrient management program, as published in a previous blog post “Assess and Map Your Soils” and our new publication Nutrient Management Planning for New York State Golf Courses:

• A good practiceis to assess the chemical and physical analysis of your regularly fertilized soils using a Minimum Level for Sustainable Nutrition (MLSN) Guideline interpretation, as well as looking at overall turf quality and growth, when developing a nutrient management program. Make accurate supplemental nutrient applications to targeted areas of established need.
• A better practiceis to use the Web Soil Survey as a guide to classify and sample all soils on the property using the MLSN interpretation and performance variables (quality and growth). Make supplemental applications of nutrients based on large-scale mapping in targeted areas of well-established needs.
• The best practicewould be to implement a Web Soil Survey-driven sampling program and use appropriate interpretation and performance variables as layers in a GIS database built from the sampling locations. Use this GIS database of soil properties for GPS-based Variable Rate Application equipment for precise supplemental nutrient applications to targeted areas of well-established need.

For more information on how to start your own facility BMP using the GCSAA on-line tool, see our previous blog post on creating a facility BMP.

November 27, 2019 by NYS BMP ·

Golf course superintendents in New York State can now create their own facility-specific Best Management Practices plan using the 2nd edition of the Best Management Practices for New York State Golf Courses template.

This 2nd edition, a revised, updated version of the first edition published in 2014, is incorporated into the GCSAA’s BMP on-line tool. Using the on-line tool, New York superintendents with a GCSAA log in can clone the state’s BMP plan and then use the editing features to modify as needed to create their own site-specific BMP plan.

To help get superintendents started, the following are available:

1) You will need to log in. Need help with your password? Find password information here: Facility BMP Password Help (pdf).

2) You will need to access the facility tool at https://facilitybmp.gcsaa.org/. A set-by-step guide to accessing the tool and starting your facility BMP are available here: Facility BMP How To Guide (pdf).

3) Need more detailed help with the facility BMP process? GCSAA has a pre-recorded webinar that provides information on the features of the tool and how to use them to create a facility BMP.

In addition, the New York Golf Course Foundation will be hosting workshops to assist superintendents in these efforts, with one at the Central New York conference on February 13th in Rochester. More workshops are planned in several locations next winter, depending upon the availability of funding. These workshops will be announced on this website and NYGCF’s Twitter feed.