Bowls Green Maintenance for April, as we head out of winter, the clocks change and the daylight hour’s increase and the temperatures are rising, many of you will now be preparing to start your bowling season.
Tasks for April
- Continue to remove the morning dew from the green
- Remove worm cast with a switch/ Brush
- Aeration
- Cutting
- Light verticutting and rolling to smooth out the playing surface
- Fertilising
- Irrigation
- Disease control
- Moss Control
Dew and Worm Cast Control
Throughout April, continue with brushing off the dew at your earliest convenience. If the worms are still active then remove any worm casts from the green. For best results, wait until the casts have dried and then use a switch cane or brush to smash the worm casts up. If you attempt to do these while they are wet, they will smear, look unsightly and smother the grass which will cause issues.
Aeration
By now all your renovations/ deep aeration will be completed. Now we want to concentrate on minimal disruption to the playing surface but still give the green aeration. A Sarral roller is the perfect piece of machinery to use if you have one in you shed. By running this over the green will help with air movement in the upper profile, this method will be less disruptive as we get closer to the playing season.
Cutting
As temperatures rise and growth we need to reduce your winter height of cut down slowly. Many of you may have started this in March and will continue to do so throughout April. Keep reducing the height by a couple of mm over the moth but do this in stages. Increase the frequency of cut to 2 -3 times a week if required. Some of you may be starting your season this month so you will be aiming to get your green down to 5-6mm this month.
Verticutting/ Rolling the playing surface
Continue with light verticuting to help reduce the lateral growth and get the grass standing up. If you have a light roller then run this over your green to remove and lumps and bumps that may have accrued form worm cast, footprints etc……. This will smooth out the green and get the green rolling smoother and truer.
Fertilising
As things start to move and temperatures start to rise your green may need a feed to get thing moving and give your green the head start it needs before the start of the season. A low Nitrogen micro granular application would be a good choice before switching to a liquid feed for the playing season. Being close to the playing season something like a 4-0-4 would give you a nice controlled perk up without to much growth before you start to bowl.
Irrigation
Looking at the weather in the coming week it’s looking like we are in for some warmer weather. If your irrigation system isn’t primed then now would be a good time to get this done and tested to insure it’s all working correctly. With not much rainfall recently and the warm spell on its way and not knowing when we may see rain next, it would be worth getting the system ready in case you need to apply a drop of water throughout April.
Disease Control
Continue to monitor for any signs of disease. If the weather stays damp and the temperatures start to rise then this is the perfect conditions for disease outbreaks.
Moss Control
Heading into spring with the damper nights, its ideal condition for moss to invade your green if there still vulnerable form the winter months. An application of lawn sand or spray application of iron sulphate will help to control the moss, the product will dehydrate the moss and this will turn black. As we move into spring, the moss can then be removed with light scarification/verticutting.
To see more blogs on Bowls Greens
I hope you found my Bowls Green Maintenance For April of some help by MWTurfcare
