Turf frost damage: Prevention and recovery
Sod growers, golf course superintendents, and lawn & landscape professionals share tips to stay green even in a late seasonal cold snap. Turfgrass professionals have learned how to prevent frost damage and recover from cold weather to get turf back in the swing of spring.
Penterra and
Endurant turf colorants provide prevention and recovery.
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Turf frost prevention with Penterra, the fastest-acting soil penetrant www.TurfFrost.com. Endurant, www.TurfPaint.net, also helps with instant green results plus added warmth, smoother seasonal transitions and increased chlorophyll during colder weather transitions.[/caption]
Prevention: Penterra saves golf courses
Despite a mild winter in many areas of the U.S. with what looked like an early step into spring for many golf course superintendents and sod farmers, late season frosts and snowstorms hit numerous sports fields, lawns and turfgrass farms with frost damage and delays. Others averted a near disaster. How?
Experienced turfgrass professionals, especially golf course superintendents, saw the frost coming and knew to apply Penterra, the fastest-acting soil surfactant on the market and a relied upon resource for
frost damage prevention. Golf course superintendents have been using
Penterra for years to prevent damage due to frost and get back in the game sooner preventing frost delays. Check out this from a few years back:
Prevent Frost Delays: Superintendents take to Twitter
Despite frost, sod farm keeps freshly growing green grass with Endurant
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Zoysia grass gets green again with Endurant after frost hits sod farms across the Carolinas.[/caption]
Several sod farmers had applied Endurant turf colorants with the expectation of cutting the sod and getting it off to market a bit ahead of their usual spring schedule, when an atypical cold snap nearly cut all their plans short.
“Sod farms had applied Endurant turf color enhancers to get the turf to market a couple weeks earlier than usual. One of the farms had only applied Endurant to part of their sod farm. After applying Endurant to about half of it, say about 5 of the 10 acres, the frost came in. The sod farmers didn’t expect it, but the Endurant worked as frost damage prevention. The 5 acres that were painted with Endurant still had some natural green color from chlorophyll and the others went completely brown and dormant again. You could easily tell the difference in the health of the grass,” said Gantt Martin, of Geoponics.
Endurant turf colorants provide a depth of natural-looking green color that penetrates the leaf blade, drawing warmth from the darker color and protection from the frost.
“It was unexpected. Usually, we’d recommend Penterra for frost damage and frost delay protection, but Endurant can help retain some heat and lead to faster springtime green up, so it wasn’t too surprising to me that Endurant helped protect so many acres of sod. The sod farmers were pleasantly surprised. That’s for sure,” said Martin.
Recovery: Endurant turf colorants provide year round green
Even for growers, landscapers and golf course superintendents who didn’t get ahead of the frost with frost damage prevention measures, Endurant turf colorants continue to offer a quick, inexpensive and full recovery for springtime green turf.
“Due to the inevitable color loss from the late season frost, we will paint again,” said Lee Dempster, golf course superintendent at
Belfair East Golf Course in Bluffton, SC.
Even with the best prevention, some recovery can be needed: Endurant provides the green you need
When winter-like weather is severe, the frost, snow and ice are going to decrease chlorophyll levels no matter what you do.
Endurant Turf Colorants provide the restoration and recovery needed to get your green back.
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Late season frost recovery using Endurant turf colorants. www.TurfPaint.net[/caption]
“No doubt, winter weather can knock back chlorophyll presence no matter what you do. That’s when you attract heat and get back in the game with an Endurant colorant application for immediate results,” said Jennifer Seevers, of Geoponics.
Sod grower: A story of recovery
Though the frost hit a bit later than expected, it’s certainly not the first time that winter-like weather breezed its way into spring. Check out this story from another sod grower:
Endurant saves sod farm from late frost.
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It doesn't look like spring. A late frost on Centipede turfgrass turns Buys Sods TriState Farm completely brown.[/caption]
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Spring time green recovery: Sod farmer combines two Endurant colorants for their preferred shade of green, using a base coat of Endurant FW at a rate of approximately 5 gallons per acre and then topping that off with the bright shade of green provided by Endurant PR at a rate of 4 gallons per acre. Clients were thrilled that the grass was green and as temperatures returned, the natural chlorophyl color was soon on its way to maintain the lasting look.[/caption]
Geoponics will often mix colorants for customers to give them their preferred shade of green to best match their turfgrass variety, turf usage and preferences. See the full line of five colorants available to meet the vast majority of customer needs at
TurfPaint.net.
