What are those Purple Spots?

First, let me say, No . . . Harold and his purple crayon did not pay a visit to our golf course.  Remember this classic book from your childhood?  I read this to my three-year old son Knox at bedtime last night and in the book, everything is purple.  Kind of like those funny looking spots on our greens and fairways.



Anthocyanin pigmentation on a green 


I thought I would take the opportunity to explain what exactly is causing these spots to suddenly appear as of late.  This phenomenon is brought on by swift temperature changes between day and night or mild weather followed by colder periods.  Sounds a lot like our weather in March and April doesn't it? 

Typically, our turf is green thanks to a pigment inside the plant called chlorophyll.  However, when we experience fluctuating weather patterns, another pigment called anthocyanin temporarily replaces cholorophyll as the main pigment in the turf.  This pigment is found in many other colorful plants throughout the plant kingdom such as the purple petunias that we hang around the clubhouse in the summertime or the red geraniums on your back patio. 

Anthocyanin pigmentation on a fairway.

Not all grass plants demonstrate the effects of anthocyanin as it can be limited to certain bio types of turf (we have thousands upon thousands here at TPCSR) which becomes even more apparent as the changes in pigmentation kick in.  Those biotypes that turn purple are producing sugars in the leaf on those relatively warm, bright sunny days.  However, when night rolls around, temperatures drop significantly and the plant is unable to move these sugars down into the plant.  With these sugars stuck in the top portion of the plant, they bind to our friend, anthocyanin and displace chlorophyll (the green pigment) causing the turf to temporarily turn purple.

This biological phenomenon does not harm our turf and is simply a part of Mother Nature's quirks.  It is also interesting to note that these spots tend to appear with stronger intensity on our more exposed areas which makes sense because these areas experience the greatest temperature fluctuations.  (Think wide-open North end putting green versus sheltered #2 green).  Once the weather patterns stabilize towards May and June, chlorophyll will once again become the main pigment in our turf.

Wiedenmann Super 500 Service Work

Coming up in the next month or two, you will begin to notice the agronomy staff doing a number of things to our fairways- aerifying, verticutting and sanding.  The weather during March and April is very touch-and-go with the days jumping from nice and dry to miserable and wet in the blink of an eye.  Weather is the primary factor that determines how fast all of the aforementioned practices occur not because we don't like to work in the rain, but because our equipment is heavy and we do not want to cause any unnecessary damage to the turf.  

Experience has taught us that we must be ready to take advantage of ideal weather conditions at a moment's notice.  This is why our head mechanic, Rick has spent the last month readying every piece of equipment involved in this process.  Every Spring and Fall when we send this equipment out, things get worn out- belts, tines, blades, bearings, chains and so on.  It is amazing how hard our golf course can be on our equipment and our mechanic.

  

Rick taking a look at the condition of our blades and paddles on the drum.

Here is a quick look at the blades from our Wiedenmann Super 500 that we use to verticut fairways.  Rick spent three straight days replacing all of these blades and paddles on the drum inside the machine.  Very tedious work as he had to clean the threads of each nut and bolt of dirt and rust for each individual assembly, remove the old stuff, slide on the new one and then bolt on the new blades and paddles.  All of this had to be done in a 6" wide access point, making for some challenging work with hand tools.  The blade on the top of the picture below is brand new and the one on the bottom is a worn-out blade that was replaced.  Notice the difference between the two?  It is pretty apparent that we wore these out pretty good last fall.  Thanks for all of your hard work Rick! 

Worn out blade vs. brand new blade from the Wiedenmann Super 500 verticutter.

Here is how the blades and paddles are arranged on the drum inside the machine.