Clover!

From a distance our fairways are looking green and lush, but once you start walking them you realize we have quite a bit of clover out there. Specifically we have White Clover (Trifolium repens L.), often associated with low fertility and moisture. I can tell you it is not from lack of fertility in our fairways, but I know some of our rough areas do not see as much food as they probably need. Last year, with fertilizer prices going through the roof, we did not fertilize a lot of the rough areas and concentrated on just the main playing turf (tees, greens, & fairways). This year we have switched that tactic a little and our now using some of the least expensive fertilizer to at least give our rough areas a little nitrogen and potassium. We have not changed much of anything in our other fertilizer programs, except for fairways where we are trying a different poly-coated fertilizer we have used on a limited basis in the past.

Clover is pretty easy to whack down, a little 2,4-D, dicamba, triclopyr, MCPP, & MCPA are just a few of the chemicals one can use to kill the little beast. In the rough areas we have been spraying most of the areas we can get to. In the fairways I tried a little different tactic and spot sprayed the first couple hundred yards of #10 and a little bit on #11. I'm glad I did not go all out yet because of what I am seeing on #10. Sure enough the clover is checking out but unfortunately where it is a thick patch there is nothing underneath it to take over. And the heat of the summer is not exactly the best time to be seed/soiling large patches in the fairways. So we will knock down the smaller/thinner patches with spot spraying and leave the rest for this fall when we can get out and treat all the fairways and take advantage of the right time of year for seeding.