Turf Establishment - Westwoods    New Golf Course Construction

     The City of Arvada wanted to expand their Westwoods Golf Course by 9 holes.  Seeding of the new 9 holes, using typical sand green construction, occurred in the fall of 1997.  Three greens did not survive well through the winter.  To test the accelerating effect of ZeoPro on turf establishment, Superintendent Jim Wilkins used ZeoPro on two of the three greens which needed to be reseeded.  The two greens were scarified and all grass removed.  ZeoPro was incorporated into roughly the top 2 to 3 inches at a rate of approximately 350 to 500 lbs/1000 sq ft.  The ZeoPro was broadcast spread over the sand base and tilled in using bunker sand rakes set to maximum depth pulled behind utility tractors (see pictures below).  The control green was mildly scarified, leaving some of the grass from the fall seeding, since it had made it through the winter better than the other two greens.  Except for the ZeoPro treatment, all three greens were otherwise fertilized and amended identically during grow in.  The control green was re-seeded 12 days prior to the re-seeding of the ZeoPro amended greens.  All three greens were seeded with Penncross creeping bentgrass at 1.5 lbs/1000 sq ft.

Despite the delay in seeding of the ZeoPro amended greens they exhibited accelerated establishment and overtook the control after three weeks.  Jim Wilkins observed "ZeoPro was a real help in getting our greens established quickly.  The control green, even after four months is still not as well established as the ZeoPro greens.  Our ZeoPro greens are also holding up real well to use and traffic.  We're happy with ZeoPro and are now using it routinely for topdressing on the rest of the course." 

This pattern of establishment, with greatly accelerated growth in the 14 to 30 days after seeding time frame is consistent with the results of tests at Colorado State University, Cornell University and Rutgers University.  The pictures below show the addition of the ZeoPro and the greens on June 8, 1998.  That date made the control green 38 days after seeding and the ZeoPro greens 26 days after seeding.  Note the ZeoPro green had just been mowed.

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