Bowling Green Maintenance: FAQ 00. Introduction

There are many Frequently Asked Questions for the maintenance of bowling greens, so here are some of the more common ones, although many questions are actually strongly related to the same or very similar underlying problem.

The one essential activity to undertake before implementing any suggested improvements is to investigate the issue to find out what the real problem is rather than guessing the likely problem.

Inspect the green, carry out an analysis of the surface and take cores, measuring root and thatch depth in particular and have the soil tested for pH, particle size distribution, drainage potential (technically called hydraulic conductivity) and available nutrients (primarily phosphorus and potassium), as a minimum. Have details of maintenance activities undertaken recently and from last year, and also have this year’s and last year’s usage figures available.

Finally, don’t forget to gather weather data for the past few months to see how this might have influenced the situation. The issue can then be more clearly related to the objective conditions found, although in practice there will be numerous contributory factors, but a few might be identified as being significant contributors to the problem.

The answers to the following FAQs can now be understood to be quite general in nature because all of the above factors needed for a thorough investigation and more informed opinion are not available, so these should be treated as indicative signposting of a possible solution only.

The FAQs are:
1. Why is the green a patchy colour and the sward is thinning?
2. Why are there are thin and bare areas where members start their game?
3. Why have patches on the green have increased?
4. Why is our aerator leaving marks from its wheels?
5. Why are the bowls ‘bobbling’ in their travel in certain areas of the green?
6. Why are we getting lots of divots at the ends of the green?
7. How often should we move rinks?
8. Why is the green on the slow side?
9. Why has a lot of the grass which surrounds hollow holes turned a straw brown colour? The hollow-tining was carried out in October and it is now March.
10. The edge of the green dries out quickly. What can we do to help it?
11. How do we repair areas of the green damaged by chafer grubs or leatherjackets without using nematodes for control before the start of the season: It is now early March?
12. Is it really necessary to have to top-dress our green?
13. How long can we leave hollow-tines open for before top-dressing them?
14. How do we get rid of moss from our green?
15. We still have marks on the green from the autumn renovation work carried out nearly 6-months ago at the beginning of October. How can we make sure this doesn’t happen again this year?
16. What is the best fertiliser to use on our green?
17. We have a fine leaved grass like weed on the green. What do you think it is?
18. Can we aerate the green during the summer?
19. The fertiliser which has been applied is irritating some of our bowlers’ hands. What can we do?
20. How often should we water our green?