A seeding solution

The members at Visalia (Calif.) Country Club adhere to what golf course superintendent Mike Swing, CGCS, calls the 50/50 rule overseeding of: Half understand it’s a pricey luxury with short-term benefits and would rather spend the money to reinvest in the club’s assets; half are emotionally tied to “greenness” and aren’t concerned about the costs.

Before Swing arrived four years ago Visalia’s maintenance staff was overseeding wall-to-wall. Swing, who maintains the private club’s 18 holes with a $1.2 million maintenance budget, prefers not to overseed fairways because of the detrimental affects to the bermudagrass from the crowding out of the ryegrass. The result is stunted and spotty bermudagrass growth.

Over the past few years, he’s convinced the green committee to just overseed greens and tee surrounds, but Swing says he knows some day he could “lose the fight,” and may have to go back to wall-to-wall overseeding. If that time comes, he wants to be prepared with the best transitional perennial ryegrass seed for his course for the best value.

“In the past I’ve tried transitional grasses that haven’t worked out that well,” he says. “They look like annual rye and they’re ugly in the late stages of growth.

“The day I may have to overseed is coming, so I’d like to have as much information as I can get on the transitional grasses,” Swing says. “You can have the same seed grown on four different golf courses, and they’ll all look different because of climate, soils and regimes.”

To find out what works best on his course, two years ago Swing turned the club’s 3-acre driving range into a test plot, planting six different kinds of transitional ryegrass across the driving range in stripes 100 yards wide and 25-feet deep.

He chose the driving range because it receives the same fertilization and irrigation as the rest of the course, but if there are some failures, they’re not noticeable from the tee.

One of the goals of the study was to find a seed that would transition out in the spring, and Barenbrug’s SOS211 did really well, Swing says. He used it when overseeding greens and tee surrounds last year, and has been pleased with the performance.

When he’s purchasing seed of any kind Swing generally starts by looking at the top 20 varieties rated by the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program.
“The top 20 usually all perform equally well,” he says. “Then I focus on price – cost per pound. My favorite will be whatever’s the best value because it’s not my money I’m spending, it’s the club’s.”

This year, because Swing’s only overseeding about 30 acres – the greens and tee surrounds – Visalia will go through about 10 tons of seed. The goal is to make the purchasing decision by August, which is when the board decides how much of the course will be overseeded.

“Some superintendents make that decision sooner, because if you place the order early, you’re guaranteed the seed you chose,” he says. “If you wait, you run the risk of having to use a substitute or two different types. I have to wait until the board decides if they want to overseed just greens and tees. And that’s when I order.”

He anticipates spending about $20,000 this year just on seed to overseed the greens and tee surrounds. If he were doing wall-to-wall overseeding that cost could double or triple, depending on the seeding rate, though he says he usually seeds at a lower rate because it’s easier on the budget.

“But seed is really the minor cost in overseeding,” he adds. “The other costs associated with it – fuel, equipment, fertilization and labor. It all adds up.”