So what IS under all that snow and ice that has covered your lawn for months? Beer cans? Mole damage? Vole damage? Snow mold? Interesting alert yesterday from my friend Kevin Frank at Michigan State University. He was looking at the potential damage to the Poa annua on putting greens but is it possible some of that damage could carry over to our lawns?
His point was the ice storm of December 21-22 coating everything including any exposed turf in ice followed by the polar vortex and snow event after snow event to follow. This has created a continuous layered cover of snow and ice for months. Could some death of turfgrass occur due to oxygen depletion and toxic gas accumulation from soil microbial respiration? What about the layer of leaves you never removed from the lawn because winter started so early and you never got around to it? As they say in the industry “stay tuned” and I’ll keep you “composted”.
