Moss: before
Moss: After
Moss is always going to be an issue in a rain forest. At HCC, we get the occasional spot pop up on our putting greens. We have an arsenal of products we use to kill it and have become quite effective at it. Whenever moss is dead, it turns brown. The old saying is: "Brown is down, Black is back." You can see the spray application on the practice green turned these patches a pretty shade of brown. Moss used to be a difficult thing to treat until about 6 years ago, when university research out of the Midwest proved a combination of 3 fungicides would do the trick. Before that research, our moss control was hit or miss. In fact, I remember experimenting with Dawn Ultra dish detergent and Listerine as possible treatments for moss. The idea was to use surfactants to dry out and desiccate the moss. Unfortunately, on a sunny day, these types of products damaged the turf as well. In 2004, a herbicide received a label for moss control. However, it is a risky thing to spray on your golf greens! Any product that is labeled to kill weeds could adversely affect turf as well. For me, it was never worth the risk regardless of what the label said.