Sunscreen for Turf

Every once in awhile a new product comes along that gets your attention.   This year, the new product getting all the attention in our industry is a product called Turf Screen.  Essentially, Turf Screen is sun screen for turf.  The active ingredients in Turf Screen (titanium dioxide and zinc oxide) are the same compounds found in most commonly used sun screen products that you and I use to protect our skin from the sun.

The active ingredients in Turf Screen block and reflect harmful UV wavelengths.  By reducing the UV exposure, we are able to reduce canopy temperatures by as much as 5 degrees, while also limiting the damaging affects of the UVB radiation.  I don't expect this to be a complete game changer for us, but anything to take the edge off the extreme conditions we experience in July and August is worth giving a try.

Although some golf courses are spraying this product throughout tees, greens and fairways, we are making our first application today on greens only.  We'll keep you posted on the results.

First application of Turf Screen