Fall Wetting Agent Timing Matters for Winter Preparation

Fall weather can make wetting agent scheduling deceptively difficult. As air temperatures cool—especially nighttime temperatures—growing degree days accumulate more slowly and microbial degradation of wetting agents slows. That means an application that may have persisted only a few weeks during summer heat can remain active considerably longer during fall.

GreenKeeper’s wetting agent models account for these changing temperatures, making this a good time to stop relying on fixed calendar intervals and use the Wetting Agents view in Program Builder to determine when another application is actually needed. Our earlier wetting agent research showed exactly why this temperature response matters and how GreenKeeper uses GDD accumulation to predict when product performance begins to decline.

Figure 1. Notice how the Simplot Turf & Horticulture wetting agent Performance Expectation/Longevity increases as the weather cools during Lincoln, NE fall weather. Cool mornings dramatically slow GDD accumulation.

Prepare for winter while turf is still growing

There is another reason not to simply shut down the wetting agent program when summer ends. Fall is an important period for both cool- and warm-season turf to enter winter with adequate plant-available water. Applying a wetting agent while turf is still actively growing can improve soil-water uniformity before cold weather arrives and may become especially valuable if winter brings extended periods without dependable precipitation or snow cover. That deserves extra consideration this year as a strong El Niño continues to develop and shifts the probability of winter weather patterns across North America.

Wetting agents are important tools for all turf managers to save water, improve turf health and aid survival during tough winter weather. Use GreenKeeper App’s proprietary GDD models to help schedule these applications as the weather cools.

Wetting models are currently available in GreenKeeper for Brilliance, CounterAct Firm, CounterAct Retain, Rely III, Revolution, TriCure AD, and Pervade – Push Water. Be sure to select these products from the Public Product list when scheduling the application so GreenKeeper knows to display the wetting agent performance model on the page.

For readers who want to go deeper, I’d connect this article to A New Era in Wetting Agent Programming for how the models were developed, Wetting Agents for Native Soils? Yes, Especially for Bentgrass for why wetting agents matter beyond sand-based greens, and A Very Strong El Niño Is Building. What Should Turf Managers Expect? for the winter-weather context.

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