"No, Be afraid, be very afraid."

There are 2 words that will get a quality, finely honed superintendent to cringe at this time of the year... Crown Hydration, in my case Crown Re-hydration.  

I'm quite sure this scenario has played out at many facilities in the Midwest this week...We went from frozen drought stressed turf to a thawed mess.  The temps went from the extreme of -2 to 61 degrees in a matter of a week and then back.  I was happy with the turf being dormant, a little drougthy, and frozen soils and sand based greens completely frozen solid.

This week the temps reached 60 with a low of 49 that night, then we had 1.50" of rain.  Wrong kind of moisture for January, I'd rather have seen snow.  Sand based greens went from 12" frozen to a thawed surfaces of 2", then the following day, thawed to 9"...puddles on the greens went away.  The next day the greens completely thawed all 12"+, which the temps hovered at 40 degrees most of the day and then plummeted to a balmy 20 degrees...

So back to the Crown Hydration, most superintendents understand that having the plant crown rehydrate in winter in not a good thing.  I'm pretty sure the Poa on the putting surfaces pulled moisture in...last drink of fresh water came in early December.
 
Many scenarios can happen, from having plants not succeed in having water pulled out of plants leaves, thus leaving the crown with moisture in it.  This would not be good...the plant becomes a Popsicle and probably dies or be severely injured....The plant could also move this water and be successful in moving the water down to the root mass, but with the sharp drop in temps in a short amount of time,  plant hardening off abilities come into play.  Did the plants adapt?  Did the plants move the water through the crown?  Will the plants harden off in the extreme cold after the temperature drop?

These are the questions most Supers are probably answering(warning) right now to who they report to. Which many don't have the answer to. I know I don't.