Whilst scrolling through Twitter on this unseasonably sunny February day I came across this Tweet from @British_wx showing the sunshine hours for the 25th February.

Measured total sunshine hours yesterday (in hours). pic.twitter.com/wzilxd8HEI

— British Weather ⛅ (@British_wx) February 26, 2019

The dramatic difference in sunshine hours across the country got me thinking about the extremes of light and the role it has in photosynthesis.

• Winchester 19 DLI
• Inverness 9 DLI

Remember in my last blog on light I was talking about aiming to reach 30 DLI so Bent grass can produce enough energy to grow. Winchester is still falling well short and Inverness has a long, long way to go. Although the temperatures may be there is light the handbrake on growth?

That’s all before you introduce shade – I’m still working on these figures still but here are my best guesses

If you look like this (thanks for the picture Jon Merchant @Walsall_Greens) then I’d say your at 40% shade

• Winchester 13 DLI
• Inverness 6 DLI

Great days clearance @hockleygolfclub with @cdtrees – this green has never seen light in December or January! pic.twitter.com/z7iVxcyzfR

— Glenn Kirby (@GlennKirby) January 5, 2017

If your shade looks like this I’d say that is around 70% shade so now it’s

• Winchester 11 DLI
• Inverness 5 DLI

And if you look like this which I’d say is 85% shade then it’s

• Winchester 3 DLI
• Inverness 1 DLI

Or in other words a very long way from succesfully growing Bent.

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