Turf Recovery and Aeration Season

Well, the weather has started to change for the better. The turf is getting a bit of a break from the weather stress. Turf is starting to recover. I has noticed that the struggling greens 3,4,7,8 and 17 are looking better. I have been giving them some more frequent drinks of nitrogen and raised the height of cut slightly.

We will be aerating as many greens as we can on Thursday of this week with small 1/4" tines. NO SAND They won't be able to handle the stress of dragging sand.

The objective is to vent the greens. This helps to exchange the organic matter gases within the green for oxygen. It also provides water penetration and new avenues for root growth. This process will be followed up with new bent seed and a starter fertilizer. The process should not disrupt play as with a traditional aeration. It will look something like this.

The greens need this process because they are made from native soil. Which is a most peat based soil. So they build up a lot of organic matter.
First Step Cores



Next Blow off Cores



Next Roll Green



Next day after mowing



The holes are small and will grow over and seal up in a short amount of time.

Next spring we will most likely do a Deep Tine aeration. This will yield an aeration hole about 10" deep. We will then fill the holes with sand. This will be an ongoing effort to change the soil profile to one that is better suited to grow our Poa Annua and Bent grasses.

Next the fairways will be addressed. We will be aerating and slit seeding as many as we can. Starting with 10,8, and 5. The Poa Annua was hit hard this year with disease from the harsh heat.

In addition to those holes, I hope to get all the fairways aerated this fall. This is something that has not been done for many years.

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Irrigation Upgrades

I thought I would post some updates to our irrigation system. Over the summer we have been slowly upgrading some our our out of date equipment. Specifically the satellite boxes(these control the irrigation programs) and the gear drive and nozzle assemblies on the greens heads.

The old metal satellite boxes are probably about 30 years old. They are becoming weathered and increasingly costly to trouble shoot and repair.

The new boxes are made of plastic. They are easier to repair and trouble shoot. They are also expandable in the future to allow remote control via a mobile device. They also have an on board rain sensor to shut down at a pre determined rain fall amount.

Additionally, these newer boxes allow me to reduce to amount of boxes on the golf course. Thereby reducing cost of the boxes themselves For instance the below picture used to have 3 metal boxes. Now just one.



Almost all the greens heads on the course have had their gear drives and nozzles swapped out for newer models. The new gears provide better rotation giving a more accurate and constant coverage. The nozzles provide better coverage near the heads. Notice in the pictures the first is the old nozzle with just one secondary spray. The new ones have two secondary spray nozzles.






We will also be updating fairway gear drives and nozzles. When Columbia redid their system, we claimed some of their old parts. The drives are much newer then ours and will save use some money.

Hopefully, in the coming years we will be able to continue to make upgrades.

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Article about what Superintendents have been dealing with this year.

Here is a WSJ article talking about the Heat of 2010 and what superintendents around the nation have been dealing with.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB128104111391824719.html?mod=googlenews_wsj#articleTabs%3Darticle


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Love the current weather!

I didn't realize how long it has been since my last post. It has been a Hot, stressful, and trying summer. Thankfully we have faired the harsh weather pretty well. We were able to keep the turf in good shape.

The fairways have sustained a little to fair amount of turf damage. The fairways were hit pretty hard with the Turf Diseases Dollar Spot and Anthracnose as well a just a few tees. The turf diseases are a direct result of the sustained heat and humidity and how it affects the Poa Anua. We did not treat the fairways much with chemical control. It is not very economical to spray our fairways, we just don't have the budget.

So, we will be slit seeding these areas as much as possible, starting next week. As well as aerating Tees.



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