It has been a few weeks since my last blog and up until this week the weather had remained the same "WET". The wind shifted around a little bring a more settled pattern with the occasional shower and a nice drying wind. Temperatures are unusually high for this time of year which although nice to play golf in it can be a very dangerous time for turf. Our most prevalent turf disease is Fusarium, (Microdochium nivale is the name of the fungus that causes the disease) with the mild days and cool night the pressure of a infection is very high due to grass plant staying wet for most of the day even if the dew is removed. The fungus grows in the water film on the grass leaf and translocates (moves) from leaf to leaf spreading the infection. Fusarium predominantly only attacks Annual meadow grass (Poa annua) which is the dominant species in our greens (80%-85% poa annua, 20%-15% Agrostis, Bent Grass) so a disease prevention strategy is critical. With the weather becoming cooler during the day and more settled the disease pressure should decrease and the number of golfing days should increase. So there is "light at the end of the tunnel"
COURSE WORKS
Although the weather has been poor of late we have managed to keep busy. The recent storm brought down a few tree noticeably across the drive, left of the 9th fairway and in the Green keepers complex.
Although the weather has been poor of late we have managed to keep busy. The recent storm brought down a few tree noticeably across the drive, left of the 9th fairway and in the Green keepers complex.
Some repair work to the first tee has been carried out. The worn turf at the end of the walkways along the side of the new hedge has been replace by a harder wearing grass called RTF (Rhizomatous Tall fescue). It has the ability to put roots down to 1 meter allowing the plant to be very hard wearing and drought tolerant. All the boarders have been weeded.
Aeration is one of the most important and beneficial operations on a golf course. There are two types of tines we use and they are not to be confused as the do different jobs. First we use a solid/pencil tine that punches holes into the turf not removing any of the surface. We use a range of sizes for greens, 5mm, 8mm, 13mm in diameter, 100mm - 250mm depth. Hollow tine is the other tine we use, this tine removes a core from the surface removing thatch. Hollow coring allows us to remove thatch and replace the core with sand (top dressing). Sizes we use on greens are 6mm, 12mm diameter upto 100mm depth. Tees & Approaches 19mm. Below there are two videos of the different aeration practices. The first is solid tine, the second hollow tine.
Last week we managed to solid/pencil tine the greens with a 5 mm tine (first time with the new machine) this week we are hollow coring the greens with a 6mm hollow core, top dressing and brushing. These practises are so important and they are really starting to benefit us hence there has been no use of temporary greens all winter. During these operations it is not uncommon to see a few wheel marks/imprints from our machinery across the greens. There is no detrimental damage to the greens. These wheel marks also appear whenever we topdress due to the weight of the machine and again there is no detrimental damage. The positives massively out weight the negatives. There has also been a few wheel marks from our machinery else where on the course recently. Unfortunately there are some jobs that need to be done. The majority of the marks are where the ground is so wet and the mud has come to the surface. These marks will disappear with some rain.
OTHER WORK
We are still raising/lowering sprinklers. With the high winds of late there has been plenty of debris to clear from the course. The tees have been cut with the new tees mowers today (24th). Hopefully a cut on the fairways at the end of the week and a hand cut on approaches now they seem to be drying out a bit. The drainage at the front of the 14th green has been turfed as the seed was not germinating with the footfall across it. Over the next few days we will be putting a heavy roller across it to give it a final roll. A few more pictures
Thank you for reading and once again thank you to those of you that are carrying and also for all your positive comments. Remember you can subscribe (at no cost) to the RSS feed for automatic notification of updates.
OTHER WORK
We are still raising/lowering sprinklers. With the high winds of late there has been plenty of debris to clear from the course. The tees have been cut with the new tees mowers today (24th). Hopefully a cut on the fairways at the end of the week and a hand cut on approaches now they seem to be drying out a bit. The drainage at the front of the 14th green has been turfed as the seed was not germinating with the footfall across it. Over the next few days we will be putting a heavy roller across it to give it a final roll. A few more pictures
Thank you for reading and once again thank you to those of you that are carrying and also for all your positive comments. Remember you can subscribe (at no cost) to the RSS feed for automatic notification of updates.