Hello just a quick update on how our renovations went. It has been 12 days since the our renovation work was completed. we stuck to the majority of the plan. We trialed the process out on the chipping greens and putting green the previous week just to make sure all the kit was working correctly, hole spacings were the correct distance apart, we were applying the correct amount of dressing, to monitor the seed germination and so you guys could see exactly what you were in for. All the machinery worked perfectly but we discovered verti-draining before hollow coring made them a little bit softer than we would have liked. So instead we pencil tined over the top of the hollow cores after they had been filled up with sand. The verti-draining we will leave until September. The weather was perfect, nice and warm. As you know we did the front 9 monday and the back 9 tuesday. The coring went great, nice clean holes for the sand to fall down. 80 tonnes of sand was applied in total. 40 kiln dried which falls straight down the holes when spun out with the top dresser and also allows us to brush as soon as it has been applied. So with the holes half filled we apply the seed then top up with moist sand which took about an hour to dry on the surface then brushed in. Irrigation was applied immediately after dressing to help compact the sand down the holes and add a bit of moisture to help the seed germinate. Wednesday i sprayed with a soil feed to aid recovery which was very high in seaweed and a wetting agent on thursday to hold the water in the correct place. We also dressed wednesday and thursday to top up the holes. Seed germination this year has been fantastic. The seed was showing with in 6.5 days and fully germinated on all 21 greens with in 8 days. Height of cut was raised to 4.5mm to give the seed the best chance to germinate. Germination is the easy part establishing the seed is the hard part. Now the seed is in full flow we have to wait until we are at the second leaf stage where we can apply more nutrition if needed and lower height of cut. Height of cut will be reduced from this monday by 0.5mm and will be reduced in small increments until we are back to our summer height. So all in all a great renovation from our point of view, recovery has been fantastic. With a few more light dressings we should be back up to scratch in no time. A bit of patience is required as the seed is establishing regarding the tufts of new grass. Hopefully with reducing the height of cut gradually and regular light dressing we shall regain smoothness quickly.
A big thankyou to the lads for all their hard work now we just sit back and reap the benefits. That brings out sand total for the year to 160 tonnes with at least a further 40 programmed before the year is out.
A huge thankyou to our membership for being so understanding and patient without this the work would not be carried out so efficiently and to Patrick for allowing us to close 9 holes each day. Also i would like to thank those of you that leave comments, feedback is so important to us. Once again thankyou for reading.
Regards Lee & Greenkeeping team
A huge thankyou to our membership for being so understanding and patient without this the work would not be carried out so efficiently and to Patrick for allowing us to close 9 holes each day. Also i would like to thank those of you that leave comments, feedback is so important to us. Once again thankyou for reading.
Regards Lee & Greenkeeping team