Sunday, July 24, 2011

update

It's Sunday morning and there is nothing worse then a lightening storm with the staff waiting around to head out. 

Anyway, this week has been a tough one and I am glad it's behind me and looking forward to what is next.  The rain over the last 3 days much needed.  We were very lucky in only receiving .3 of an inch, some areas to the east really got hit hard.  honestly, I will take hand watering to pushing sand in the bunkers any day.  There are still some brown areas on the golf course and that will be the case until the temperatures moderate.  We will continue to incorporate some creeping bentgrass into the poa trivials areas this fall.  I would also like to deeply verticut the fairway to help remove some of the excess thatch.  I am still very happy with the growth regulator plots that we sprayed this spring on the hill between 11/12 and along the creek on 15, 16.  I am looking into the idea of spraying all the new in play fescue next spring to reduce the height and thin out the stand even more.  The herbicide program is working great in the fescue, very little weeds and grasses.  There is some that remains and we will continue to spray these areas until they are clean.

This  week we will start to needle tine and topdress the greens.  For whatever reason turfgrass gets very "puffy" in this hot humid weather and if you do not keep up with the topdressing you will increase the chances for some scalping of the turf.  I did switch the front rollers on the greens mowers to a solid roller during the hot spell to reduce from stress while cutting and the grooved rollers will now go back on after the topdressing application.  I will use this technique in stressful events instead of physical raising the height of the mowers.  There is more surface area on a smooth roller which actually raises the height.  The greens really preformed great last week the only areas on the golf course that are problems right now is the poa trivails in the fairways.  I am starting to see some dollar spot which can be reality easy to control, but the hot/humid weather can bring out the nasty diseases  that keep all superintendents up at night.  I believe the key to prevent a major outbreak is to keep the golf course as dry as possible during this type of weather.  I was very careful watering at night last week only spot watering during the early morning and did not put any water on the greens using the irrigation system only hand watering was done. Rain and hot humid weather do not mix very well and can be a powered keg waiting to happen  Yes, we do have have dry spots out there but overall the golf course is in fine shape with very little disease.  

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