Friday, August 5, 2011

Course Update

finally we have a few cooler nights the last two days, this will take the pressure off the big 3 turf diseases out there which will also help me sleep a little better at night.  Dollar spot will continue to be a problem out there and now with the temperatures moderating the dollar spot pressure will actually be higher.  The hot weather has also shortened the length of control for fungicides as well as growth regulators.  We use growth regulators for the most part the entire golf season to reduce the top growth of the turf.  The University of Wisconsin has done some ground breaking research of using temperatures by combing the high and the low for the day and then using this information to figure out how long growth regulators will work.  bottom line this year I am only seeing about 10 days of regulations from these findings where more normal years I would expected to see about 17 days.  This is important in that once the turf comes out of regulation there is a growth spurt.  I am sure that you have seen more grass clipping on the fairways then in past years.  This is the reason for that.  This week I actually mowed the fairways everyday and also collected the clippings.  Normal years the regulators keep the turf in check to the point of mowing only 3 days per week. Needless to say but the last few weeks have not been very easy.   The rain last week helped some but we are still very dry only receiving about 2 inches of rain since June 14.  With the hot humid weather being on the dry side is no doubt much better then being wet.  Reading some blogs from around the Midwest many golf courses that had the rains have seen a lot of decline and the turfgrass is under considerable stress. For us the main problems are the poa trivalis in the fairways and I will start to work some bentgrass seed into these areas as well as start to spike and core the excessively hard areas to open up some channels for water to move into.  What we really need is a good old soaking rain. 


This week the greens staff has been working very hard to get the golf course into shape for the club championship.  The cooler nights and low humidity have helped in in firming up the greens. We were able to needle tine all the greens and also have made 2 very light topdressing application which have help control some of the puffiness.  Next week I plan on verticutting the tees, topdressing the greens and start to spike the fairways.

Have a great weekend and good luck to you in the club championship 

Total Pageviews

Followers