Aeration Is Over!

The last week was spent performing aeration operations to the fairways, tees, greens and some rough.  As many know the process is used to promote air into the soil and reduce compaction.  Nowhere is this process more important than the greens.

Our poa annua greens have very short roots and any chance to get some air and improve the soil before the season is welcome.  You may have noticed that the week before the greens became gradually slower.  In order to prepare the greens for this major surgery, over 150,000 holes per green followed by grinding sand into the surface, we begin to start fertilizing and watering a little more about 7-10 days ahead of time.  This not only improves the health of the green but is very important to the recovery and returning us to true putting surfaces.

We did not get a chance to perform this operation last fall due to heavy rains, which makes this seasons aeration all that more crucial.  As the roots of the plant die off in the summer they begin to clog up the soil pore space below the thatch level.  This slows down water infiltration, makes greens soft and the roots starve from low oxygen levels.  With core aeration we physically remove this organic zone and exchange it with sand.

Hopefully the good timing of doing this later in the season coupled with our practices we improve both the overall health of the greens and the recovery of the putting surfaces.

Spring Continues

We sodded the left side of the 3rd green Friday.  With this weird winter weather we have been able to accomplish many tasks that are usually left on a list of To Do's when we start spring.

How we choose projects depends on many factors.  The size of the project, the location and the availability of resources and timing of weather all plays a part.  Most times we are correcting issues such as drainage or recovery from cart traffic.  We are starting to find the time to improve areas that we feel will enhance the playability of the course.

This area left of 3 green contained many types of grass that performed well only under certain conditions.  By stripping all the offending grass and planing a uniform stand we hope to improve the playability and reduce the chance you draw a poor lie.  Unfortunately it also acts as a path for all the carts with handicap flags as well as the primary walk on and off.  Traffic factors asides we continue to seek areas to continually improve the experience of playing at WGCC.

What under the cover?

The 8th green continues to develop well under the cover of white.  Temperatures under the cover average about 6-10 degrees warmer than normal and most importantly, moisture is trapped helping the turf not dry out under the low humidity of winter.

The picture below shows how lush it is compared to the surrounding grasses.  We are mowing the green about once per week and applying sand topdressing and other minerals on a regular basis as we continue to mature the green.

As many have heard me say before, new greens especially USGA greens take 3-5 years to stabilize.  When I say this, it refers to the below surface conditions. The soil begins to stabilize as organic matter improves while we try to manipulate the surface conditions.  As it ages and matures the surface will slowly follow suit and develop it's own character with the breaks and overall movement becoming more pronounced every year.

We will be a little more careful of the conditioning this year as we try to take a more protectionist approach with conditions peaking this fall, when conditions will again become favorable to grass growth. We hope you enjoy the 8th green and will start to see the character of the hole as the year moves on.  For those wondering when it will open, we are planning on having it ready before opening day with  everything depending on how the end of winter and beginning of spring shape up.

A New Year!

One of the exciting things during this time of year is to find the time to attend educational meetings and seminars to find out what is new in the turfgrass world.  Things are always changing, especially with the environmental regulations.  Almost 40,000 new environmental regulations went onto the law books on January 1st of 2012.  Not all deal with our industry, but this puts a heavy burden on how we maintain our course and prods us to look for other alternatives to the practices we now employ.

The challenges for maintaing poa annua greens in this region will be impacted due to these changes in environmental law in the not too distant future.  Look for us to do more experimentation using natural products and increasing our cultural programs (topdressing and aerifying) to prepare for the day when regulations limit our choices.

At one of these winter meetings I had discussions with Dr. Shawn Askew of Virginia Tech.  He is experimenting with a new chemistry (methozolin) to control and eliminate poa annua on greens.  Because of these discussions we have been granted EUP status (Experimental Use Permit) to test this new product.  Look for an update in April when we start some trials on a few areas to see if we can control or eliminate the poa from our greens.

Although we have been blessed with some great January weather, these past few days have proved we still have some winter left and I post these pictures to remind those that like to wear shorts,  it's not over yet!

What you don't see

The poa annua greens on the course present a challenge from many points of view. They are fickle to heat and humidity.  A shallow rooted plant that grows dense and patchy, but seeds prolifically like no other plant on this earth.  It is the only grass species that can seed when mown at green heights, one reason it is so tough to eliminate.

Also poa may be the most susceptible plant to disease.  Our location, which is a pathologists dream with the conditions, now has a new disease from Japan that is making a mockery of our attempts to halt it's progression.  Waitea Patch, otherwise known as Brown Ring Patch.  Funny since it is neither brown, nor a ring or a patch disease specifically, this disease has invaded our greens and seems likely to be here for a long stay.  You may have seen examples of it on the putting green and both 16 and 18 greens.  It is everywhere and very persistent.  The one thing it does not do is invade bentgrass.

So far we have used all the local and university research to apply a ridiculous cocktail of fungicides to stop the progression, and at this time I see little success and a lot of expense.  This condition has us using fungicides when no other pathogens are present, which put simply means we are spending money and time to combat a single disease on poa when conditions are perfect for all other grasses.  We are always looking for methods and practices to extend our protection levels and prefer to spray fewer times than more, but we have now encountered a disease that may require a nearly 12 month regime to combat.  We hope that stronger and more preventative application made at the extremes of the season can reduce it's impact, but poa is so susceptible that if left unchecked we would slowly lose most of the grass on the greens.

Why We Change

Many times we are challenged with the reasons for the constant change at our club.  Just like anything else, time moves on and to stay current we need to keep up.  Not with the "Joneses" but with the needs of the living, breathing entity that is a golf course.  The areas we maintain for golf change constantly, trees grow taller,  invasive plants become more commonplace,  waterways erode banks just like tires wear on cars and the roof on your house needs replacement.  That's one I struggle with, the roof, no one abuses it and it only sees rain, how does it "wear out"?

On the course we are constantly evaluating carts paths that need to be worked on, stone walls that have never seen maintenance,  and many areas that are just plain worn out from play.  As we try and create a more favorable and enjoyable playing environment, just think of the trouble many localities are experiencing with poor bridges, and crumbling infrastructure that is overworked and poorly maintained.  We need to incorporate these "investments" to keep the course in the best possible condition to withstand the rigors of play and nature.

As an old course there are a myriad of underground pipes and drains that we have no records of that continue to collapse and deteriorate, but need to be removed or reinforced to prevent larger issues down the road.  Not all of them can be easily solved, but to be sure these items along with the improvements keep the staff busy all year round and continue the need for long range capital funding.

Leaves and more leaves

Ever since summer ended we thought the worst was over.  Big plans to start new projects and feel good about progress has come to the realization that leaves are the bigges hurdle we face.