Samples

It has been relatively quite this past couple weeks with no real news to report.  The snow is always nice and far better than rain.  The last couple dumps have added another 8" over the hard dense layer to get the snow pack up to a respectable 16 or so inches (similar to other years at this time give or take a couple inches).

14" total snow in this picture

Since taking the previous picture we've had another 3 to 4 inches of snow.

I did take some samples from greens earlier this month to get feel for what may be going on.  The frozen ground dictates a slightly different tool selection than normal.

Old cup cutter and sledge hammer are the only way to get samples

The problem with frozen ground is the difficulty in pulling a complete plug.  Basically, all you really get is small slice that seems to break at the interface between the sand and thatch.

Fresh Plug, 12 Green

My first plug was from 9 green since it is the one of the ones I am concerned about.  After digging and chipping I was able to do a little "scratch and sniff".  As flaky as this sounds, the process involves closing my eyes, clearing my thoughts, inhaling deeply and letting the smell tell my brain what to think.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, but when I smell grass in the middle of winter I automatically think of the color green.  This time out, however, I smelled sour which for me triggers a brown color in my minds eye.  I pulled a plug and brought it indoors and was glad to see it green up and grow.  The weird part it is only the Poa growing.  My guess is since the plug was difficult to remove and very, very shallow most of the roots (and possibly crowns) from the bentgrass would have been left behind in the frozen ground and, as a result,  any bentgrass leaf tissue would all fail to grow.

I've been out to the other greens with ice on the surface and early indications (smell and, as in the case of the plug pictured above from 12 green) appear less threatening than those so far observed on 9 green.  The plan is still to monitor the surface as best we can by randomly digging test pits and pulling plugs if conditions (i.e. smell) dictate it throughout the remainder of the winter.  I'll check the greens tarped with the semi-permeable covers next week and comment on any thing I see.

What does Ice mean?

A Brief History of 9 Green 

Ice Development

November 13
First snow 

December 29
End result after rain event and the on set of a cold snap.
Earlier snow has begun to form ice on the surface

January 4
More snow, more rain, and more cold.
Poor insulation from shallow snow cover
is causing ice to set up "tighter" 

January 8
Ice thick enough that you need a shovel
to chip ice to loosen it.

Not an ideal start to 2012 but it may be time to start thinking of golf again.  Since my last post in mid-December course conditions and the weather have been somewhat variable.  We've had rain, snow, lows of -18 Celsius, and highs of +8 Celsius.  Over that time the snow has gone through a few changes as demonstrated by the above pictures.  So now what?  First look at "Winter Kill" a post I did back in 2009 for a quick and dirty refresher.  

Ice isn't always the harbinger of death but it makes for some stressful times.  The ice we are seeing now is fairly set up over frozen turf and is no thicker than 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch.  Because I feel the turf entered winter somewhat prepared (versus 2009) it is my hope that the only thing this ice really means is we won't damage the surface if we decide to blow snow. 

At the risk of stereo typing Poa annua (the predominant grass species throughout the entire golf course), the one thing to keep in mind is Poa a nice lookin' grass but it's not very smart.  Any sign of spring like weather and Poa will burn up it's stored winter carbs and start prancing around like it's mid-June.  Without the "antifreeze" like protection the carbohydrates offer even a small drop in temperature below 0 degrees could result in damage from crown dehydration (FYI: intracellular crown dehydration is the sudden freezing of fluid within plant tissue that draws water from cells dehydrating them and killing the turf; extracellular cellular crown dehydration happens the same way but ice forms outside the turf plant).  Truthfully, however, I am not 100% sure of what to expect so I'll keep checking the green surface to monitor the ice development and keep doing the "smell test" to get a feel for what may be happening.

December 19th Update

This will be short and sweet.  Not much of any significance has changed on the golf course with respect to snow cover and the "ice" situation.  All surfaces are still frozen with about 6" of snow and some have a thin layer of crumbly ice directly on the surface.  We need to get through January without any significant rain or increase in temperature and then I'll have a better idea of where we stand, hopefully.

Fall projects are the usual equipment tear down and reel grinding for the mechanic.  Brad built a few more of the garbage enclosures that will be used on select holes to accent the brick work we will continue doing around the ball washers.

Garbage Enclosure

I like the idea of these things because they hide the garbage and they are cheap to make.  The material costs are:
1. Two packages wood panelling: $16/can
2. Wire mesh: $6.50/can
3. A quarter of a 5/8's plywood for lid: $8
4. Recycled 2x6 from the clubhouse deck for the base: $0
5. Recycled 2x10 from old shop: $0
6. Staples for air gun, glue, misc. : $5/can
7. Stain: portion of 2 cans @$50? maybe $10

Total materials is around  $45/enclosure.  We are getting a little thin on the recycled lumber but the amounts we use are minimal and having to add the extra lumber would only increase the cost by another $10 or so.  Labour?  Building and staining 5 of them took just under 60 man hours.   They are not a necessity but I think they add something.

Hopefully, you had time to answer the survey I posted a link to in the last post.  Go to Kimberley Bulletin Article to read the article that was appeared in Friday's paper.  Unofficial grapevine has things will remain status quo but we'll have to wait.  I was pleased to hear from a number of people who took the time to fill out the survey.  Again, hopefully, we will get a better representation of what people across the province really want.

Unless things get strange on the course my posts for the next month will be sparse but will start up more frequently in February when all the "Snowbirds" may be starting to think about comin' home.

We got a problem....

The "we" in that statement encompasses anyone who has anything to do with golf.  Somewhere in the cacophony of news I'm sure you've heard that the provincial government has plans to create new legislation concerning pesticides (see: Bill Bennett weighs in on cosmetic pesticides ).  This topic exhausts me but it also gets me riled up (go to the Bill Bennett link and read the comments; especially the one by Agent_Whatever.....somebody you may know).  It's hard not to appear as a single minded,  uncaring, environmentally polluting, self interested capitalist when opposing a pesticide ban.  I can appreciate peoples concerns but the debate has become entirely emotional and has turned into a pissing match between both sides and their experts.  Both sides have arguments that support their view but as anybody over 30 or anyone who follows the news knows its all about how you present your facts.
Provincially the ball got rolling, I think, with the New Democrats proposing bill M-203 (Cosmetic Pesticide and Carcinogen Control Act).  Although it was defeated, some of the points included were:

1.) banning pesticides use on non-residential areas including institutional, industrial, commercial and recreational properties.
2.) a 5 year phase-out of pesticide use by golf courses
3.) allow municipalities to pass more restrictive bylaws
and, a contradiction that that kills me every time,
4.)  does not apply to the agriculture or forestry industry!

I am repeating myself, but if pesticides are so bad then why not an across the board ban?  Economics?  Employment?  Here is some stats about golf in British Columbia you're going to see a few times:

- Golf contributes over $4 billion in gross production annually

- Golf employs nearly 50,000 people in BC.

- Tax revenue from golf exceeds $400 million annually

Here is a one fact no person can dispute and one that I promise will happen without pesticide use:

Snow Mould Damage
on a Putting Green

With the climate in our area the biggest disease issue is snow mould and the damage it causes.  There is no effective alternative to fungicides for snow mould control.  There are numerous angles to debate but in politics it is numbers, financial and votes, that drive any governmental decision.  Right now decisions are being made on assumptions that, for instance, information derived from an online survey in February 2010 is indicative of all British Columbians feelings towards a ban.  That survey had 8000 respondents with 88% supporting a pesticide ban.  The population of British Columbia in 2010 was 4.5 million.  You need to go to this link https://www.leg.bc.ca/pesticidescommittee/ before December 16th and answer the survey the way that best suits your beliefs.  I hope to e-mail out some more information before the dead line to educate people.  Remember, pesticides is a very broad category that includes more than just Weed 'N Feed and you need to understand what you're supporting, for or against, and the consequences of your choice or inaction.

Week of November 28th

I went and checked some surfaces to see how things have changed over the past couple days and things have changed a bit since last posting.

Snow Depth on #4 Green

Generally, there is enough snow cover on all greens to give us an insulating layer.  Some surfaces have remained thawed and should be good for rest of winter.  Others that were semi-thawed are now frozen and, along with the greens that remained frozen since the beginning of the season, have a pebbled ice surface of maybe 1/2  inch thick.  The ice still lacks any real cohesiveness but is probably solid enough to prevent damage to the surface during snow removal in the spring.

"Pebbley" ice and Grass on #4

Because of the greens it is on (most don't see much sun this time of year) and the fact that it is removed fairly easily all we are going to do is watch it and make sure it doesn't grow thicker and/or more dense.  If conditions change we'll begin pulling random turf plugs and decided on a course of action based on what we see.  I'll keep you updated.

Week of November 20th

The was not the weather I wanted in the middle of November!  After that nice 15 cm of snow last Thursday we had another 11 cm come Tuesday a.m.  However, that was followed by one inch of rain over the next 2 days!  By the end of the rain the snow had been compressed 50%  to just to over 12cm.

Just under 24cm snow Tuesday a.m

Just under 12cm (radio is 12cm to base of antenna) on Thursday

I was fairly sure ice would appear on the surface of the frozen greens but as of today, Thursday, November 24 there doesn't appear to be any ice on any of the surfaces I checked.  Even better was the fact that those greens that were frozen seem to have thawed slightly which is maybe why no ice developed.  The forecast is for fairly normal weather (flurries, highs near zero and lows around -4 degrees Celsius) which is good.

Situations like this are far from my favorite but they do help develop a data base of experience which can aid in making decisions next time out.  Before we went and checked each green yesterday, I was under the assumption that a rain event of that size would be a problem since that has been the case in years past (anybody remember 18 G the spring of 2008?).  Even after having the worst case scenario I talked about in the previous post play itself out and things now appearing "rosy" I hesitate to comment on how the turf will overwinter.  Heck, we still have one week of November left!  I've been spraying the greens as late as December 14th so, suffice to say, we are not out of the woods yet.

It's What it is Now

15 cm last night.  Hopefully, it is here to stay!  We've been monitoring the greens, specifically #4, and ended up leaving things alone.  I guess the good news (ice wise) is nothing has really changed or gotten any worse.  The extra snow is actually nice since it will help buffer any dramatic weather changes.  Best case it keeps snowing from now until March.  Worst case, above normal temps with rain.

Yesterday one of the "herd" had a problem:

This deer managed to get his antlers tied up in the netting on the driving range.  Luckily for him, someone saw him near the end of the day.  I wasn't involved but I guess the extraction procedure involved a bit of a tussle and, apparently, the buck still has chunked of netting wrapped up in his antlers.  Could have been worse.