December

It's coming up to almost one month since my last post and, as I indicated at the very beginning, that means there isn't a whole lot to talk about. Most of our time has been indoors tying up loose ends. I've slightly obsessed over updating and bettering our record keeping for fertilizer and chemical applications on the golf course. I've been trying to tie in our inventory to our application records in a "real time" sense. Previous years records help with purchasing in the new year but turf conditions, weather, maintenance practices, and gremlins can change the amounts of products used and the timing of applications. Sometimes we are unsure of where we stand with respect to the amount of particular product so, obviously, a more accurate method of tracking will keep us better informed of where we stand during the growing season.

#18 Green
Seeing an smelling "green" under snow cover
always makes my day.

Last week we checked conditions on green surfaces and found all but 5 were completely unfrozen and had no ice layers on the surface. Of the 5 frozen greens two were tarped (7 and 15) and the remaining three (12, 14, and 16) were untarped. What does all this mean? Its early to really comment but, generally, unfrozen surfaces suggests a year with high disease pressure. This may only be an issue on those fairways we did not spray and/or those fairways we experimented with "lite" spray rates. I'm fairly comfortable in saying that all the sprays applied to the green surfaces went well so disease on the green surface during the winter should not be too big of an issue. We have about a 11" (28cm) snow cover which should be able to absorb any small rain events. Moderate to heavy rain and mild temperatures will affect the integrity of the existing snow but any melting snow or rain making its way to the green surface should soak in since most of our greens are thawed. However, all bets are off if we have a catastrophic rain/melt event like we had in December 2007 (we had to sod a portion of 18 green in the spring of 2008 because of ice damage).

Winter

Looking Backward Down 5 Fwy
(all the tracks are from the wildlife)

I'm pretty sure winter is here. If the cold temperatures and snow weren't enough the large number of geese flying south this week confirmed it. I tried to record the flocks and all the honking but none of the videos or stills were able to satisfactorily convey the event. All you heard in the video was my clothes rubbing together and the geese are all but specks in the still photos.

Keep snowing. Right now 9" (23cm) on the ground and flurries in the forecast. Up to this point, all things considered, barring the unforeseen, and God willing and the creek don't rise, etc., etc. (you can probably sense my restrained approach) the winter has set up to be far better than last year. A quick course check has revealed unfrozen surfaces on the sunny greens and some slight slush in low area on certain fairways which probably doesn't mean a whole lot this early in the season. At the very least we have some insulation against any cold snaps that come our way. At the very, worst conditions for disease (very near zero and some surface moisture) are present.

Equipment Maintenance

This is the time of year when we tear down the equipment and try to get it back into shape for the next season. One of biggest tasks is reel grinding.

Grinding Room

Over the season the edges of the reels and bedknives wear and become dull or damaged. We can do some stop-gap measures on the larger reels throughout the regular season but ultimately the reels need to be sharpened. Reels have to be removed from the machines and are given a once over looking for worn bearing, seals, or general wear and tear. Before sharpening any deficiency must fixed. Each reel is ground on a specialized piece of equipment that sharpens all the blades at once by spinning the reel while a sharpening stone travels back and forth across the reel.

Sparks from Fairway Reel Being Ground
(You can't tell from the pictures but both the
stone and reel are spinning at the same time)

Aside from the reels, the bedknives also have to be ground. The way a reel works is similar to scissors. Grass blades pass between the rotating reel and the stationary bedknife and are sliced in a motion similar to a pair of scissors cutting paper. With both cutting edges freshly sharpened the reel is put back together and re-installed on the mower ready for next season.

Bedknife and Bedknife Grinder

If possible, major mechanical repairs are usually delayed until the off-season. During the summer the mechanics time is often occupied by routine equipment maintenance as well as other tasks thrust upon him "out of left field". In the past the mechanic had to crawl around on the concrete floor and attempt to dismantle and fix equipment while lying on his back. A couple years ago we had a season where only half of the dollar amount budgeted for equipment repair was spend ; a seldom occurring and never repeated event. We used that surplus to purchase an hoist for the shop.

Rough mower getting the
once over on the shop hoist

With exception of our tractor all equipment pieces can fit on the hoist. Aside from saving the mechanics back, this "tool" has allowed for less down time since repairs are faster as well as allowing for more extensive inspections which can catch problems before they get too damaging and costly.

Some of what we do in the Fall.

I ran into a golfer the other day who seemed to be left with the impression that as soon as the golfing was done we were out of work. I guess my postings aren't making the impact with as many people as I had hoped.

This has been a great fall with a general trend of colder temperatures and limited rain (only 12mm for October). Combined, these circumstances will give the turf lots of cues to get ready for winter. I should give a little update on where we stand in general. All the preventative sprays on the greens, fairways, tees, and green surrounds are completed. All the "beetle trees" have been cut and stacked and the wildlife fences around the greens are up. The planted trees susceptible to wildlife damage have been protected (see "Typical Fall Work", Nov. 2009) as well as having a slight pruning (not the best time but getting around in winter is a pain!). We took advantage of the protracted fall to perform a little extra aerating and dormant overseeding on the driving range. We aerated the range in 3 directions, overseeded and then dragged the cores and seed into the the holes and low spots. The hope is to increase the turf density which will make it easier to pick the balls with the range picker.

At present there is only 3 staff working (me, the assistant, and the mechanic). We still have to take the tarps out of storage and lay them out where they belong. I'll do another post dedicated to tarping the greens and will give more information at that time. There are still a few loose ends from this year to clean up out on the course but nothing substantial. Ultimately, the work moves indoor and is mostly related to record keeping, equipment maintenance, reviewing and planning, and monitoring conditions. Actually, each one of those tasks deserves its own post so I won't go into too much detail other than to say that even though golf is finished we still manage to fill our days with cleaning up from this season and getting ready for next.

Trees and Shadows

Last fall and this past spring have motivated me to pay closer attention to tree's surrounding certain greens and the impact their shadows have on turf growth. The benefits of adequate sun in the fall include the typical increased air circulation and faster drying of tissue surfaces to help limit disease development. Another very important aspect of fall sun relates to the storing of carbohydrates (CHO) within the plant needed for overwintering and growth in the spring. As mentioned before, the growth habit of turf in the fall changes because of cooler temperatures and shorter days. These changes signal the plant to slow vertical growth and direct energy toward roots and the creation and storage of CHO's. The more light/energy available to a plant during the fall the more CHO's it can make and store which will help in winter survival and spring start up.
Good sun exposure in the early spring obviously helps in speeding the melt of snow and ice from the previous winter as well as warming up the soil quicker to increase plant and microbial activity.
The shade created by trees has many other physiological impacts on turf grass (low density, spindly and succulent growth, and poor root density) not to mention the direct competition trees pose to available resources for plant growth (light, water, and nutrients). Take a look and the following before and afters and see how selective tree removal can significantly increase available light and, hopefully, increase the health and, therefore, the playability of these surfaces.

8 Green Before

8 Green After

7 Green
Before and After

4 Green
Before and After

Removing trees is not the only maintenance practice we do to control their interference with growing turf. I've talked about root pruning before (November 3rd post in 2009) as it relates to cart paths. We also root prune around greens to limit root encroachment under greens. Kinda a boring picture but here it is.

Root Pruning Trench on 8G

Week of Oct 17 -24

We continue with our fall maintenance and prep for winter. Aside from the tree removal for pine beetle (previous post) and aerating greens with the deep tine aerator, we have begun our winter disease prevention program. Right now we are in better shape (health and treatment wise) than last year. Temperatures have been in a nice range with overnight lows only moderately below zero (versus 10 to 15 below zero last fall) and day time highs anywhere from +5 to +12 C. We require 2 more preventative sprays on the greens to properly preparing them for winter.

Applying Snow Mould
Treatment on 12 Fairway

The funny thing about preventative sprays is the timing. An application needs to be before conditions are right for disease to fully develop but not so soon that you risk the treatment loosing its potency. Two of the green sprays need to be done while the turf is still able to absorb the treatment; i.e. still growing/photosynthesising. The recommendations for the third application is to apply just before the first permanent snow cover. The "just before the first permanent snow cover" is the weird part. Weather forecasts, historical averages, and my "spidey sense" are the only tools I have to decide when to time that last spray.

One problem with spraying too early is the affect moisture has on spray efficacy. The more a treatment is exposed to rain events or snow melt (with respect to a contact fungicide) the less effective is its control. Aside from rain, UV light can also lessen fungicide effectiveness as a result of UV degradation. One more thing: fungicides have recommended spray intervals that range from 7 to 28 days depending on environmental conditions and disease severity. Snow cover obviously limits re-applying so, ideally, you would want to be at the beginning of the time line with respect to the spray interval when the snow does come.

We can spray all 18 greens with just over one tank so it only takes 3 to 4 hours to finish. When it comes to treating the rest of the golf course we need another 10 tanks which, when you throw in frost delays and the time needed to have spray dry on the leaf, can take up to 5 days to complete the 10 sprays required.

Pine Beetle

Blue Dots are Old Infections
Red X's are Infections for 2010
Updated 10/25/10
(click on picture for better view)

The past couple weeks I've been out marking trees that have been attacked by the pine beetle, same as last year (see "Typical Fall Work" 11/13/09).

Pitch Tubes on Lodge Pole
are Signs on Beetle Attack

Right now we have close to 57 green attack trees to remove. (Green attack refers to living pine trees that were attacked this season and are infected with the beetle now. Red attack refers to dead pine trees from previous seasons that no longer contain the beetle but still have their needles. Greys are dead standing trees with all their needles fallen off. More reading and info at: http://www.rdno.ca/pine_beetle/index.php and http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfp/mountain_pine_beetle/bbbrochure.htm)

Infected trees will be cut and processed (burning or milling) to kill the overwintering beetle/larvae. We monitor previous infections sites and walk the entire property (including the land owned by the golf club near the river) looking for new infection sites. A point of interest this year is the unfortunate circumstance of finding more Ponderosa hits this year. We have found infected Ponderosa's in the past but they have been small trees. This year all the new hits have been on large trees. If there is any good news all but one of the infected Ponderosa's are located in the deep rough.

Winterizing the Irrigation System

One of the most important activities we do every fall is winterizing the irrigation system. Under your feet is almost 8 miles of plastic pipe that, on average, is only 24 inches deep. The shallow depth means the water inside the pipe will freeze and shatter the pipe if it is not expelled before winter. Draining the system through low points eliminates some of the water but not all of it. To understand why gravity draining is only of a partial help an explanation of how the irrigation system works might help.

Without going into too much detail, the irrigation system at KGC is a hodge-podge of control methods and piping schemes. The front nine is a "block system" which is best described as a constantly pressurized mainline that supplies a number of laterals irrigation lines in which a single valve controls multiple sprinklers. The laterals are only pressurized when the valve opens and the sprinkler heads are running. The back nine is a "looped system". In this type of system smaller pipe feeds off of a larger mainline at two points (usually at the start and end of a fairway). Each sprinkler heads has a valve and can operate on its own. Water is supplied to each head by the smaller looped line which is constantly pressurized.

The valves in both the front and back hold water and are not drained by gravity alone. Even a little water left at the base of a sprinkler valve can destroy a head. The following picture shows an irrigation head where the ice that formed within the valve at the base of the sprinkler split the casing top from bottom. The interesting part of the picture is how little ice was needed to damage the sprinkler pot.

Damaged Pot

The only way we have to remove unwanted water from the irrigation system is to use compressed air. We use a compressor that able to generate 750 cubic feet/minute (cfm) of air. As a point of reference, a small portable compressor used for air nailers can run up to 2.5 - 5 cfm. We rent a compressor locally and use it for 2 days. We close nine holes at a time for convenience and safety. It takes a full 8 to 10 hour day to completely blow the back nine and only a 6 hour day for the front. This relates mostly to the different control systems we have on each nine ( see April 15th posting for brief explanation of control systems at KGC).

Mixture of Air and Water Being
Forced out Sprinklers

Generally, we have pretty good success with little or no damage the following spring.

The clubhouse, on course bathrooms, snack shack, river pumphouse, and reservoir pumphouse all have to be winterized as well but for those we use a smaller compressor and R.V. anti-freeze to keep the fixtures from freezing. There have been years, like last year for example, where the cold came early and hard. I seemed to have misplaced the pictures I took but the damage last year included frozen control satellites, burst irrigation pipes, frozen valves, and split plumbing fixtures. At this point in time we seem to be ahead of last year with respect to "irrigation winterizing", that is. Hopefully, that hold true for all other processes we have yet to complete!

The Down Hill Slide.....and Now the Work Begins!

Starting a far back as the first week of September we began our fall aeration program. This years weather and staffing constraints caused us to shuffle the aeration schedule around a bit but we are now on the final leg. Properly timed fall aeration (ample recovery time) can be a real benefit for the fall health of the turf. Usually, a season of play and maintenance cause the soil conditions to be less than optimal for growing healthy turf (see July 8th posting for more aerating info). Aerating will decrease compaction and result in better air exchange within the root zone. In conjunction with the increased height of cut and the turfs growth habit in the fall the benefits of aerating will encourage root development and carbohydrate storage for overwintering.

We started first with the tees. There is a little bit more of a B.S. factor for tees and, as a result, we are a little less concerned about impacting playability and pulled a fairly large core. We top dress the tee's with recycled aerating cores from our spring greens aeration. That is one of the good things about being an old Poa golf course; you can recycle things like aeration cores and not worrying about spreading Poa seeds since it is everywhere already!

For the greens this time out it was all about the core. I was too scattered brained to take any pictures but we used a 3/8 tines on 1.5x2 spacing with an extra tine every second row resulting in a 1.5x1.5 spacing for those rows. Sounds confusing but all I'm really trying to say is we had more and bigger holes than the last time we pulled cores (again, see July 8th. FYI the spacing I commented on in that post was incorrect. It should read 1.5x2 spacing). The end result was a very large volume of material and more open holes for air exchange.

The past couple weeks have seen us pick away a aerating the fairways. We use slightly different aeration equipment for large area such as fairways that is best explained as a hollow aerating tines on rotating drums.

Pulling a core with the Fairway aerator

This style of aeration is beneficial for its speed and simplicity. It does pull a core to remove thatch and allows increase air and water exchange but offers little in terms of compaction relief. The good thing about the recent weather leading up to the nice spell we are experiencing now is the rain made the ground nice and soft which is allowing us to pull a good 3 to 4 inch core. A perfect world would have us using the same style aerator we use on the greens but the reality of our fairway root zone (or should I say "rock zone") limits our options to a fairly robust aerator such as the one pictured. We don't have the equipment or available material to top dress the fairways but we select certain areas and do a very limited overseed/top dress. I am always on the look out for a good, cheap source of sand since top dressing the fairways would be very beneficial for health and playability. No luck so far.

moss

Moss on Upper Putting Green
(double click for enlarged image)

One problem we have at KGC that is becoming more common on golf courses is the growth of moss on putting greens. Moss is a primitive plant that is able to photosynthesize similar to regular, everyday plants but has some significant differences from plants it that it lacks roots and a vascular system. Moss, especially the species that is well adapted to putting greens, is very tolerant of drying out and is capable of remaining viable after 2 years of dessication (i.e. it will survive without water for that length of time).

Maintenance practices used on a modern golf course such as low height of cut, low fertility and sand top dressing all contribute to moss invading a putting green. Include environmental factors such as poor surface drainage and low light conditions and moss will find it easy to spread. Few chemical strategies are available for effective moss control. Most selective pesticides usually are required to be transported within a host to be effective. The lack of a vascular system in moss make this impossible. A non-selective herbicide is just that non-selective...it kills all plants which is not very useful when controlling moss on putting greens. Most moss control treatments act to stress the moss more than the surrounding turf. If moss has a weak spot it is its susceptibility to certain metals such as mercury, copper, silver, iron, and lead. In Canada (I think) iron sulphate and copper hydroxide are the only "metal" products sold for moss control.

We are fortunate since we only have moss on one area on one practice putting green and it hasn't reached epidemic proportions. We are trying to control moss by applying diluted baking soda directly to the moss. The unfortunate side effect is the phytotoxicity displayed by the turf.

Brown areas are the phytoxic spots


Close up of spots with moss in the middle

These spots are the reason for this post. They appear within one day of spraying baking soda and make the green look a lot worse off than it is.

As an interesting aside: I am, technically, "breaking the law". Any product applied to pests as a form of control is classified as a pesticide. Since baking soda is not registered as a moss control product by the PMRA (see 7/21/2010 post) in Canada I cannot legal apply it to control moss, hence the "breaking the law" statement. Any product sold to control pest has to be registered with the PMRA as a pesticide and has to have a registration number. That includes products labelled as "environmentally friendly".
I can go on and on about pesticides and perception which, I guess, is the other reason I bring this up now. We are entering that part of the season when we are applying pesticides in preparation for winter disease prevention. When applying such products we follow label recommendation with respect to PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) which usually means spray suits, gloves, face mask, and sometimes a respirator. Those items are more a precaution for the applicator since the applicator is handling the undiluted product directly when mixing in the spray tank. The somewhat hypersensitive environment that exist today around the use of pesticides makes everyone nervous when they see an applicator wearing appropriate PPE. Everyday, common place precautions like washing your hands before you eat, drink, or smoke(!?!) are a good practice to get into whenever you come in from the outside. Somehow a discussion of moss has resulted in me getting on my pesticide soap box. I'll quit now.

River Watch

September 24th

Wow! Was that a non-issue. I kinda feel like Chicken Little but if I'm going be wrong about anything let it always be this. Obviously, the rain has been a bonus as the water level at the river is as high as it was in early August. The rain and slower growth will most likely mean there is very little water use for the rest of the year so it looks like we dodged the no water bullet for 2010

Disease in the Fall

Its been a quite awhile since the last post and despite my initial comments that I would only post if something "was going" the reality is a lot has been going on I just haven't budgeted my time correctly. That been said I hope to be able to keep everybody informed on what we do this time of year so the underlying theme for most of the next couple posts will be fall and winter preparation.

This is one of the best times of the year for maintenance. The turf is changing its growth habit which means a little less mowing and less irrigation----especially this year. The cooler nights (something which has occurred all year and I suspect is one of the most important reason for course conditions this season) and shorter days help signal the turf to enter a second growth phase that is similar but smaller to the earlier growth phase in the late spring/early summer. You may have notice that certain weeds such as dandelions appear this time of year and that also relates to the improved conditions for cool season plant growth.

The change in weather also brings about conditions that encourage some turf disease. One disease I have already referenced early this year is Fusarium. (see "Week of May" 23 post for pictures and information). Another disease that is pretty common in the fall is called Anthracnose. It can appear as a foliar blight (occurring during the hot summer months) or as a basal crown rot (occurring throughout the season). Usually conditions such as low height of cut, low nitrogen fertility, and any aggressive mechanical damaging process (i.e. a deep verti-cut that cuts stolons or roots) encourage disease development. Here at KGC we see it every year at the end of August/ beginning of September.

Anthracnose infect Poa

It is best to treat this disease with preventative applications of fungicide since once it takes a foot hold it can cause severe damage that can lead to loss of turf. The tricky part is deciding when to apply a preventative application so as not to waste it. With limited fungicides registered in Canada and the threat of resistance developing within a fungal population to a particular chemical I am always hopeful that I can combine treatments into one application that will have a multitude of effects. Because of limited fungicide selection, treating a summer disease with a chemical that is also used for an over wintering disease is one possible way, through development of resistance, to limited a fungicides usefulness and length of service. This year saw a fair amount of Anthracnose throughout the golf course and as a result we had to go with the higher fungicide label rates to slow the spread on the greens. As a general rule, we will apply at least 4 treatments to the greens as a way of limiting development of any winter turf diseases. The last one is the trickiest since you want to time it just before the first permanent snow fall to get the best control. Continual snow/melt/snow/melt etc., etc. will lessen the fungicide efficacy and may result in having to apply another unplanned treatment. It does sound like the end of the world, however, many fungicides also don't recommend applying on frozen turf which is a pretty common occurrence here at KGC in November and December.

River Watch

September 10

No real change. So that is good.

Tournament Preparation and Tournament Conditions

The 2010 Pucksters is completed and throughout the weekend there was plenty of generous comments about the course condition. Every department has plenty of behind the scenes work before any tournament date. I can only speak to what happens at my end but I know the Proshop and Food and Beverage have been equally busy getting things organized. We really started preparing for this tournament at the beginning of August (actually almost all of our maintenance decisions throughout the year are made with one eye on the events calendar and tee sheet in an effort to minimize interference). The two obvious things I can somewhat influence with respect to preparing the golf course for a tournament are the height of cut (HOC) and fertility. The third most important thing, I feel, is moisture but that one is pretty variable depending on weather and the irrigation system. With respect to the first two the underlying factor is the general health of the turf; the weaker it is the more I'll baby it. We have been lucky weather wise and despite the questionable conditions this spring the rest of the year has been great for growing grass...very few stupid hot days in 30's and lots of cool nights (the biggest thing IMO) with some real good rain days. Anyways, the general health throughout the whole property was pretty good so we were able limit the fertility (mostly the nitrogen) and lower the HOC on the greens a wee bit. Luckily everything fell into place and the greens, in particular, seemed to play good.
The one question I sometimes get is "Why can't the greens always be like they are for tournaments?". The short answer is "Because they would die". The long answer is more complicated. The reality about KGC green surfaces is there is plenty of problems including inadequate irrigation, no subsurface drainage, limited sun light, and poor air circulation just to name a few of the more obvious problems. The inputs (fertility, fungicides, water, etc.) and maintenance (aerating, grooming, top dressing, etc) would all have to increase and we neither have the budget nor the staff to accommodate everything that would be required. Perception is pretty important too. I have been taking "speed" readings on the greens for every tournament over the past couple years in an effort to keep a record and compare green speed between years and tournaments. Guidelines with respect to green speed are for regular "member" play a speed of 7'6" to 8'6" is considered medium (FYI: the distance of 7'6" -7 feet and 6inches- relates to how far a ball rolls on a green when released from a tool called a stimp meter) while a speed above 8'6" is considered fast. For tournament play 8'6" to 9'6" is called medium and anything above 9'6" is fast. For tournaments at KGC the speed over the last 3 years has been between 9' and 10' (another FYI: studies show that golfers can only distinguish speed differences between greens when the stimp reading is greater than 12" between greens). Why do I bring this all up? Perception: for the Wood Valence in June the stimp reading was 9'2"; for the Club Championship in July the reading was 9' while for the Pucksters the stimp was 10'3". As far as the research in concerned the speed between those three tournaments was close to the same. I think a lot of what people experience in tournament conditions is not the speed so much as the smoothness of the surfaces. Our maintenance practices of brooming, topdressing, verti-cutting, and aerating all disrupt the surfaces and, as a result, affect the smoothness of the roll. So the fourth most important thing we do when perparing for a tournament is limit surface disruption. Necessary maintenance practices we perform on a regular basis throughout the season cause surface disruption and that is also why the greens don't roll like they do on tournament days. As usual I've babbled too long so that's where I'll leave it.

River Watch

August 25th

The river is still giving us what we need. We have begun to build a weir out into the main channel in anticipation of the river dropping too much. The rain on Sunday, August 29th will bring the river up but unless it is snow up high the increase in river flow won't last long enough.

Verti-cut

Vertical mowing (Verti-cutting) is a one of those maintenance practices people hear about but may not understand why it is done. As usual, explaining involves a little background info. I'll be pretty fast and loose (as usual) with the "facts" but generally most of what is written is accurate....the info can be more detailed but that has a tendency to translate into more boring.

Bentgrass has a creeping growth and on putting greens it spreads via stolons not seed. This type of growth can lead to "grain" which is a term used to describe a situation where the turf leaves are all laying in one direction (usually down hill or what ever way the water flows). Putting with the grain exaggerates the roll and break. Putting against the grain has the opposite affect on ball roll (i.e. slower and less break). Generally, grain is more of problem at higher heights of cut (HOC) since there is more leaf blade to lay over. However, at lower HOC when we are trying to grow the greens with more emphasis on density and root growth we can sometimes create conditions which may lead to somewhat "grainy" turf. One method for controlling grain is vertical mowing. The cutting heads we use (3 heads in total) contain 36 tightly spaced carbide tipped blades with 10 teeth per blade for a total of 108 blades (1080 teeth).

Blades on a single verti-cut mowing head

Triplex mower with Verti-cut reels operating

You can adjust the depth of the verti-cut heads to achieve desired results. For example, this spring we went about 1/2" deep on the weak greens to increase light and water penetration as well as to remove thatch and, hopefully, cut any existing bentgrass stolons which would then develop into shoots and help increase density. This time out we were more focused on grain control (i.e. standing up the turf that was laying over) and did not go as deep. Verti-cutting doesn't immediately speed up a green but may instead make for a bumpier and slower green. One way to address the bumpiness is to follow the verti-cut with a light sand top-dressing. The sand will level the grooves left by the verti-cut blades as well as protect any damaged turf from drying out.

Top Dressing Being Applied

If you played this past week you would have seen the linear lines left from the verti-cut heads. Usually, with a light verti-cutting the lines will grow out within a 6 or 7 days. Most likely we will do one more later in the season but this time the emphasis will be more on thatch removal since controlling the thatch in greens is one way to lessen opportunities for overwintering diseases. The more astute of you will note that I reference verti-cutting as it relates to bentgrass not Poa annua which is the turf species I claim inhabits all our greens. Poa is more a upright, clump type growth which is less prone to grain. We have enough greens with a blend of both bent an poa that verti-cutting for grain control is necessary. Perennial poa can spread laterally via stolon so verti-cutting on old poa greens may increase density by cutting stolons. Also, even at the higher height we verti-cut this time out, we removed extra material that could contribute to thatch development.

River Watch

August 18

This week saw the first time the river pumps (also called transfer pumps) shut down because of low water at the river intake. It took 2 guys most of a day to dig, expose, and clean out the area around the river intake with shovels and garden rakes. The end result was the ability to re-start both pumps inside the transfer station. The red paint mark on the rock on the right of the picture is there so we know how deep to dig to expose the conduit leading to the river intake (FYI conduit is 47" below the paint mark). This late in the year as the flow in the river decreases you can observe a visual difference daily versus weekly.

Vertidrain

I have been lazy over the past couple weeks and have not posted much; however, like I said at the very beginning if there is not much going on I probably won't post. We've been lucky in that over the month of August there has not been a lot of breaking news on the golf course or tragedies to address. We are mostly in the routine of regular maintenance. We did aerate the greens the week of August 1st using a deep tine aeration method.

Deep Tine Aerator on 12 Green

The advantage to this style of aeration is two fold: 1.) aeration holes can be go as deep as 9" (versus 3.5"-4" for regular aeration) and 2.) the machine has the ability to loosen the subsurface for greater relief of compaction. The "kick" that relieves the subsurface compaction can also fluff up the greens (mostly because of our limited roots and heavy soils) and tends to make the surface bumpy. We do use 5-10% kick during our late fall aeration when play has stopped. To be fair, this time out we were only interested in creating holes for air exchange/water infiltration.

Needle Tine Holes

We were only able to get about 7" penetration and went with a slightly larger spacing. We could have gone the full depth and double the tines to get the biggest bang for our buck but with this type of aeration you need to fiddle around quite a bit to find the happiest medium between surface disruption (i.e. playability) and intensity of aeration. As we do more of this style of aeration and, hopefully, the greens overall health increases we should be able to go deeper and tighter. The real interesting part about this process is how and why are able to accomplish it. The general benefits of aeration (air exchange, compaction relief, thatch removal, blah, blah, blah) I'll harp on about in other posts. What I would like to cover here is the savings and the unique relationship that have developed. In the past we would contract out the deep tine to the tune of over $4000/aeration and since we weren't on the "A" list of clients we had to take whatever date the contractor offered. The very last time the contractor was able to fit us in the greens were frozen. As a result, and $4000 later, there was some greens we were unable to aerate completely and others that were damaged. Since buying our own deep tine aerator for $22,000 we have been able to deep tine 3 times at times that suit us. At the end of this year we will do one more deep tine for a total of 4 and a savings of $16,000. By the end of next year --assuming we keep the same schedule--we will have paid for the deep tine. There is costs associated with owning a machine but for the first few years those are mostly the cost of tines. The unique relationship part of this story relates to the tractor needed to operate the deep tine aerator. The tractor required needs to be of a minimum horse power and have a ultra low gear selection (sometimes called a "creeper gear") not to mention wide tires. KGC's tractor has none of these. As luck would have it, Trickle Creek does have a tractor that meets this requirements and they contract out their deep tine aeration's. So KGC has a deep tine aerator with no tractor to operate it and Trickle has tractor but pays to have their greens deep tined. This scenario obviously lead to a relationship that is best represented by the over used and usually self serving phrase "a Win/Win situation". With the two local golf course working together and sharing equipment we are able to take advantage of a highly specialized tool. Ultimately, KGC will have to replace our old Ford tractor but with the initial success of this particular equipment sharing experiment there is a possibility for local courses to purchase other specialized equipment and share amongst ourselves.

River Watch

August 8th

The huge rain events that kept coming last week have made watering a no brainer. But as you can see the river still continues to drop. There is more water at the river intake this year versus other years and as the middle of August approaches the watering requirements are usually less than early in the year so things appear "rosy". I feel a little bit like Chicken Little, but history is on my side.

Knapweed

Good news/ bad news, I don't have a lot to discuss. Mostly that means nothing tragic has happened and we are in "summer mode". Check out the work done by the staff members on the rock wall beside 17 cart path. If you find yourself having to look for balls over in that area (or by any rock wall, for that matter) do not climb on them since they are merely cosmetic, with limited structural properties and are not meant to be scaled like Fisher Peak. Other things going on include the appearance of knapweed throughout the property. Go to www.invasiveplantcouncilbc.ca/spotted-knapweed for more info.

Spotted-Knapweed by 12 Tee

There are numerous patches all over. We try to manage knapweed by treating known areas with a broad leaf herbicide early in the season as soon as the first knapweed plant is seen. If there is an area we missed or a new area where knapweed is able to mature we then pull the plants and put them plastic bags and take them to the landfill. If you are so inclined to pull some of the knapweed yourself please leave any plants in a high profile spot so we can dispose of the plants in the best way. You could let me know as well and when (and if) we have time we will pull the plants. At the very least, I will include the area on our weed map so we can treat the spot next spring.

River Watch: July30

(Last weeks post had the incorrect date on it. I changed it). So far so good. We are still pumping with both pumps at about 405GPM. Water is dropping so hopefully we get some rain up high and it bring the river up.

Quintozene, PMRA

An e-mail recently sent out to all golf course by the Pesticide Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA: the agency which regulates which pesticides can be used in Canada) informed everyone of the cancellation of a quintozene; a fungicide labelled for use on many agricultural crops and labelled for use against particular turf diseases. This fungicide is the backbone of KGC's snow mould prevention program. It provides good control of grey and pink snow mould at a reasonable cost. However as of December 31, 2010 it will no longer be labelled for use on turf. The good news is we can still spray our cole crops (broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and cabbage) at a rate more than 2X the rate suggested for turf diseases......go figure not suitable for grass but O.K. for the food we eat. If quintozene possess properties that make it inappropriate for use then no longer labelling it for any use make sense but with it still labelled for agricultural use the PMRA sends mixed messages which is used by special interest groups when they promote their anti-pesticide agenda and criticize the PRMA and its registration process. Anyways, the importance to KGC relates to the choice we will have to make in the very near future: spend the money to continue to treat for snow mould on the fairways with an alternative product or save the money and not treat at all. The following pictures is of a section of fairway not treated for snow mould taken July 16th:

Snow mould damage
Click picture once for better view
and again for magnified view

I know it doesn't look too bad but remember this picture is taken after 10 - 12 weeks of growth. We are probably only 8 weeks away from our first frost delay! Those areas won't fill in before the end of the season. This next picture was taken in the spring right after snow melt and shows the obvious control of winter diseases quintozene offers.

Snow Mould Damage

If all the turf was maintained at 1.5-2 inches this type of damage wouldn't be a big deal. Every spring all the lawns and sports fields around town come back, don't they? However, there is a direct relationship between the intensity of the maintenance and level of disease: turf maintained at a higher intensity equals more disease opportunity. If everybody would be happly playing their entire game of golf on 2 inch turf this situation would not be so threatening.

The industry had a chance to contact the PMRA during the re-evaluation process to explain the importance of quintozene to their operation. Here is a excerpt from the letter I sent referring to the budgetary impact discontinuing quintozene would have: "Today, an application of
quintozene on 10.11 ha (size of treated area at my golf course) at present label rates the cost would be $9350. The cost of comparable treatments would be $30,250 (label rates of Propiconazole) or $22,650 (label rates of Chlorothalonil and Iprodione). The prohibitive costs of the available alternatives to Quintozene require decreasing the area treated." KGC will, not this year but definately next year, will be facing some tough choices. The almost tripling of a single budget item combined with the constant increases in fertilizer, fuel, and staffing is making it nearly impossible to meet expenseses with our present revenue.

River watch: July 21

Despite all thunderstorms the level is down. Look back to the previous post and compare the water level by the big rock on the left of both pictures.

Week of July 11

Summer is back again as of the end of this week and we are back into routine maintenance with a greens aeration and the club championship both out of the way. As usual, we will continue to tie up lose ends (cart path edges, rock wall maintenance, etc., etc.) and try to keep on top of keeping things growing until the cooler nights of August. The biggest stress developing is the continual drop of the St. Mary river as the run off winds down. I will post river pictures with each post so people get an understanding of the struggles we face every July/August/September with respect to our water supply. This months pictures were taken July 16:

Looking up river at water flowing past pump
intake located on the right side of picture


Looking up river at the main river with
golf course owned land on the right

Presently, we are able to draw about 400 GPM (gallons per minute) with two pumps operated by electric motors. Typically, by August the river will drop to a level where we will only be able to run one pump at around 220 GPM which is just enough to keep reservoir supplied since we usually irrigate considerably less during August and into September. Just a reminder that if you click on each picture it will increase in size and one more click on the picture will allow you to zoom in.

The How's and Why's of Aeration

As part of the routine maintenance we finished aerating all the putting greens on the course last week. Everybody accepts the necessary evil of aeration but nobody likes it including the crew that has to do it. The shallow aerating performed this time out was to get oxygen down to the roots. Traffic from maintenance and play compacts the upper few inches of the root zone resulting in a decrease of available oxygen for the roots.

A quick and brief review of plant biology: grass is an autotroph a term which means it can create its own food. The process is called photosynthesis and the end products are glucose and the byproduct oxygen. Grass will use the "food" it created in photosynthesis to grow. The energy required for growth comes from a process called respiration which requires atmospheric oxygen (i.e. the plant has to absorb it). Seems strange that plants can create oxygen on one hand but on the other hand still need to absorb oxygen.

Another reason for aeration is removal of thatch from the upper surface. Thatch will affect nutrient availability, water peculation, playing conditions, incubate diseases, and contribute to poor/shallow rooting. A general rule of thumb is to aerate two times a year with 5/8 " hollow tines just to keep up with the thatch created by the turf in one growing season. The recommended volume of displaced material is from 20-25% per year. That translates in to 2 aeration's using 1/2" tines on a 1.25" spacing followed by two 1/4" aeration's on a 1.25" spacing throughout the growing season. Not goin' happen.

We keeping trying different things to find an agreeable process that provides a benefit to the turf with a limited disruption to playing conditions. This time out we used 1/4" tines on a 1.5x1.5 spacing that resulted in about 3% removal of organic matter. We picked the cores with a sweeper bought this spring and followed up with a medium top dressing. A traditional aeration requires the course close on an afternoon with any number of temporaries in play the next day while we top dress. Also, we require two aerators (we borrow one) two top dressers, 4 people to collect cores, 1 person to broom in the sand; 9 people. This time we used one person to aerate, one person to collect cores, one person to blow debris, one person to top dress: 4 people. We were able to do 7 greens/day with no closure and no temporaries.

The hope is we are able to perform 2-3 of these aerations over the golfing season (May, June, August) followed by an aeration with larger holes once we close for the season which would remove about 9-15% of the surface area (depending of the type of fall aeration: hollow core vs. verti-drain). Time will tell.

Fertilizing Fairways

The past 10 days or so have been very busy with lots of maintenance getting done. This post will touch on the recent fertilizing of the fairways and roughs.

It takes about 2 to 3 days for us to fertilize all the fairways and rough using anywhere from 2.5 to 4 metric tonnes of fertilizer. Ideally, you want to fertilize in the spring when soil temperatures have risen to around 55 degrees F (or 10 degrees) and the turf has just started its first growth cycle of the season. That way there is sufficient nutrients available for uptake for development of new tissue. We were late by a couple weeks mostly because of the weather and other matters kept us from fertilizing any sooner.

Spreading Fertilizer on 9 Rough

This particular application has the analysis of 21-3-21 (FYI the numbers on a fertilizer bag represent the percentage of Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium a.k.a NPK. They don't add up to 100% since NPK are only the individual elements of the compounds that make up the whole fertilizer product). We apply at a rate ranging from .5lbs to 1lbs of actual N per 1000 sqft (another FYI: actual N is calculated by taking the weight of the bag multiplying it by the the number representing nitrogen on the bag and dividing by 100. For e.g. 21-3-21 comes in 55lbs bag so: 55 x 21/100 =11.55 lbs of actual N in one bag. At a rate of 1lbs/1000sqft one bag of 21-3-21 can be applied to an area of 11,500 sqft. This same calculation can be done for Phosphorous and Potassium as well.) After we have decided on a rate we need to calibrate the tractor spreader (and walk behind spreader) to achieve the desired rate. We use a big bag and run the tractor spreader for a set time at a set speed and then weigh the fertilizer collected. We do this over and over until we have the desired setting. That is stuff is probably only interesting to me but it applies to any rate calculation for any granular fertilizer so feel free to use it for your yard.

The biggest hurdle we have faced recently has been the cost increase of fertilizer by 40%. A couple ways to control cost is to use different fertilizer types. More expensive fertilizers have more nutrients and/or different nutrient formulations (e.g. methylene urea's) than a cheaper brand with the same NPK analysis. There is a trade off with using cheaper formulations and usually this is the length of time the fertilizer works (i.e. a fertilizer with a higher percentage of quick release Nitrogen is cheaper than a product with more slow release) and the compounds used in creating the fertilizer are usually higher in something called the "salt index" which can have deleterious effects on the turf. The other more obvious way to deal with cost increase is to fertilize less area. We are doing both when we fertilize. Those rough area with an increasing population of clover are areas which have not seen a high quality fertilizer or, in some cases, any fertilizer for a few years.

Our next major fertilization will take place in late summer/early fall when the turf enters its second major growth cycle before going dormant. The analysis will be similar with more micro nutrients and a different Nitrogen source which will still be available in the early next spring when soil temperature start to climb.

There is way more information to cover with respect to fertilizing and plant nutrition but I can tell peoples eye's are glazing over so I'll leave it there. Click the following link and read what the USGA had to say about the greens at the US open and see if the first paragraph sounds like any other place you might know of.

http://www.usga.org/news/2010/June/Beauty-In-Eye-Of-Beholder/

How much has it rained? Or better yet, How little irrigation have we used?

It is no news flash to anyone that the weather has been wet. We keep informal weather records (highs, lows, precipitation amounts, etc) for reference. Same can be said for the water output of the irrigation pump station. Over the last 6 weeks of 2010 we have used 3.5 million gallons of water. Although that may sound like a lot of water but one needs to know that (best case scenario) the irrigation system at KGC can distribute about 450, 000 gallons/night when we are watering everything. So really 3.5 million gallons is only just under 7 complete irrigation cycles (i.e. 7 nights of watering everything). In the past we have usage as been: 2005-8.3 million gallons, 2006-10.8 million, 2007-12.9 million, 2008-7 million, and 13 million gallons last year.

The amount of rain fall (approximately) recorded at KGC this year is 52mm for May and 32 mm for June (not including this weekend). The weird and sort of disappointing part is, according to statistics for the past 30 years, the average rainfall for May is 42 mm and for June is 51mm. It sure feels like an above average year for rain to me! To be fair, Environment Canada has a little disclaimer regarding the accuracy of the weather records for Kimberly since during weekends and holidays no weather data is recorded. One tool I've been looking into for the past couple years has been a weather station for KGC that would log environmental conditions. There is numerous models ranging from the low $100's up to $15,000. Expensive weather stations pay for themselves over time since they can be integrated into the irrigation system and save on water and power usage. At this point in time we are lucky in that water costs are still relatively cheap at KGC so any weather station we would buy would be on the very low end of the price range.

Golf course wise the weather seems to have come during the week days which really cramps our style since most staff and work hours occur Monday to Friday and we depend on good weather conditions to get things done. Most of the cart path sodding is completed. Any remaining areas next to cart paths will be finished using aeration cores such as described in the May 19th posting. We have begun to replace the damage turf on the collars and aprons on some of the front nine greens and will continue for the rest of the following week. If possible we will begin to aerate parts of those fairways that were damage this past winter and try to get some more recovery in the weak areas. We are falling behind with respect to flower beds, string trimming, fertilizing, green aeration, and bunker maintenance. I am hoping to get caught up by bringing on more staff (school is out soon) to help with projects and routine maintenance.