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.

Poa in full "flower"

Seed Head produces by Poa

Another entry about Poa annua. It has been discussed enough so hopefully everyone knows what Poa is. Every spring both types of Poa (annual and perennail) produce an inflorescence that makes all the green surfaces appear white. The seeds produced by the annual bio type will germinate either this fall or sometime next spring when conditions favour germination. The seeds produced by the perennial bio type will germinate soon after they are produced this year. It is pretty tough to distinguish visually between the annual and perennial bio types but it doesn't make a difference as long as there is seed being produced to help fill in bare spots. In Canada there are very few products available to manage Poa and its seed head. In the U.S. there is a selection of pre-emergence, post-emergence herbicides, and products for seed head control. One post-emergence herbicide just registered for use on golf course (actually the only one) in Canada is able to selectively remove Poa from bent grass greens and will help all the recently build golf courses keep their green surface free of Poa. Use of such a product on the green surfaces at KGC is not feasible because of the large percentage of Poa on the green surface. The only other tool available is a growth regulator which acts to limit the elongation of turf. If you time it right the product will not suppress seed head but act to keep the stalk producing the seed head shorter and deeper in the the turf canopy. However, this product I'm describing is better for controlling growth of leaf tissue. It has the added benefit of encouraging lateral growth and will help increase turf density and being dense, with respect to turf, is a good thing.

Sod Work

This week has the crew laying down sod at different spots throughout the course. Mostly, sod will go to finish off the tie ins from the cart path renovations started last fall (see "Week of May 23" posting for more info). This time we ordered some big roll sod which is 400 square feet per roll and is far quicker and easier to use if the location allows it. Two staff were able to transport and roll out 1600 square feet of sod in 3 hours; impressive sounding only if you've ever had to lay sod! Since the rolls weigh over 1000 pounds each we had to come up with a counter weight idea that would help the Bobcat keep all four wheels on the ground. The best ideas are the simplest and one of my guys came up with hanging a bag of sand off the back end. Driving with the bag hanging off the back end reminded me of seeing my kids when they had full pants when they were babies so we named it the "Bobcat diaper".

Bobcat with a full diaper unrolling sod

Since we had over 7000 square feet of big roll we had to unload all the big rolls in one spot and then use this area as a staging area. The Bobcat could carry a roll and a second roll could be loaded and hauled into back of one of the run around vehicles and unloaded when it was needed. The vehicle pictured below is a real work horse and has a payload of just under 1200 Kg (that's around 2500 pounds, that's over a ton!)

Workman carrying a big roll

Aside from tying in the cart path edges we will also use some of this sod in our nursery and use it on the course when needed throughout the year. It may seem like over kill to buy more sod than you need however one needs to consider firstly the cost of delivery which is the same if you order a full or partial truck and secondly the fact that the price per foot goes down as you order more. Sod is like buying toilet paper on sale....you might as well get as much as you can afford because you know you're going to need it one day.