Geotextiles and what they can do.

This coming Saturday (April 30) we will open all 18 holes for regular season play. If you played this past week you may have noticed the color of the greens.

Left side was uncovered
Right side was covered

It is almost a comical, brilliant green (which I guess is way better than a depressing, dull brown!) that is due entirely to the geotextiles or tarps we have been covering the greens with since the snow left. We often use tarps when we are trying to speed the recovery of weak areas but this time we used them to protect the turf from the unseasonably cool weather and to increase the soil temperatures and promote quicker growth. Generally, temperatures under tarps are about two degrees warmer overnight and can be near 10 to 15 degrees warmer than air temperatures on a sunny day. Characteristics of a good "green up" tarp are 50 % light penetration, permeable to air and water, and lightweight (1 to 3 oz/ sqyd). Warmer temperatures, moisture, and air exchange allow turf to grow like it is summer. The risk of covering greens is the possibility of "baking" the grass or drying it out if air temperatures under the tarp get too high for a length of time. This time out the worst thing we may have done was grow too much grass. The first mow caused scalping and the H.O.C. was probably to low but nothing serious.

Oh yeah one more thing.....

I forgot to ball park an opening for the rest of the course in the last posting. Take a look at the picture of number 12 that was taken the same day (today, Saturday, April 23) as we opened the front.

Not all the back holes are like this but obviously the back is at least a week if not more away from opening

Short and Sweet

This week has been such a mish-mash of weather that clean up has sort of been a hit and miss thing; however, we will open the front nine on Saturday, April 24th.

For the crew it has been a straight forward week with most of the focus on clean up and prep. The greens in play have been mowed twice, top dressed and rolled. As in the past, the height of cut (H.O.C.) is suitable for the time year and weather conditions. As things warm up and we get on a regular fertility program the H.O.C. with change accordingly. The biggest hurdle for the greens now will be working out the ruts and humps from the deep tine aeration at the end of last year. There is still snow on the course that may interfere with play but hopefully people understand how the weather (my favourite crutch!) has had an impact on clean up. The good news is all the front nine greens are in play and suffered no damage this winter.

It suppose to be sunny this weekend so come out and get reacquainted with people and the course and be thankful there is no snow in the forecast.

Speeding up the Spring

Anybody living in Kimberley knows what kind of Spring we've been having and how it is dragging out with respect to the melt. Once an area is exposed the surrounding snow goes rapidly but if there is any shade, especially during the afternoons, the melt is definitely slow. This week we decided that if we are trying for an April opening we should address those lingering snow areas. Spreading dark material is the one way to speed melting but since the snow is fairly deep in some areas we had to knock it down to a level we could work with. (see
http://kimberleygolfclub.blogspot.com/2009/11/snow-at-beginning-of-week-was.html for a bit of history re: snow removal from the fairways). The tractor was used to drag snow into the exposed areas in the rough.

Tractor dragging snow

We followed up by spreading a sand/organic mix over the remaining snow and sat back and hoped that the forecast was wrong and we would get some sun. However, this morning (Friday, April15) we arrived to work and found this:

The picture looks worse than it is but there was a couple inches. Not very much but what it does when it melts, obviously, is make everything wet again and adds to the further delay in getting equipment onto the course for clean up. Opening could still be next weekend but at this rate it is tough to commit and I promise we won't have all the clean up completed. Stay tuned.

End of the Week Update for April 8th

As I was hoping for, the snow has started to move again and we've seen some melting. The little snow squalls throughout the week haven't really hurt us much but the overnight lows are slowing up the melt. Seasonal norms are highs of +13 Celsius and lows of -1 Celsius. This past week we've recorded highs anywhere from +6 to +10 but the lows, except for one day, have been -8 to -10. The snow will set up and not really start to move until early afternoon and with that occurring we don't see a whole lot of melting. Opening is still tough to call especially when it comes to predicting when we will have all 18 holes open. Take a look at the following pictures I took this afternoon (Friday, April 8) to see the difference between holes.

12 fairway looking towards
the green


9 fairway looking towards
the green

We are still trying for an "April-ish" kinda opening.?.?

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

By the end of last week the snow was beginning to disappear at a slow and steady rate and some of the greens were becoming exposed and everything seemed good. Obviously, the past weekends weather has set things back a bit. Optimistically, we should be back to where we were by the end of this week. Possible problems might be increased incident of disease on those greens that were exposed, but I doubt it. Everything I could see last week had no obvious problems and I would guess the turf can handle at least one more bout of winter.

The one other thing that could be addressed here is the Poa/Bent difference, again. Possible metaphors you could use to describe the two types of turf might be The Tortoise and the Hare, or The Ant and the Grasshopper with Poa representing the Hare and/or Grasshopper. Throw in the fact that it doesn't take a whole lot of encouragement for Poa to "get its dormancy off" and what could result is an ill-timed growth spurt. Bentgrass, obviously, represents the other side of those fables: slow and steady, plan for a rainy day, etc. etc. is less likely break dormancy early. Breaking winter dormancy too early could lead to damage from crown hydration. Damage results when cells within the crowns (the point from which leaf and roots originate,again think of an onion) absorb water and freeze. If the temperature drop is severe ice may develop within the plants and burst the cells ultimately killing the plant. I have referenced this before as it relates to damage in the early winter and melting ice and is the biggest reason why I want surface water off the greens in the spring. I would hazard a guess that this is a slim possibility. If anything good came out of the snow this past weekend it was the protection the cover offered from the -12 lows experienced on Saturday night.

I'll keep everyone informed by posting where we are at later in the week.