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.

To Snow Blow or Not To Snow Blow.....

That sounds a little melodramatic but that is one of the arguments I've been having with myself since last Thursday (Nov. 10th).  As referenced in the last post, the small layer of snow remaining on the greens could be a problem.  The forecast last week was calling for increasing temperatures and possible showers.  We ended up making the call last Thursday to remove the thin layer of snow on those greens where ice could develop.  The real troublesome greens were already tarped so the greens we removed the snow from were those greens that had a frozen surface, had some occurrence of winter damage in the past, and where the snow had slightly melted .  The other greens that hadn't really seen any late season heat still had a couple inches of snow on their surface so we left them.  We ended up taking the snow off of 4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 18.  The moisture that ended up coming was a mixture of wet snow and rain and made for some interesting conditions.

Snow Layer 14G

By Sunday most of the greens were like the above picture: a fluffy snow layer over corn snow over frozen ground.  The corn layer is porous but tight and crumbled with little effort.  The greens that had the snow removed were a bit different.

9 Green

Obviously there was less snow in general and the surface on all (with the exception of one) were slightly thawed.  Again the snow layer was a tight corn snow but still came off the surface with minimal effort.  The funky one is 4 green.  The surface is bullet proof and the snow cover is very solid or, dare I say it, "ice like"?  The layer is small and does come off with a bit more effort but now we have to decide what it could turn into.  Again, the forecast is for more snow which puts a time constraint on removing the snow from 4 green since I would want anything left on the green surface after snow blowing to melt.  Also, forecasted overnight lows are below -10 degrees Celsius and exposing a partially melted surface to that temperature is pretty much a guaranty for ice.  There is always a way to rationalize your choices but it is only with the benefit of hindsight do you know if the right choice was made so, again, To Snow Blow or Not To Snow Blow......

Bring it on

I guess it can snow any time now.  The sprays have all been applied to the greens (I've still got one in my back pocket if conditions dictate it), tees, and fairways.  We did a few experiments with different rates and different products including one that is more a plant health promoter with fungicidal properties.  We also did a little demonstration that should have people talking in the spring....however, there was sort of glitch that may have balled up the demonstration but everyone is just going to have to wait until spring to find out more!

Tarp wise we went with the same general idea of laying tarps as we did last winter:  permeable over-wintering tarps of varying weight on #1, #6, and #15 greens and the sandwich approach (permeable on the green surface which was then covered with an impermeable tarp) on #7 green.  A few of the covered greens were sprayed with an extra preventative fungicide application since the humidity under the tarps can be artificially high and that can encourage disease development.  I had planned on purchasing some extra tarps for this winter but decided against it for budgetary reasons and the fact that the greens that have a history of being funky in the spring already have tarps.  I will budget for more in the spring since they are useful for encourage growth regardless of the spring conditions and who knows what next spring may bring?

We went out last week and put up the fences around those greens with a history of animal traffic patterns. To make things go quicker we installed a series of steel sleeves around those greens that we fence every year. For each green we have measurements of each sleeve from a central point and with that information and a metal detector we go out each fall and find the locations for the posts.  This is sort of a throw back to those days when the elk seemed to show up before the snow fell or the ground was able to freeze and we had to fence greens to control damage.  With elk traffic patterns and herd size changing it seems to be a far less of a problem in recent years.  They still show up but it seems later on and in smaller numbers.  This might be one of those things we can do differently to save time since it seems the elk are less of a problem.

Looking for Sleeves

This past week we had  a small accumulations of snow that will work nicely as a insulation layer to protect the short cut turf from the forecasted lows of -15.  We'll keep an eye out for weather changes since this thin layer of snow could, if lightly rained on, form an ice layer.  If we get more snow and it accumulates to around 8" to 10" we should be on our way.

Snow and Fencing on #10 Fairway

Some More Fall Activities Picts

So far the fall has been fairly typical work and weather wise.  We were able to deep tine all the greens again this fall with 3/4 inch solid tines.  Because we've been using this type of aeration for a few years now we were able to go as deep as 10 inches on certain greens with no detrimental effects.

Verti Drain Operating on #1 Green

Some of the greens (those with a little or no substance to their root zone) have a tendency to overly "puff up" when aerated at too deep a depth.  For those greens we lessened the depth and slowed the tractor which seemed to help keep the turf in place.  This time out we also rolled the greens with the tractor and aerator after we finished aerating and that really seemed to help lessen the "puffiness" factor.

Rolling to Smooth the
Green Surface

Depending on our spring and the health of the greens after this winter, we will have to aerate again early in the season to make up for missing this falls hollow core aeration.  I am still not sure how that will work itself out but the hope is that by pulling a core early on in the spring the greens will be able to recover from both styles of aeration in the time it would normally take for the surfaces to recover from just the fall's deep tine.

If there is any good news this fall it could be the fact that we found very few trees (just over 20) attacked by the pine beetle.  The flip side is the fact that some of those trees we found were very large Ponderosa's that dominate the scenery a KGC.

Cleaning up Ponderosa on
#6 Fairway

Hauling Logs From
#15 Green

As before, we will take the infected trees and process them in some fashion so as to kill the beetle.