All bets are off....

As alluded to in the last post, this time of year is tricky.  Early in the week the weather forced my hand and I had to make a choice.  The rain and the "warmish" weather did a number on the snow cover on the certain greens.

2 Green,  November 19th

The greens on the front that can be difficult are covered with impermeable tarps and look like this:

1 Green Tarp

For both these situations there was not enough cover to worry about ice formation but only because the ground is not frozen.  In this situation, however:

4 Green

I was slightly more concerned.  Ice could become a problem if the temperature dropped significantly so we blew the snow off of #4, #5, #10, #18, and #8 greens with the hope of "managing" ice formation (the upper putting green, 2, and 3 greens basically melted while 1, 6, 7 and 9 all had some sort of tarp on their surface).  As I've mentioned, blowing snow opens surfaces up to the potential of freezing so it is sort of a risk but the quantity of moisture in the snow pack (wet slush) for those greens forced me to make a decision. Luckily, those greens only remained exposed for a couple days and never froze.  We now have close to 4" of snow on the front greens and no sign of any ice on the greens we cleared.

The back greens (other than 10, 18 and 17) had more snow so I decided not to blow those greens.  To be honest, we really did not have enough time to clean them anyways.  I went out today and looked and saw 4" fresh snow over a plate glass layer of ice over an inch of corn snow over unfrozen ground.  That says to me leaving those greens may have been O.K. but it is early and my crystal ball doesn't look any farther ahead than to my next meal so, like I said, "All bets are off".

The Death Zone.....

I sometimes equate November with that point you here about on Everest called "the death zone" or "the point of no return" or some other euphemism that has foreboding overtones.  Now is that time just before winter when the weather can do funky stuff and you can be forced into making snap decisions that you're stuck with for the rest of the winter based on nothing more than your spidey-sense. 

Right now we are in good shape with all greens having a little snow cover and none of the surfaces frozen. 


4 Green With About 1.5" Snow Cover

15 Green With Thin Ice Layer Over Tarp

Why an unfrozen surface is good this time out is because of how little snow cover we have and the potential for rain in the forecast.  Do we take all the cover off to limit the formation of ice or do we leave it and hope for enough rain to melt all the snow or do we leave it and hope that because of our elevation we get snow and not rain? At this point the temperature is suppose increase so along as the over night lows stay above zero it won't take long for the snow to melt, especially if it rains.  If we lose our cover we are back into the possibility of the ground freezing and all the problems that inadequate snow cover can bring.  Then again none of this may happen but I like keeping a record of what I think in these situations and look back and criticize my choices.

Winter Preparations

Just a post summing up where I am with respect to being ready for winter.  This past week I applied the last treatment to the greens and finished the fairways as well as installed all the posts for the fencing around select greens.  Generally speaking the greens are entering the winter in good condition with #7 being the worst since it never really grew out the fall disease and seems to have developed more over the past few weeks.  Since the last spray was completed we will now put up fences (too late for some greens) and start in on tarping.
A refresher on tarps is here if you are so inclined otherwise read on.  The two impermeables are out and ready to be deployed but I'm waiting for more winter like weather.  The semi-permeables are on #1, #6, #7, #9 and #12.  I threw 9 and 12 into the mix because of how they overwintered this past year and the hope is the extra coverage may help limit damage if they become exposed or if ice develops (I've had some success removing ice from the semi-permeables quicker than from a greens surface in the past).
Tarps aren't my favorite because they introduce another variable in the overwintering of greens which can be negative.  You heard me talk of anoxia (low oxygen) in regards to both ice and tarps. Obviously, if there is thick ice tarps help remove the ice but don't do anything in the case of anoxia which can occur because of ice or because of impermeable tarps - go here for a history.  Anoxia is sort of hit and miss when it comes to tarps, and luckily we've been in a mostly miss situation.  However, this year I am experimenting with a product that could help.

Enkamat

Enkamat is really an erosion control mat but it is also being marketed as "a three-dimensional lofty matrix that provides a protective layer over vulnerable turf. Enkamat prevents the formation of an ice layer over greens that can seal turf, and prevent gas and oxygen exchange that is vital to turf health".  I plan to use the "lofty matrix" trait to provide an air layer under a section of the impermeable tarp on 7 green.  I'll be comparing it with our usual covering system on 7 green (green covered with semi-perm. covered with imperm.) along with just the impermeable directly on the surface.  That all sounds awkward so take a look:

Layout of Tarps Under Impermeable

I will cover this whole mish-mash with the impermeable and see if the Enkamat is benefit or no different than what we normally do.  I also plan to lay the mat on back of 9 green surface by itself where ice has been a problem to see what the product can do if ice again develops there.  Further, I will put a strip on top of the tarp on 15 green where we always get ice no matter what and see if, when the time comes, does the mat speed the ice removal or not.  One more thing I plan to do is cover the entire top end of the new putting green that was hammered this spring to see what will happen....which can't be much worse that what happened this spring!

Finally, A Solution For Our Greens....

The past 10 days have been sort of a waiting game since I've needed the snow to melt so I can finish spraying fairways.  We've managed to keep ourselves busy with reel grinding, fencing, clean-up and record keeping. 

I again came across an article that is worth reading (go here).  It seems I am always having to explain why our greens are what they are.  The solution for our greens is in this article.  The one page article makes a case for regrassing Poa annua greens (our greens) to a newer cultivar of bentgrass.  The first half relays the exact same information I always babble on about but never really seems to be absorbed by the "better golfers". 

Unfortunately, aside from our "no money" situation, a regrassing project at KGC would be a tough go.  At the very least none, not one, of our greens is built to the famed USGA specifications regarding root zone and drainage which were created to aid in the successful establishment and maintenance of bentgrass greens (that statement makes a fairly bold implication because more than a few greens in the world have been built without completely following USGA specs, but it would tough to argue against the benefits of growing grass on USGA root zone versus a bastardized version of the specs). 

I've kinda ignored the topic of poa versus bentgrass since I thought the information was mostly covered but it seems that this is a topic that needs constant attention (I have recently acquired a ton of respect for school teachers.  To maintain motivation teaching the same curriculum each year is an amazing skill.  At least with teachers they have new group of kids every year.  In my situation, it seems to be the same topic to same kids over and over and over again.)  I will keep up with this topic and hopefully the word will get out there and players can appreciate each golf course for what it can offer and worry less about comparisons.....what a dreamer.