Stupid winter choices I feel I force myself to make.....

We're well on our way into winter now. Over the past week temps are getting to low -20's and staying well below zero during the day which is what I wanted to slow any disease development. We had a bit of snow (4 to 5 cm) this past Sunday night which is providing a bit of token cover. However that snow is the sh*tty part and reason for the title of this post. It has forced me to clean off 15 green so I could lay out tarp. 

Anxiety Inducing Snow Plow Job

 I know I said I would clean off snow on the problem greens if needed but in my mind I was only doing that as long as the ground was not frozen.  Once things set up I planned to keep the snow cover. I've been watching forecasts and I have shoveled, by hand, the small skiffs of snow for all the reasons mentioned in the last post. The part I'm unsure of is the type of impact plowing snow on frozen ground will have. Every spring this paragraph from an old USGA article plays in my head:

Traffic damage on frozen turf areas usually occurs during periods of freezing or thawing. The most devastating situation occurs when the grass blades and the upper one-half to one inch of soil has thawed, but the ground beneath their level remains frozen. Traffic will create a shearing action of the roots, rhizomes, and crown tissues at this time. This is comparable to cutting the plant tissue from the underlying root system with a sod cutter. Complete kill of leaves, crowns, and rhizomes can occur if the temperatures soon drop below 20° F. Symptoms from this severe injury include whitish to dark brown leaves that may mat on the surface. 

There was no way the top inch was thawed with a high of -2 for that day but I can tell you there was lots of sheared off grass blades. My hunch/hope is what I saw was mostly leaf tips. 

Neil L. plow did work really well and I believe I would use it again but, depending on results this coming spring, I may want to do a heavy sand top dressing as further protection from the plow blade. 

Uncharted territory....

As usual the title of this post is probably more dramatic than it needs to be but, admittedly, I feel somewhat lost.  The weather has been interesting to say the least but my memory is short so I'm glad I have a weather station keeping records.  Unfortunately, I assumed the website I was using kept historical weather but it appears they only go back one year so I've lost portions of weather data pre Nov 1, 2015. Not a big deal but inconvenient to be sure. Luckily, I wrote about the fall weather in a post last December (go HERE) which included some screen shots highlighting conditions. Last year after my last spray we had close to 45 mm of rain but cold temperatures and snow cover by last week in November. For this year we've had plenty of rain (85mm of rain from start of October to middle of the month and another 106 mm since 3rd week in October) and mild temperatures which makes for very high disease pressure.

The main "goto" fungicide application sprayed in late October has seen a good portion of the rain (86 mm) since it was applied and based on last years results we can assume its efficacy has been affected.  I've had to reapply fungicides 2 times already to control developing disease and now I'm hoping for clear cold weather for next couple weeks if for no other reason than to make condition less conducive for disease development.

Because of disease pressure I've been attempting to manage the surface environment as best as I can by removing snow from the greens (which, for some areas, I've done 3X already) with a homemade tool Neil L. created.

1st version - all manual

2nd version - automatic lift!

I am limiting surface moisture and hopefully encouraging the ground to stiffen up. Frozen ground slows disease but can be bad news regarding ice since any rain may very well freeze on the surface if it doesn't run off.

It seemed a bit futile to remove the small amounts of snow we've been getting since they melt within a two or three days so I left some snow from the last skiff to melt on a few greens to see if I was wasting my time. But I ended up with this:

Pink Snow Mold

The fuzz is mycelium and I know it's the bad fungus since it is on the periphery of damage caused from an earlier bout of disease. The interesting part is it only appeared on those greens where I left the snow to melt. That says 2 things to me:

1. Despite the concern I have regarding any potential wear and tear on the greens by plowing the snow off the surfaces (time will tell) I am having a positive impact on controlling disease.
2. My initial sprays have lost much of their control

I did re-apply a mix of contact fungicide and so-so systemic fungicide on Sunday so hopefully I can get the control I need to get through the winter. As risky as it is, I will continue to remove the small snow falls to mitigate the development of any disease but I won't be able to do that for long especially if we get any amount of snow at one time.

I should point out that the certain greens like 3,5,10,11,13,16,17,18 and both PG's are 95 to 100 percent good and have not seen any new disease development since the last spray in middle of October. However, 2,7, front portion of 8,9,14, and 15 are the greens that are being quite troublesome.  15 is a real problem since all the "new" disease occurred under the tarp and now I'm concerned about putting the tarp back on. I know that green gets ice every year and ice kills outright so the tarp has to go down but I'm sure when and how that will happen.

The Month Long Post...

... believe it or not but I haven't been able to do more than a line at time but, although some comments are dated, I think the following info is still valuable.

It's the last week of October and I've officially wrapped up the fall treatments today by treating the last fairways on my list.  The last 3 weeks have been very wet (over 100 mm of rain since the start of the month) which has made timing the treatments tricky. Rain events after the treatments may have an impact on efficacy but we'll  have to wait and see next spring.  With respect to the treatments on the greens my last spray was this past Sunday and I have one more spare so depending on the weather and incidence of disease I have the ability to do one more spray.  That being said, a spray may not solve all our problems as last year all my sprays went great and some of the greens experienced some of the worst bouts of disease I've seen in a long while. As mentioned in the Sept. post I'm working on the hunch that last falls fertility was too low.  This year I went back to my old methods and used granular fertility as the backbone and augmented nutrition with foliar sprays.  Going in we had very little disease with most occurring in those areas I missed.  As it stands now there is small thumb sized disease spots :

(which developed before my last spray) that have me concerned but I'll keep an eye on the surfaces and see what, if any, progression occurs.

The last remaining task is to tarp #7 and #15 greens.  I am waffling on #7 mostly because I am disappointed with the outcome over the last couple years. Also, the removal of trees has increased the spring sun so it seems to bare off sooner than it had in the past.  The concern with that green is if it gets hit with ice damage, despite the increased sun, it will take a while to come back and sodding, especially now, is not an option.

Ice is a definite on 15 for a multitude of reasons including the obvious facts that it is surrounded by trees and is located in a depression at the base of a slope.  What I need to figure out is why the Enkamat is exacerbating the disease (Go HERE).

With all staff finished except for myself and Neil L. we find ourselves cleaning up loose ends.  We cleaned up the mounds in the parking lot (removed mulch and all the weeds) and needed to haul all the material away. I was able to borrow a dump trailer from TCR which is speeding up the process and while Neil hauls I'm picking away at edging cart paths which haven't been done for a number of years.

As the year winds down I will spend the next weeks reviewing and compiling numbers from this year and keep you updated as I glean information.

Final Weekend Wrap Up

We shut down for the season this coming Monday and as early as it seems it is pretty much time as very few people are out golfing, especially with the the icky weather.  Preparation wise I've started applying plant protectants at the beginning of September and my deliberate and not so deliberate, i.e. misses, check plots let me know that disease is definitely around and would be causing havoc if not for those preventative applications.

The Browns Spots are Bad Spots

As good as the preventative sprays worked I suspect the past weeks weather has created plenty of disease pressure so we need a change so I can get out keep the bad fungus at bay.

As has been the case for what seems almost over a decade, we haven't had the opportunity (mostly do to finances) to plan any major projects to update/modernize areas on the golf course, especially as it relates to the layout.  So in an effort to keep motivated and because we didn't need to do any major river work this fall I decided to address one of the numerous deficiencies in our almost 40 year old irrigation system.  As boring as it may sound, adding extra sprinkler heads makes a big difference to me and my staff by redistributing resources especially as they relate to labour. The area I chose to add extra irrigation was the rough between 6 and 18 fwys.  Again, a seemingly out of play and unnecessary location for water but what you may not know is number of times we run hoses and sprinklers at that location overnight throughout the season to keep it green.  Also, and somewhat ineffectively, I tend to run the irrigation stations on 6 and 18 fwy at a higher run time in an effort to stop the moisture stress from creeping into the fwys which has a tendency, especially on 6,to make the fwys gooey.  When we re-built the driving range a few years back we needed to run control wires from the controller on 10 fwy so I took that opportunity of having an open trench to run extra wire as far as 18 green with eventual idea of addressing the irrigation at the green as well as adding zones for extra irrigation around that green. We are making use of that forethought to run two extra wires over to the left rough on 18 near the green and install 2 new irrigation zones.

Trenching, Laying Pipe, and Backfill all at once

With no play and bad weather we focused on installing 4 heads and 300 feet of pipe in a couple days. The back fill and sodding are a little sketchy, admittedly, but things tend to settle over winter so we can fine tune if needed in the spring.

Next week sees us winterizing the irrigation, collecting all the on course accessories, aerating greens, cutting some trees, and spraying - hopefully!

"Where Have All the Flowers Gone..."

....A little hippy reference for all you long hairs but also apropos for the time of year. The summer has blown by and so has all the opportunities to comment on happenings at the golf course. The truth, as has been typical for the past couple years, is we are treading water so I don't have any real exciting topics. But the more I think about it there are some loose ends I should tie up so here is a couple disjointed points for you to digest:

River Watch

Remember this? Go HERE for a refresher.  I've spent every year since we began pumping from the river stressing over conditions while we were pumping water. This spring we finally (after a few ball-ups) completed a connection to the city water line located by 12 tee.  With the "insurance" of that secondary water source we will have the security of knowing the resevoir will be able to be refreshed if we are unable to pump from the river. Also,  the tie-in will allow me to shut down the pumps during freshet and lessen the wear caused by pumping sand/silt thereby stretching out the time between complete rebuilds of the pumps...the caveat, however, is up until this spring we were drawing during freshet and have caused some wear but at least it shouldn't get any worse.

MLSN

This is still new to me.  Go HERE for review.  I bring this up because as good as this style of nutrition is I believe it may be the source of our troubles the past couple springs.  Actually, to be fair it's not MLSN but something loosely tied to it call the Growth Potential(GP).  Very quickly, MLSN provides fertility recommendations based on soil samples while  the GP formula provides a method for estimating Nitrogen (N) requirements based on a number of variables.

I've been fully committed to the MLSN/GP as it relates to nutrition for the tees and, for the most part, I'm mostly happy with the outcome.  The biggest benefit has been the ability to lessen the number of times a week we need to mow while still having the tees look presentable.  There is room for improvement since select tees seem to require more nutrition than other tees but that is really a time issue as it relates to staffing and a cost issue as it relates to getting a soil test for each and every tee.

With respect to the greens, using the GP model for nitrogen application allows me to apply N amounts based on expected growing conditions in very small amounts via the sprayer which avoids the growth spurts that are common, IMO, with granular fertility.  Furthermore, since I'm using raw materials and applying nitrogen using the a "lite" and frequent approach it is also very economical.  This "Goldilocks" approach to turf nutrition provides good conditions during the summer months but one situation when I think it may be a bit funky is during the fall when turf needs nitrogen for the manufacturing of carbohydrates (CHO) which are stored and used for stress tolerance and protection from winter injury. Applying N based on GP in fall may not provide enough of an opportunity for the turf to recovery from daily S&A as well as prep for winter. The gist of what I'm saying is there will be more of a focus preparing for winter vs. playing conditions, i.e.green speed,  in the up coming weeks so get out your 1 iron for putting....

Chickens Coming Home to Roost.

As a general rule the season has been fairly mundane on my end with not very much to comment on.  We are well into the golf season and past all the negative comments regarding green speed and now into the judgment calls regarding unfair pin locations because of green speed....ironic.  There's probably a post lurking in that statement but that would make me proactive; obviously not the case this year.

A good thing as of late definitely relates to staff.  Aside from my core group of 4 guys, the Greens Team group composed of member volunteers has been a huge help in getting the course into summer condition.   Randy K. developed and fleshed out the idea last year and has been the driving force this year (go HERE) in recruiting and organizing.  I'll try to demonstrate how much those guys are helping out.  The daily basic maintenance at KGC is as follows:

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Holes	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Greens	1	1	4	3	3	3	3
Fwys	1	1	1		1	1
Rough	1	1	1		1	1	1
T/C	0.5			0.5	1
Roller	1	1	1	1		1	1
Bunkers	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
3100	1		1		1
Blower	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Spray/fert					1
Top Dress				1
Total Staff/day	8.5	7	11	7.5	11	9	8

If you read the chart vertically you will see how many staff members each task needs with a total amount of staff for each day at the bottom of the chart.  For example, on a typical Monday I need one person to change holes, one person to mow greens, one person to mow fairway, etc, etc, for a total of 7 staff.  Any day with a number greater than one means multiple staff performing that task.  Again, for example, I need only one person on Monday to mow greens since we are using the triplex but on Tuesday we are double cutting greens with the walk mowers so I need 4 staff.

The next chart identifies the people I've hired:

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Mr. Scott	4	7	7	7	7
Garry	4	7	7	7	7
Neil			7	7	7	7	4
Liver			7	7	7	7	4
Horticulture			"7	"7	"7	"7	"4
Kenny L	4			4		7	4
Jim E					7	4	4
F/T Stud -			"7	"7	"7	"7	"4
P/T Stud- Brock	4	7	4
Chantal	4
Peter L			4	4
David Mc	4	7	7
Darcy C					7	4	4
Ricky			4	4
Rick B				4		4	4
	6	4	8	8	6	6	6
	2.5	3	3	-0.5	5	3	2

More complicated to read but the take home point relates to the very bottom line.  Those numbers represent the difference between the required people needed to maintain the course vs the staff actually working at KGC.  So on typical Monday, again, I need according the first chart 8.5 people but according to the second chart I only have 6 staff working which means something isn't getting done.  Throw in an irrigation break, extra work either from projects or extraordinary maintenance and even less of the routine maintenance won't be getting done.

I was unable to fill two position (the Horticulture and Full-time student) with suitable people which exasperated the situation.  Luckily, 7 members showed up for training and are helping to make up the deficit staff wise

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Mr. Scott	4	7	7	7	7
Garry	4	7	7	7	7
Neil			7	7	7	7	4
Liver			7	7	7	7	4
Horticulture			"7	"7	"7	"7	"4
Kenny L	4			4		7	4
Jim E					7	4	4
F/T Stud -			"7	"7	"7	"7	"4
P/T Stud- Brock	4	7	4
Chantal	4
GreensTream			4	4	4	4
GreensTream			4		4
GreensTream					4
Darcy C					7	4	4
Peter L			4	4
David Mc	4	7	7
Ricky			4	4
Rick B				4		4	4
	6	4	10	9	9	7	6
	2.5	3	1	-1.5	2	2	2

If I take that second chart and add in the Greens Team to create a new chart, now Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday look a bit better; especially Wednesday. When there is a negative number highlighted in green it means I have extra staff for that day!!

The real point of describing how staffing relates to the present level of maintenance is my backhanded way of explaining why some routine or typical maintenance practices are being ignored or only partially attempted.  Even with 7 volunteers we still have too few people to maintain the course at a level that players may have enjoyed in the past.  Third party comments have left me with the impression that some of the more vocal members are disappointed with the existing course presentation. If you happen to be privy to any one persons rant please direct them to this particular post, or better yet directly to me since I can best explain the reason why particular situation may or may not exist as it relates to maintenance at KGC.

Going Green

 This is an old post from a few weeks ago I just never got out.  Even though it is old news, I kept the topic the same.

 With one complete week under our belt there is still plenty that needs to be done to be in officially an "open" status.  Mostly, we have to put up tee signs and continue to put out the accessories such as ball washers, foot scubs, trash receptacles, and various traffic directional items.  I've stuck to my guns and tried limit how many staff I call in before they are budgeted since I've already had to call in my core group 2 weeks earlier than normal.  The goods news is more staff are starting and by the May 1st week we will have a full compliment; the most staff we've had in years.  There will be the usual malfunctions and training mistakes but hopefully we'll be 100% operational very early on in May.

A very small and recent change brought about on the golf course is the changing of the the RED tee markers to GREEN tee markers on the forward tee decks.  With programs like "Tee It Forward" (GO TO HERE for an explanation) being promoted as a way to improve a players enjoyment of the game, a simple change like painting tee markers a new, less stigmatized colour  is a small first step in encouraging players to hit from a teeing area best suited to their game.  Overtime it is my hope we begin a program of adding more forward tee decks to encourage family play as well as give visiting players the option to choose from a wider selection of tees.  There is potential to lengthen some holes as well but that can be tricky since adding a tee farther back to make a hole play longer doesn't necessarily make it better and can sometimes appear gimmicky. That being said, you can't just plunk a set of forward tees without a bit of planning either so any new tees need to be carefully planned with an eye to the future.

Plug It!

We are up and running on 18 as of Friday, Apr. 16th and it's early season conditions but still tolerable.  The time spent on the front greens paid off with over 1000 plugs used to repair winter damage (tried to do a minimum of 50 a day since the middle of March).  Tarps were on and off up until the end of last week and the protection they provided helped greatly in giving the greens the needed kick in the *ss.

#4 Green. Sorry for Picture Quality. Maybe its all the shade!!!!

The unfortunate trade off was neglect on the back greens which came through 90% but were set back but an ill timed mowing and lack of water.

#15 Green. Looks icky but its coming along

I'll need to pound the water and I would love to tarp them but that would mean they'd be out of play.  I'm not sure but I think I may mess with strategic tarping throughout the week days just to speed/protect their recovery.

We have been able to aerate the healthy greens and top dress them but the will have to hold off on the back ones until they are happier.  The timing is completely wrong and recovery will be very slow.  Even though the ambient temperature is generally above normal this year you have to remember the sun is still in the earlier spring horizon and the type of light (amount and quality) and warm temperatures are short lived during the day.  An early spring aeration is my selfish way of performing a necessary operation at a time of year when people are slightly more tolerant of rough conditions on the greens.  This early in the year I believe most players are just glad to have something to do during the day than stay at home and watch daytime T.V.!

Everyday I'm Shufflin', Shufflin'....

First of all I'll keep with tradition and post the 2016 April 1st-ish photo:

 

April 2, 2016

Go to HERE and HERE for pictures from other years for comparison.  Looks like I missed last year but I'm pretty sure we're ahead by a minimum of 2 weeks. I've mowed and fertilized front 9 green two times already; for March, that's a first.

As mentioned in previous post we had disease on some of the greens again.  You can go to HERE to see a post from last year that provides an explanation of the disease.  As usual I'm looking at the reason but I'm still trying to look for a trend.

The great weather has sped the recovery and combined with tarps the soil temperatures are in the +12 range (at about 2 inches) which has resulted in this:

Looks Good From Afar....

Greens that I haven't covered are off color but are still growing, albeit slowly:

No Fake Green Colour Here!

Again, the nice weather is great for the turf but will screw up my wage budget as I'm having bring in staff 10 to 14 days sooner than I planned.  Hopefully, that can be offset with more play/revenue?

With just myself and Neil L. at work, the past month has been busy with pulling tarps, moving tarps, and re-tarping. Each day I'm here I try to do 50 plugs on the greens to repair the winter damage.  As long as I don't stop for a smoke and a pancake that only takes me about an hour.  The rest of the day seem to be spent messing with tarps (I keep mentioning tarps because they really are that time consuming!) or dealing with the random issues that pop up such as knitting together the driving range net, tree removal, or what have you.  Maybe the next post I'll try and get down and dirty with what happened this winter.

Not Exactly Routine

Previous to last week I was trying to get a few unusual tasks out of my hair so I could focus on more traditional spring maintenance. With winter winding down we needed to get a pumper truck and rubber tire back hoe out on the course before the ground got too soft from all the melting snow. Back in the beginning of February I ploughed a road to the restroom on #7 as well as to the snack shack. With the ground being unfrozen under the snow this year I needed to expose areas so they could freeze and handle the weight of the equipment I needed to bring on the golf course

Driver weaving the "Honey Wagon" through the trees

All restrooms located on the golf course are on septic and of the 3 tanks only one had been pumped in my time there.

Sucking out the tank

During the process we discovered a problem in one of the tanks.  A root ball had grown inside the tank at the snack shack and had broken off.  Potentially, the "floater" could plug the inlet or discharge side of the tank so we made the choice to dig up the septic tank lid and remove the root ball (it was too big to fit through the access port).

Betcha' didn't know that is where the septic is!

Goo and Root

Removing root ball...carefully!

The snow was too deep to get to #12 but with cart paths on either side of that particular restroom we should be able pump out that septic most any time.  That same week we began limbing the tree that blew over on 6 fwy and I cut off the root ball had a back hoe come in and haul it off the course.

Knocking of excess before hauling it away

By the end of week we'd finished most of the bull work with minimal disruption from either the pumper truck or either back hoes and I began to remove snow off #7 and #15 greens. I needed to knock down the snow on #15 with black sand to make removing the snow more manageable. It's still a work in progress but I was able to clear #7 and remove the tarp. Much to my dismay there was disease under tarp, again! It's no where near as bad as last year but it's far from perfect. The worst part is as I began to see other greens open up I saw more signs of disease so I've spent the last 5 days removing snow from all greens in a hope to lessen the severity of the disease. I'll keep you informed once I get all greens cleared and things dry out.

Not so Good News or Maybe Good News, Depends....

That was a really big wind last week! How big? Check it out:

7 foot Root Ball

That is the tree on the right #6 fairway that got in the way of a few drives.  Now when you stand on the tee you see this:

Tree is Gone..Take a Rip at it!

It's still a three shot hole, at least for me, but with that tree gone I'll be able to widen the fairway and make it a nice landing zone for the short hitters with the potential opportunity for a bit of roll.  From a selfish standpoint I am somewhat happy since that particular spot is one of the many nuisance spots on the front nine that I struggle to keep green.  That tree negatively impacted the throw of the nearby irrigation heads and because of its location it had a tendency to funnel traffic through one spot.  Poor irrigation coverage and lots of traffic are the perfect ingredients for wiping out turf and leaving bare ground.

Except for a small tree next to the maintenance shop no other trees seemed to have been knocked down by the wind.  The course is litter with branches and other detritus that will need to be removed before opening.  Keep your early April open since I'll be asking for help to get ready for the golf season.

Pretty Plain Jane.....

This January, like most January's, was a drawn out affair that bumbled by while I putzed around the shop, the course, the internet, and my computer.   Golf course wise things appear to be O.K.  We have as much as 18" snow in some areas and very little in some of the treed areas.  The little stint of warm weather and small amount of rain has had no impact on the green surfaces since most have plenty of snow.  I would hazard a guess that winter ice wise we are out of the woods and can now start wringing our hands over what type of spring melt we will get.

Like always I spent most of January planning out the year.  Decisions are based on past successes and failures and 2015 saw, IMO, more successes than failures.  For the most part, successes as of late are defined as decreasing costs with limited negative impact on course presentation.  One of last years successes related to fertilizer.  Turf nutrition is the one of the larger line items on our budget with just over $5000 spent on fertilizing greens alone this past year.  Sounds like lots but take a look at this:

The points on the blue line show we've spent less on fertilizer for the greens each year over the past three years.  To be fair that has been the trend for a while now but nothing as dramatic as seen in the last 3 years.  With turf nutrition there is always new information being made available and it's up to each person to wade through the information and decide its value.  Over the last couple years I've been reading lots about a style of turf nutrition call Minimum Level for Sustainable Nutrition (MLSN).  Explanation of MLSN requires its own post but for this post I'll gloss over the details and attempt to relay the gist of it.  MLSN is a type of soil analysis that identifies quantities of nutrients within a soil and then estimates the amount needed to be applied via fertilizer to maintain nutrients at or near a minimum level for healthy turf based on the amount of nitrogen applied throughout a growing season.  

I sent away soil samples last year and the recommendations that came back found our soils were not lacking in any of the required nutrients for growing turf.  So all I needed to add was nitrogen to allow for uptake of existing soil nutrients and to maintain healthy turf.  With respect to the greens, I did not jump in with both feet but I was still fairly true to the MLSN theory and guidelines.  Nutrition for the tees, however, was based 100% MLSN.  I guess conditions this spring could either push me farther done the MLSN road or make me regret the whole idea.  As always, stay tuned.