....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....
