Rule of 1/3's

You could divide the off season in 1/3's.  The first third starts once everything is put to bed and after the first substantial snow fall that is too much to reasonably remove, somewhere around 6-8".  During that time you're on pins and needles praying for more snow and no rain.  The middle third is now: full on winter.  If there is any warmth during the day it very short lived.  Hopefully, there is enough cover to withstand the dreaded mid-winter season "warm spell/rain event".  The weather is generally cold and I am mostly inside.  It's only me and, as anti-social as it sounds, I like it because there is very few distractions.  The final third begins somewhere around mid-February.  With the days getting longer and with some heat in the sun its not unusual to see some turf areas begin to open up.  Also, if you have ice problems now is the time when you start to addressing them.  Any earlier doesn't necessarily make sense based mostly on the short days, lack of warmth, and the potential for severe winter weather. 

Along with the first 1/3 the final 1/3 is where, I feel, some of the greatest potential for turf damage can occur.  Mostly this suspicion relates to damage caused by the development of ice (leading to anoxia: low oxygen) and its removal (possibly causing crown hydration: water taken up by the turf freezes and burst cells when temperature drops).  But even without ice an early melt that saturates the surface followed by a severe temperature drop or sustain cold snap can also lead to damage (again, crown hydration).  The one good thing about the final 1/3 of the season is you can usually address problems and somewhat lessen their severity since the weather in usually changing for the better.

Sometimes you get a season like we've had so far.  The first 1/3 was not the best but we've had way worse.  I suspect the biggest impact may be increased disease on those fairways that were sprayed early on for snow mould and saw a very large amount of rain on a treatment that doesn't like rain.  Right now we are in the middle 1/3 and I feel sort of guilty since it has been an easy time with no obvious problems.  We did get some ice as mentioned in a earlier post but as of yesterday it is still pretty loose and things look and smell "green".  If the rest of the off season remains similar we could be coming through looking pretty good.  Oops, I jinxed it, didn't I?

A Brief Brief

Almost a whole month and no post!  Basically, that means not much to report.  I just did a look around and took a look at some of the surfaces and things appear pretty good for January.  We have close to 11" of sugar over 2 to 3 inches of corn over a definite 1 inch ice layer on those greens I did not snow blow in November.  The good news is the ice is very easily broken and is separated from the surface by a nice air layer and everything smells "green".  The greens that had the snow removed have no corn or ice layer and are pretty much sugar all the way down to the surface.  I didn't have a tool with me to check and see how frozen the surfaces were so I can't really comment on that.  As usual this only means we've gotten this far without any obvious "situations" but we have a long ways to go.

Pulling the River Pumps

It took months but we finally got the last job from summer competed.  The wear the pump shafts saw over the last couple seasons required us to remove the pumps and send them away to be refurbished.

Removing Access Hatch

Pulling First Pump Through Roof

Both Pumps Loaded for Repair

The unknown is the cost.  Last time out it cost $10 000 for both.  Until they get the pumps apart and look at the wear the actual cost is hard to say.  Guaranteed it will not be less.  To compliment the maintenance work we completed this fall at the river intake we are looking at ways to mitigate the wear the pumps experience during run off.   One idea is installing a screen sized for the material suspended in the water during run off that is the entire length of the pump (i.e. from the blue pedestal all the way to the bottom bowl).  It's more involved than I'm letting on but the catch with that one is you have to be able to clean it.  Not impossible for us but not that easy either (go here for a reminder?).  The other option is a well but to meet our demands that could cost in the ten's of thousands.  I pretty sure this year will be an exploratory year since grand expenditures aren't really in the cards.

Man, I Hate November....

If there was one month I could do without it would be November.  No golf, no skiing, grey skies and sucky weather.  The last 7 to10 days have seen conditions change from snow and winter to open turf, slush and ice because of rain and then back to winter.  I can now say removing the snow from select greens earlier on was the right choice, especially since the surfaces were covered with a nice snow layer soon afterward.  I left some of the slushy snow on one section on 9 green and watched what happened to the snow conditions and observed that if I had left the wet layer of snow on those greens I'm pretty sure we would've had the beginnings of an ice layer.

Layers on 9 Green

I didn't get to pat myself on the back for long because the weather went funky again and we got rain and mild temperatures and we were right back into another tough spot 7 days later.  This time I did not remove the snow mostly because of the amount and the wet weather.  There was enough snow and so much moisture in the snow that the blowers would not have been able to throw it far enough without us having to double handle it.  Further, once you start to blow snow that wet you have to get it off because it is guaranteed to form ice.  Anyways, the hope was for mild temperatures for a few days and maybe even rain like we had earlier on to get the snow to a more manageable level.  No luck.

Multi layers #11 Green

Now we have 7 cm fresh snow over about 3 cm "tight" corn snow over very thin ice on those greens we did not blow the first time out.  The greens we cleaned have about 6cm snow over 2 cm tight corn snow layer.  All surfaces are unfrozen and if we get a good cover before the temperature really drops that could help keep that corn layer from getting more ice like.  

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!