On the seventh day the Springfield Greens Crew completed seeding the course and took a rest!  We hit perfect weather for the most part and were able to complete seeding on Wednesday.  Perfect conditions initially allowed us to see bentgrass germinating in four days!  Hot and humid conditions  paid us a short visit this week before the cold front came through last night with beneficial rainfall and no washouts.

 

The very first seed pass on one fairway.

 

 Seeding perpendicular to insure the best germination.

 

 

 Once the tractor is finished small seeders are used to ensure the fairway edge is maintained. Notice the red line.

 

 

When the fairway is complete the roughs are next.  Here David is seeding on the outside of the red line.  By doing this we are able to have excellent definition between the two types of turf.

 

 

 

 The tractor then follows seeding the rough.  Luis goes over each pass twice.

 

The roughs are then dragged to improve seed to soil contact followed by an application of starter fertilizer.

 

 

Finally we can turn on the water!

 

 

The ninth fairway eight days later! The tall fescue rough takes longer to germinate.

 

 



While all this is going on we also aerified and seeded the greens and collars.  Weak greens 3,4,5,10,12 and 13 were double aerified and seeded in a procedure similar to the fairways.

 



Bentgrass is tiny and difficult to calibrate at the correct seed rate. There are approximately 6-7 million seeds per pound!  No wonder it is hard to see.

 

 

Five fairway Friday morning one week after seeding.

 

 

 Friskey's plaque is next to McPherson's by 15 lake.  Many thanks to Bill Darden for taking care of this.