Finally some beneficial rain this week.  The course received almost an inch and while it has made the course much too wet in the short term the benefits are already being seen.  The course is healing rapidly and we should see much more favorable results from our seeding.

 

Agricultural chemotherapy.  I heard this term twice in the same day and it is very true.  While eliminating the bermudagrass in the rough the chemical was also harsh on some of the desirable tall fescue.  These areas are being overseeded.

 

Pylex has worked very well in the fairways but the bermudagrass sticks out like a sore thumb right now.  We are observing bent beginning to fill in these areas even before we have seeded which is encouraging.

 

 

If you saw some irrigation on Saturday morning after all the rain you had to be wondering what in the world are we doing???  This is the rough around nine green where some very hungry white grubs were munching on our nice turf.  An insecticide was applied and immediately watered in. 

 

Our turf care center encountered some vandalism Friday night.  Fortunately only some paint graffiti to one of our tractors has been discovered so far.

 

 

The knucklehead was so smart he left a clue.  Leaving his cell phone was even more helpful!

 

 

Our greens are as a good as they have ever been!

 

Our golf course has had a great year.  The weather has been magnificent and has surely aided the development of our new fairways.  Our greens have recovered amazingly fast from aeration and are back!  It is hard to remember when the greens have bounced back so fast.  We did have a minor set back this week.  One of our sprayers caused some damage to our bent fairways from an application the previous week.  We still are not sure exactly what happened but they are rapidly healing.  We are having to keep them wetter than we would like to enhance recovery.  Hopefully over the course of the next week we can begin laying off the irrigation.  We apologize for the disruption to the golf course but feel confident the fairways will be just fine.  We would appreciate some rain if anyone has a connection!  We are very dry and it is inhibiting seed from germinating in the rough.

 

Phytotoxicity from a fairway spray application.

 

 

Another look at some striping from the spray nozzles.

 

 

Pylex is really doing a number on the bermudagrass.  We will begin seeding some of these areas this week.

 

 

#12 green Saturday morning.

 

 

Complete recovery in 18 days with green height reduced to .130 inches.

 

 

The beautiful renovated 3rd hole.

 

 

The good and the bad.  Stress to the turf, the staff, and the membership.  Did we ever mention our love-hate relationship with course maintenance?  It is rewarding seeing things grow but sometimes the road getting there is pretty bumpy.  The one thing we do know is that aerification has been proven time and again to be the best form of preventive maintenance.  So we apologize for the mess we have made but feel confident it is in the courses best interest.   

 

This was taken on September 2nd.

 

 

Two weeks later what an improvement!

 

 

Greens were double cut today.  We will lower the height of cut next week and have them near warp speed in no time.

 

 

Here is a real concern.  These little insects are called annual bluegrass weevils and they pose a real problem for us in the future.  In this picture adults and larvae are shown.  They prefer annual bluegrass but will feed on bent.

 

 

This is the area where they were discovered.  They are so small they are difficult to see.  I used a salt water solution and soaked the turf plug in a bucket.  The insects then float to the surface.  Notice the annual bluegrass that has been damaged with the bent unaffected.  There will be much more on this insect in the future.

 

 

Pylex herbicide continues to be evaluated.  This picture shows treated versus untreated.  The treated area has been seeded. 

 

 

Rough not requiring seeding received Pylex with Turflon herbicide.  The Turflon prevents the intense whitish-yellow discoloration.  Treating the rough this way is are eventual goal.

 

 

Pylex applications certainly suppress the bermudagrass in our fairways but will it reduce the population?  We shall see.

 

This is one of the best times of the year to feed cool season turf.

 

Fertilized and seeded turf require plenty of water.  The course is very soft from all the water we are using.  We are dry and a nice soaking rain would be perfect.  It would even dry up the course!

 

Labor Day week was the most stressful period of the summer for our course.  Above normal temperatures along with stifling humidity made course renovation challenging.  Thankfully cooler weather is now with us and the course can rejuvenate itself.  We have plenty going on at this time so bear with us as we move into fall.

 

We have had two recent outbreaks of Rhizoctonia Blight in the fairways.  This disease is also called brown patch and favors hot and humid conditions.  Fairways are sprayed every two weeks but sometimes disease pressure requires more applications.  Our most recent fungicide application only lasted nine days before the disease reoccurred.

 

We have also seen some decline in annual bluegrass populations in some fairways.  This is not a bad thing as we continue to push for more bent in these weak areas.

 

 

With the juvenile bentgrass we decided not to use a preemergent herbicide to prevent crabgrass in the spring.  Here crabgrass invasion can be seen in one of the fairways.  This was expected and will be prevented next season. 

 

 

All of the fairways are receiving solid tine aeration.

 

 

When conditions are right this is how the fairway should look after aeration.

 

 

Specific greens were verticut and seeded after aerating and topdressing.  This is really the only time to successfully seed cool season grasses.

 

 

Seeding is done at perpendiculars to ensure better germination.

 

 

Seeding the green.

 

 

After the green has been seeded it is rolled regularly.  This requires the putting surface to be dry or sand is picked up by the roller-and then you have a big mess!  The greens may not be mowed until the turf has grown through the sand which requires patience.

 

 

Seeding of weak rough areas around fairways has begun.  Please avoid driving golf carts through any newly seeded turf.

 

 

Some new irrigation was added in front of the fifteenth tee as we prepare to move the nursery.  This will be seeded this week.

 

 

Need we say more!

 

 

Once aerated the cores are windrowed in piles either side of the green.

 

 

We then pick them up and leave in a pile on the cart path where the tractor and trailer can transport them to an area in the deep rough.

 

 

The green is now ready to be topdressed. 

 

All of the fans are now operational and just in the nick of time.  This hot and humid period we are experiencing is the most difficult weather of the season.

 

 

This is the new source of power to the fan on five green.  The old pedestal will be removed soon. We are budgeting for a new fan at this green next year.

 

 

This should look familiar.  This eyesore in front of the fifteenth tee will be seeded and managed as rough.  The new nursery will be moved further to the right.

 

 

We have been really good this year with insect repellent but not perfect!  Notice the green footprint.  Please apply insect repellent only on the cart path. 

 

 

Pylex continues to inhibit bermudagrass in our fairways.  These treatments will continue up to frost.

 

 

Happy birthday to our fairways!  It was one year ago we began seeding Crystal BlueLinks.