Recovery begins. Using bayonet tines the first fairway receives some needed oxygen. Roots were too shallow to allow more aggressive aeration.
Minimal disturbance on fairways certainly makes players happy.
Greens aerification went terrific. Here the entire crew clears cores and readies the green for sanding.
After sand is added it is gently brushed into the profile. The crew then uses blowers to better disperse the sand as too much brushing damages the turf.
When complete the green should look like this.
Rain after aerification is usually a good thing but not this much.
The crew did an awesome job building a new greens nursery. Here Richard presses in the seed with his knobby tires. When finished we can water.
Unfortunately Mother Nature had to help- and as has been the case for 2018 too much at one time.
Of course we had deer flies throughout this gross weather. I understand why repellent was applied but why on our fairways???
During the week before Labor Day we had four really cool spectacular days which allowed us to spray some herbicides to help eradicate bermudagrass encroaching in some of our rough.
Two weeks later we have some really sick bermudagrass. The fescue/blue will eventually fill this area in.
This is not sick bermudagrass. This is damage from a disease called summer patch in the 14th green surround. We apply fungicides for this but sometimes the weather is just too extreme.
While the course was too wet to work on we attacked an invasive weed in the wildflower bed on the third hole. The light green plant is called horsetail and needed to be removed by hand.
Look close and you'll see some of our crew on a horsetail removal party. Mission accomplished!
This year has not been much fun managing the course. Weeds, insects, disease were all winners for the most part. Fortunately there is better weather forecast and the course is on the mend.
Be the first to identify the specific problem in the last pic and win a bottle of wine. ***hint-the answer can be found in a previous blog
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