Leach before aerifacation

Leaching is a time honored practice that removes damaging salts from the root zone and also carries badly needed oxygen to turf roots. But results depend heavily on proper timing. The best results for aerifacation are always to LEACH before. If not you will have a Polk a Dot pattern on the greens. This is because the areas that were punched have new areas to grow with sand filled in the holes. The oxygen and infiltration in the holes are far greater than the areas that were not punched. We all will agree that we want the greens to go back to normal asap right? Well then we need to give the greens a head start the week before with a proper leach, and a good granular application of fertilizer. That is the plan this week. Busy.....

Time to fertilize

Today we will be applying a wall to wall application of fertilizer. We broadcast this application everywhere except for our greens. The pellets are also coated with a preventative selective herbicide that aids in no germination of crab grass. The timing for this application is very important because you want to apply the material before any crabgrass germinates. We usually apply this product at the end of February but with mother nature we have waited til this week. There has already been a big color change especially in fairways and with this application it will help with more growth and color.

Windy conditions and there effects

It pretty much blew all day yesterday, and with the sustained winds we had it leads to extra focus on our greens. This past Monday I posted a blog that had said we needle tine the greens. Remember this is a solid small tine that we do not fill with sand. It takes a matter of a few days for the holes to vanish but when you have as much wind as we had it dries out the turf at the tips of all the holes. There are a few abnormal areas on the greens that got dry even with the temps not reaching 80F yesterday.

Needle tine, quad tine, venting

Many Superintendents have a common standard practice in letting the greens breath. Call it what you want needle tine, quad tine, venting, just know it helps allow the greens to breath and air to flow through the soil. We aerify two times per year on are greens Spring And Fall. But some might not know we have other light aerifactions that take place during the summer. This process is a small hole that is poked into the green and with little to no disruption at all to play. This took place yesterday because aerifaction was pushed backed for a few reasons. Those reasons being team play, tournaments, and we feel the most important weather. We have always aerified the 3rd week in March, and this year we will be around the first of April. We feel this will be tremendous in the recovery for the greens to be the fastest to recover yet.

Still Speedy

We were able to get the greens up to a 12.1 for Saturday. This is a great speed with almost spring here. Get ready for aerifaction in the next few weeks, yes a necessary evil for our greens to be healthy. The program that was implemented last year has continued to prove itself not only with consistency in roll, speeds, but most importantly health. The root depth in our greens might get to 3 inches in spring. Over the past year with our program focusing more on health we have increased our fertilizer and wetting agent budget. Our Fungicide budget which aids in disease has decreased because of this. To add to the speeds, and consistency in roll is our root depth. At our lowest point this year we had lengths of 2 1/2" which is amazing for poa annua greens in the summer. Are longest roots are in the spring which can measure up to 6".

Getting Busy

It has been busy these past few weeks. From growth, humidity and a new assistant. Yes, for those of you that had a chance to meet Nick and possibly play golf with has moved on. He is in the same position at a course up north. I wish Nick the best in his career and hopefully are paths will cross again. We did get a new Assistant Superintendent though, his name is Calvin Gagni. He came from Pelican Hill were he was the 2nd Assistant. He is 31 years old and has a good turf background. He has been in the grass growing business for 10 years and is an aspiring golfer. Please introduce yourself as he will be 2nd in charge.

A new look

With the amount of growth that the grass has had we are going to be taking advantage of some new "rough" areas. Meaning that around the tees and areas that are out of play we will stop maintaining. It is a test right now and we will see what it looks like in another month or so. These areas will have turf but they will be at a native height. Possibly 2 feet tall and this will save on fertilizers, chemicals, mowing, etc. We will be taking some pictures over the next few weeks and post it to the blog... Have a great weekend and stay dry. Looks like some rain is on its way over the next few days.