Sunday, December 31, 2017

Less area treated is more work

One of our late fall/early winter tasks we do, is making an application of pre-emergent herbicide for Crabgrass control next year.  While we use the same product in the rough each year, we alternate active ingredients used on the fairways from year to year.  Depending on the product used on fairways, the application timing can range from December to May.

The fact that we did not treat the 34 acres of fairways this fall, might make you think that the process was faster and easier than in years when we apply the same product wall to wall.  However, in reality, what this meant was that much less work could be done with a tractor, and much more had to be done with the guys pushing spreaders.
Not treating fairways led to little tractor work, and much more hand spreader work.

This may make more sense when viewed from above.  For example, while #9 has a whole lot of acreage, when we are only treating the Primary Rough and Fescue on the hole, there is little that can be done by tractor.  The entire outline of the hole was covered by hand spreaders, in order to avoid getting product on fairways or in the lakes.

The fairways will receive their pre-emergent herbicide next spring with a sprayable formulation.  With so much work in the spring, getting the rough taken care of now, will mean one less thing on the to-do list then.

Saturday, December 23, 2017

Love those roots

There are many times when choosing sod isn't the best idea.  In our climate, sod installed in the spring may not root properly prior to the summer heat stress.  The result can be grass which has to be nursed along for a whole season.

However, there is at least one time of the year when sod almost always yields great results.  Installing sod in the late fall, means there's little chance of it drying out.  And while you won't see much foliar growth over the winter, the roots will head on down.

The Fescue sod we installed three weeks ago, is pushing out some great roots, and becoming more difficult to pull up.

Come springtime, this will be ready to take on whatever wacky weather we see in 2018!

Sunday, December 10, 2017

New Jersey Turf Expo

The New Jersey Turf Expo took place this week, which included three days of education sessions, with speakers from as far away as New Zealand.  Given the scope of this conference, hearing Laurel Creek mentioned twice was definitely a surprise.

During the USGA's discussion on Water Conservation, it was nice to see the Club recognized as an example for Best Management Practices.

However, the second picture wasn't one of our favorites.  While Rich Buckley, Director of the Plant Diagnostic Laboratory at Rutgers, was reviewing turf disease issues of 2017, the audience was shown a great picture of Take-All Patch...from Laurel Creek. 

While it's never fun to see your dead grass on the screen, this was actually a positive event, as it sparked some conversations with other turf managers who have been dealing with Take-All.  In addition to learning from researchers, sharing information with peers is often a great way to find out what works well.

Events such as the New Jersey Turf Expo truly show that Mother Nature is far from static.  There are certainly challenges in course management today, which we didn't see 10 or 15 years ago.  Staying on top of issues such as Annual Bluegrass Weevils, False Green Kyllinga, and fungicide resistance is critical to being able to provide consistent playing conditions.

Sunday, December 3, 2017

Finally finishing Fescue

One of the on-going issues in our Fescue, is the density of these areas.  That is, even when we keep the Fescue weed free, the topsoil holds moisture and nutrients, often causing these areas to become super thick.  This is especially true in a year like 2017, when there was ample rainfall throughout the season.

More often than not, when we see golf courses with a nice, thin, wispy stand of Fine Fescue, we also find this grass growing in some sandier soil.  As luck would have it, the excess material being excavated for the Clubhouse expansion is really sandy.

As they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure, so after hauling several hundred loads of this sandy material to #7/13, the material was graded, and mixed into the soil beneath.

This week, the sod arrived, and the guys made quick work of installing it.  At one acre, this was a big project to undertake with most of the seasonal employees no longer here to help.  The team did a great job, installing 20 pallets of sod on Wednesday morning by 9:15 a.m.

It's unusual for us to still have the irrigation system charged in the beginning of December.  However, with temperatures well above average for this time of year, we decided to wait until the sod was here, and we could give it one good soaking before blowing out the system.  While you won't see much foliar growth over the next few months, the sod will root well over the winter.

For what is often referred to as a "low maintenance area," there was a whole lot of labor involved in the preparation of the area between #7 and #13.  We have already received many positive comments from golfers, and are confident that the finished product will look great in the spring.