Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Verticutting Greens
The greens were verticut this Tuesday while the golf course was closed for maintenance. Verticutting removes excess thatch and also helps reduce grain in ultradwarf bermudagrass. The verticutter uses 105 mini saw blades that are spaced about 1/2 inch apart. The blades are 1 mm wide and usually set around ground level.
The direction on this particular verticut was 3 to 9 (side to side). The verticutter goes down and back on every pass so that no matter the direction of the grain on the green, it gets a true verticut based on the direction being verticut that day. Everytime the greens are verticut the direction is rotated 45 degrees clockwise from the previous direction. This rotation covers all possible mowing directions every 4 times the greens are verticut.
8 green after verticutting.
Thatch left over on the top after verticutting.
Once the verticutter is finished the greens mower will cut the green in a perpendicular direction. This helps remove all of the debris as well as all of the grass that's standing up.
The direction on this particular verticut was 3 to 9 (side to side). The verticutter goes down and back on every pass so that no matter the direction of the grain on the green, it gets a true verticut based on the direction being verticut that day. Everytime the greens are verticut the direction is rotated 45 degrees clockwise from the previous direction. This rotation covers all possible mowing directions every 4 times the greens are verticut.
8 green after verticutting.
Thatch left over on the top after verticutting.
Once the verticutter is finished the greens mower will cut the green in a perpendicular direction. This helps remove all of the debris as well as all of the grass that's standing up.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Sorry About the Smell
The entire golf course is being fertilized this week. We use a product from Agrium that has an analysis of 21-1-1. It is a bridge product that contains a 50/50 mix of an organic fertilizer called Groganics and a synthetic fertilizer called BCMU.
Groganics is a dried poultry manure that contains 8% calcium. It's analysis by itself is 5-3-2. The groganics smells pretty bad when applied, but the difference between it and other organic fertilizers is that once it's watered the smell goes away in less than 24 hours. Other organic fertilizers typically smell worse after being watered. Organic fertilizer helps to feed the soil which will help increase soil microbe poplutations and increase our base line of nutrients. Also, the 8% calcium acts in the same manner as lime or gypsum and will improve water infiltration and nutrient uptake.
BCMU stands for Balanced Chain Methylene Urea. It is a combination of Urea and Formaldehyde that releases over 16 weeks. We shoot for an application rate of 0.125 #'s of nitrogen per week. That is the optimum rate for divot recovery in turf. In order to get the total product rate where we need it, we simply multiply the desired weekly rate times the amount of time the fertilizer last in the soil. So 16 weeks times 0.125# N per week equals a total application rate of 2# of nitrogen.
Using both of these slow release fertilizers provides us with a dense growth habit that produces thicker turf without increasing the height like quick release fertilizers would. Feeding the soil with these organic fertilizers over the last five years has also increase our residual fertility in the soil. This allows our current fertilizer inputs to be more effective and will help reduce fertilizer needs in the future.
Groganics is a dried poultry manure that contains 8% calcium. It's analysis by itself is 5-3-2. The groganics smells pretty bad when applied, but the difference between it and other organic fertilizers is that once it's watered the smell goes away in less than 24 hours. Other organic fertilizers typically smell worse after being watered. Organic fertilizer helps to feed the soil which will help increase soil microbe poplutations and increase our base line of nutrients. Also, the 8% calcium acts in the same manner as lime or gypsum and will improve water infiltration and nutrient uptake.
BCMU stands for Balanced Chain Methylene Urea. It is a combination of Urea and Formaldehyde that releases over 16 weeks. We shoot for an application rate of 0.125 #'s of nitrogen per week. That is the optimum rate for divot recovery in turf. In order to get the total product rate where we need it, we simply multiply the desired weekly rate times the amount of time the fertilizer last in the soil. So 16 weeks times 0.125# N per week equals a total application rate of 2# of nitrogen.
Using both of these slow release fertilizers provides us with a dense growth habit that produces thicker turf without increasing the height like quick release fertilizers would. Feeding the soil with these organic fertilizers over the last five years has also increase our residual fertility in the soil. This allows our current fertilizer inputs to be more effective and will help reduce fertilizer needs in the future.
Tee Box and Practice Area Aerification
The practice area and golf course tee boxes were aerified last week. We aerified the chipping green approach and both driving range tees after the ETAPL tournament. A 5/8 inch side eject tine was used on the Toro Procore 648. After these areas were aerified they were cleaned up with a drag mat and blower to remove thatch and incorporate any topsoil back into the tee.
After completing the chipping area, the tee box on the golf course were aerified and cleaned up. This will help get water through to the soil, as well as, alleviate compaction.
After completing the chipping area, the tee box on the golf course were aerified and cleaned up. This will help get water through to the soil, as well as, alleviate compaction.
Verticutting Fairways
The maintenance crew verticut fairways this past week. Verticut helps to reduce thatch which will in turn help reduce water needs because water will be able to infiltrate the soil easier. It also helps to remove remaining overseeded ryegrass that will aid in transitioning back to the bermudagrass.
Once the fairways are verticut they are mowed and blown to remove the excess debris.
Once the fairways are verticut they are mowed and blown to remove the excess debris.
Friday, May 4, 2012
A New Addition
The black tees have been added to the line up of tee positions on the golf course. This will allow a teeing option between the white and red tees.
Winter Projects
We completed a handful of projects over the winter. As always, winter is the time of year that the maintenance staff gets a chance to remediate some of the issues that plague us during the growing season. Since there's not enough time or resources to fix them on the fly when we're maintaining the golf course, most of these projects get pushed to the colder months when they can be dealt with.
Contrete repair on 1 and 10 tee; years of tree root expansion and irrigation created a problem with the cart path around this area. We took the oppurtunity to add an extension along the 1 tee box side of the cart path to allow 2 cart wide traffic around the white tees. This will allow one group of golfers to play 1 or 10 while another group can either park or get through while playing the other hole.
The azalea bed behind 15 green did not have irrigation and last summer took it's toll on the plants in that bed. So over the winter, we irrigated it and planted new Formosa Azaleas that will have a better chance of survival with proper irrigation.
Irrigation was added along 1 cart path and sodded.
Contrete repair on 1 and 10 tee; years of tree root expansion and irrigation created a problem with the cart path around this area. We took the oppurtunity to add an extension along the 1 tee box side of the cart path to allow 2 cart wide traffic around the white tees. This will allow one group of golfers to play 1 or 10 while another group can either park or get through while playing the other hole.
The azalea bed behind 15 green did not have irrigation and last summer took it's toll on the plants in that bed. So over the winter, we irrigated it and planted new Formosa Azaleas that will have a better chance of survival with proper irrigation.
Irrigation was added along 1 cart path and sodded.
Soil Testing
With Spring already upon us, we have pulled soil samples on the golf course so that we can determine where we are in terms of fertility going into the growing season. We pulled samples on all of the greens and fairways and a few other selected areas around the golf course, like the practice areas, tee boxes, and roughs. These soil test tell us what nutrients we need so that we can tailor our fertilizer application to our needs and help reduce waste by applying nutrients that are not needed.
A Fresh Start...
I'm sure by now everyone is aware that we have switched management companies to ClubCorp of America. CCA has been in the private club business for over 50 years and is better suited to handle our needs as the leading private club in East Texas. One of the benefits that they provide for their membership is a golf course mainenance blog that can give some insight to the day to day operations of the maintenance crew, as well as, updates on current projects. It will be update regularly and hopefully will be a tool to better communicate how things are done on the golf course.
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