Winter Injury at the time of Year?

Yesterdays outing reminded me to ‘blog” about turf injury. We can explain the “what, where, why and how” of physical injury to the turfgrass plant. We just don’t know “when” it happens.

I have always suspected summer stresses predisposed the turf to winter kill.

Or these photos’s showing “winter kill” of fairway turf where snowshoes and foot traffic is clearly to blame.

How much turf injury can we expect to see next year due to cart and foot traffic injuries? Only time will tell!

My only option is to “prepare” your turf to survive periods of stress like Summer or Winter is by utilizing cultural practices like aerification, deep tining of turf for winter drainage, drainage, overseeding et cetera.

All processes which disrupt play but in the long run improve the survival of the plants upon which the game is played.

MK

"ROPEADOPE"

What’s with all the rope? Since the second of June our golf course has seen six rain events averaging .56” of rain totaling 3.33” of rain for the month. The fairways are saturated and to the point that narrow cart tires will break through the turf if we hadn’t taken these unusual and drastic steps. The ropes are set up to prevent this.

Too many times I have taken note of signs posting notice of “No Carts on Fairways” being disregarded.

When reviewing data of precipitation amounts for the month I noted that we received 4.87” for the month of June in 2009. In June of 2008 rainfall totaled 5.22” and I found it interesting that in 2007, the year of the hailstorm, we totaled just 3.73” of rain. I know from experience that one 3.5” downpour does less rewetting of the soil due to the heavy runoff than the six all day soakers we’ve seen so far this month and we still have 14 days to go.

So for some information you can use, fairways will remain roped off until they are dry enough to support cart traffic. Sorry for the inconvience, but we sure did need the rain.

Mk

Maintenance alerts for the week of June 7th, 2010.

1. Our normally scheduled aerification of putting greens the first Monday in June has been postponed for now to save on budgetary expense. Greens will be spiked using a “bayonet” style of tine. This opening will allow for atmospheric exchange but will do nothing for organic matter accumulation. This work will commence shortly.
2. Fairways will be sprayed on Monday June 7th. Peoples with chemical sensitivities should take note as our spray mixture will include an insecticide.
3. Bunkers will be edged and weeded and hopefully finished by the fourth of July.
4. Fairways clippings continue to be a problem. The mineralization of organic matter explains the surge of growth.  The color on the other hand is a by product of the Poa Annua plants manufacturing seed heads instead of synthesizing chlorophyll molecules.

Thank you for supporting your club.

Questions I Ponder

The questions I ponder while mowing your greens in early morning hours.


I have a “Story Problem” for you to consider. Your greens have just been fertilized and there is a noticeable loss of one foot in green speed.

How far back do have to pull the putter head to add an additional 2.27 ball revolutions to compensate for the loss of one foot of green speed to make a 20 foot putt?

And how is it possible with so many sets of eyes studying the putting green surfaces that so many ball marks can go without repair? The answer to this question is not enough I guess.