Sunday 22 February 2015

Course Update

This week has been quite productive with all greens being renovated with solid 12mm tynes and topdressed with turf sand. We had great weather for the 2 days the course was closed for renovations and we were able to get the sand brushed into the core holes reasonably well by the time we opened the course on Wednesday. As is usual after renovations the greens will be quite furry for a while because it takes a while for the turf to grow through the sand and get the cutting height of the mowers back to normal height. We do this for several reasons - (1) we don't want to pick up the sand in the cutting units and damage the blades, and (2)  the turf is quite tender after the abrasive affects of rubbing the sand into the turf surface and we don't want to stress the plant more at an early stage of recovery.
12mm solid tynes at 150mm depth

Turf sand spread on 11th green

Cushman topdresser

During the week we also vertidrained the surrounds of the greens. While the greens and surrounds have been opened up with solid tyning we have taken the opportunity to treat them again with wetting agent and heavily watered the product to get it into the soil profile. This application will get us into early winter with hopefully a good, even moisture content through the soil profile.

One negative occurrence during the week was a damaged irrigation control cable near the 6th green that was caused by the vertidrain. Over the years we have vertidrained the surrounds of this green half a dozen times with out ever hitting the cable. This time the cable was severed and we found it using a cable locator(borrowed from Richard at Waitikiri GC) about 75-100mm below the surface. I am quite sure that this won't be the last time we hit a shallow cable because the reality is we don't know for sure where every bit of cable runs, and at what depth. In this situation we uncovered quite a length of cable and proceeded to repair it and bury it at a depth of 350mm where it won't be in danger of being hit with machinery in the future.

Cable break when hit by the Vertidrain 



Irrigation cable at a shallow depth


Friday 6 February 2015

Course Update

This last week has continued with warm, dry and now, windy conditions. We have managed to keep the moisture content on the greens and tees to a good level and as usual this time of year the mounded high areas on the fairways tend to dry out. This summer we have applied wetting agent to the high areas on fairways as well as the greens and tees. This approach has paid dividends with tinges of green throughout all sprayed areas on the fairways. Not only has it held colour, but it has maintained a better turf density than previous years where it would normally thin out into bare spots. We are still at the early stages with this program and I would hope for better turf coverage each year as we progress. This is only part of our fairway program but it appears that it has been quite beneficial so far.

As I mentioned in the last post about the unusual sprinkler repair with the broken pieces of fibrolite pipe, how many times will this occur! Well I didn't have to wait long. This week the sprinklers on the ladies 6th tee wouldn't shut down properly. As these are a bank of 4 sprinklers controlled by one valve, the problem had to be in the valve. After dismantling the valve I found a large chunk of fibrolite pipe jammed in the valve housing. With the debris removed and valve reassembled, the sprinklers worked fine.
Valve for ladies 6th tee(note the tree roots from nearby trees)

Fibrolite pipe jammed in the valve

I had a small window of opportunity to spray the greens for weed control (Pratia & Cotula) this week. We had one morning with no wind early on so I managed to get a herbicide and insecticide application on with just under a fortnight to  go until renovations on the greens. By the time greens have recovered from the coring and topdressing the weeds should get quite a touch up and the Browntop bent should grow through the weak areas. Next week we will putting on a foliar spray of Sulphate of Ammonia to keep the turf ticking along. 

With no real rain in the short term forecasts we will remain vigilant with the irrigation and keep the greens in good shape so that they recover well from the renovations