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