Thursday 30 April 2015

Course Update

It has been a while since the last post so I thought I would update everyone about what has been happening. With short working weeks with Easter and Anzac Day, as well as being short staffed due to a family bereavement, it has been fairly slow progress with the fairway vertidraining.
We will finish all vertidraining early next week and it should help with removing surface water when we eventually get heavy rainfall. This month has bought a change in weather with cooler conditions, regular rainfall without any downpours and some strong winds. Winter is just around the corner.

The cooler weather has bought about a slow down in turf growth so the mowing has reduced and cutting heights have been raised slightly to maintain good turf density through winter. One issue we deal with this time of year is the increased number of worm castings on the surface of the fairways. The castings get smeared on the surface with machinery, golf carts and foot traffic and the fairways look quite muddy. A few years ago we had a chemical that had good long term control of the worms, but unfortunately that is now off the market and there is nothing that is available that has good control and not too expensive. We are trying to acidify the surface of the fairways with regular applications of Sulphate of Ammonia to try and discourage the worms. This will be an ongoing process.