Sorry for the long delay between posts but it has been a frustrating time dealing with the issues with our irrigation system. The problems that we had with the irrigation wiring still hasn't been resolved fully but as of last night I have been able to run an automatic cycle successfully for the first time this season. We have made repairs to dozens of damaged sections of cable, replaced or isolated about 15 decoders that have malfunctioned and replaced about 60 old cable joiners. With all of these areas being repaired or isolated we are still getting an inconsistent line current that can't be located by myself or the Rainbird technician. We will continue our search for the fault as time permits as we are now in full swing with spring mowing, wetting agent program and fertilising.
On a more positive note we have just completed our greens renovation program. With our irrigation system being in a fragile state I decided to do a light renovation to the greens because I was unsure I would be able to actually apply enough water to get full recovery.
I decided to vertidrain with 8mm solid pencil tynes to a 150mm depth 25 mm apart. This would give us lots of holes through the greens profile that would allow good penetration of the irrigation water when it is applied. The greens were also double verticut to remove excess leaf and lightly topdressed to smooth the surface. The greens were then brushed and rolled to get the sand into the turf canopy. Once this process was completed all greens were treated with a long term (3 month) wetting agent and washed in with the irrigation system. We achieved all of this on Monday and Tuesday and were back open on Wednesday for the mid week comp with minimal surface disruption. Below are some photos of the process.
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| vertidrain with 8mm solid tynes |
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| closeup of the vertidrain holes |
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| green after verticutting |
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| topdressing being brushed in |
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| closeup of the brush and rollers |
