Finally, it looks like the start of summer has arrived, with perfect weather over the last week. Needless to say, the warmer weather has increased soil temperatures to the optimum range for bentgrass growth and, along with last weekends rain, has the course looking fantastic. The great news is now that the greens are actively growing, they are finally back to 100% with all traces of sand finally gone.
I received an interesting email this week from Steve McDonald (Turfgrass Disease Solutions) discussing the cool spring and how it has effected bentgrass growth. The following are two graphs he included with temperatures for King Of Prussia overlaid with the minimum temperatures for bentgrass growth. Our turf sensors have provided similar data but it is interesting to see the graph with the bentgrass line on it also. As mentioned in an earlier post , cool season turfgrass starts to grow in the mid 50F, however, optimal shoot growth for bentgrass is generally considered to be 64-75F, so as the graphs show, this spring we have been lagging greatly behind.
Now that the potential for pulling up sand is gone, the greens mower groomers were turned on this week and the results are as great as predicted. The picture below is of the cut before and after the groomer is turned on. The mower is set at the same height with the only difference when the groomer is running it is standing the turf up before it enters the reel. It is easy to see how much cleaner and lower the cut is on the right from the groomer.
Before making a change to the mowers, we make sure to test the change first, so it can be tweaked to make sure there are no issues. Here Second Assistant Cody Frederick and Shop Manager Scott Nichols check the cut with the prism gauge on the practice green.
Moss has started to reappear on a few greens. It never really goes away, but now that they are back to the their regular low height of cut, it is more noticeable. It was sprayed this week so it should start turning black over the upcoming weeks and slowly start disappearing. Light topdressing also helps keep it under control so once it is restarted, it will also help keep it from being an issue.
Moss up close
So onto some items that were completed this week:
Mowing the fescue on the hill to the right of 12 before the green was a success, as a lot of people were loosing balls in that area. However since it was fine fescue, and grown to be 'patchy' as a hazard, it did not look pretty mowed, so this week I had the crew sod the area, leaving a little of the fine fescue at the top to still provide definition and tie into the area on the other side of the path. The change looks great and will provide a decent lie for those unfortunate enough to end up right.
The change is unnoticeable from the tee.
The finished job.
Speaking of fescues, they currently look really pretty (as evidenced below), but soon they will start to get really long and thicken up. I plan to mow them in the next month and then keep them cut as needed throughout the summer. Weather permitting they will be sprayed for weeds over the next few weeks and once the weeds start to die the will be mown. This timing works well as the fescues will have fully gone to seed and it will have dropped them at that stage which helps in having the areas regenerate themselves.
The covers on the newly seeded fescue on 12 and by the clubhouse were also removed this week. Despite them encouraging a really nice crop of clover, the seed took in most of the areas (as seen below in the before and after mowing pictures below). Now they can be sprayed to get rid of the weeds and managed to favor the fescues.
The fairway extension on 17 was topdressed and is ready for play. The topdressing takes out any small imperfections so that the mowers will not scalp. Once the sand grows out it will start to match the existing fairway.
Lastly if you were around on Thursday you may have noticed a low flying helicopter flying around the course. The power company are using it to cut back tree limbs along the power lines.
Have a great weekend!!
