The Season is winding down

It's hard to believe the 2013 season is winding down. The fall has treated us to some nice weather, even if it has thrown some cold days into the loop. It has stayed unseasonably dry and, as such, the course has been playing great. The lower temperatures greatly help reduce the stress on the turf so it can be dried down, but as a Superintendent you can't let your guard down as the plants can dry out too much. Last week we had to irrigate the course, and coupled with the rain Thursday into Friday last week, it ensured the plants  stayed happy!

We were scheduled to blow out the irrigation system this past week but have postponed it  until later in the month as the forecast is for more dry weather and the last thing we want is to have no water available. 

The first frosts of the year have appeared so please bare with us on frost delays. We always try and ensure that we let play out as soon as we are sure that no damage can occur. If there is maintenance to do beforehand the first tee time will be delayed a little further to ensure the work is completed. This post from the spring is a reminder of why frost delays are necessary.

Overall turf conditions are great and the biggest battle has been blowing leaves to ensure that the surfaces are as clean as possible. The greens are still looking good and we have had more recovery since the last update. Most of the thin areas are now filled in, with greens 3 & 5 looking perfect for example; but since the growth has pretty much come to a stop, I don't expect much more recovery until the spring. Thankfully the recovery has went really well to this point and they are still putting perfectly which is the important bit! As the temperatures keep dropping the growth will completely stop. Right now the green, tees and fairways are being mowed once a week, but there are very few clippings. Depending on when the cold takes a grip, the mowing schedule will be adjusted to ensure they still look and play good. The roughs have also slowed up greatly but the mower is still out, mainly mulching those pesky leaves.

The crew was laid off last weekend. I am keeping a couple of guys around for a few more weeks to help with leaves and any mowing that needs to be done. As such we are starting to put the course to bed for the winter and I have to manage the staff and tasks based on what needs to be completed. Unfortunately this is one of those times where a Superintendent's priorities differ from a golfer's perspective. I always have the golfers' best interests in mind but due to circumstances, some times I have to do something that might seem odd. 

A perfect example was last weekend. Although the growth had essentially stopped we are still mowing greens once or twice a week. We have been rolling them most days in between, namely to remove the dew, with the added benefit of increased green-speed since the turf isn't growing. 

The storm on last Thursday and Friday forced a change in plans. With the crew scheduled to finish that weekend, the plan was to get one last full rake on the bunkers while there was still enough staff to do it efficiently. The plan was to mow the greens on Friday also, so that all was needed over the weekend was to blow leaves and roll greens. 

With the rain coming, we mowed on Thursday to get it out of the way on Friday. Unfortunately the rain lingered on Friday and the storm that blew through early left a lot of leaves to be cleaned up. Everything was cleaned up on Friday, with the plan changing to rake the bunkers on the weekend. Unfortunately that left us short staffed on Saturday, so rolling had to be skipped. The only consequence of skipping rolling was the dew remained on some of the greens. Since the greens were mowed on Thursday and had not grown since, it did not effect the play-ability of the course in any way.  If the bunkers were not raked, it would be over a week before we had the time to get to them. The greens were rolled on Sunday and were mowed again during the following week.  

I have been around golf my entire life and my Dad has held every governing position at his club in Ireland. As such I have had the benefit of seeing it from the other side and how club members and governing committees perceive things. It has led to a number of interesting conversations with him over the years. 

Club members want the best from their investment at all times and Superintendents want to provide those conditions at all times. Unfortunately there are times when these items conflict as the Superintendent has to do something that ultimately is for the better good but conflicts with member needs and desires. Aeration is probably the biggest conflict but thankfully most golfers know the 'suffering' is for the greater good the rest of the year. Communication is key to make sure to make sure everyone knows what and why things are happening.   

As always if you have any questions please email me alan@ledgerockgolf.com

Fall Has Arrived

Fall has come quickly, with the trees changing and providing a spectacular multicolored background to the property. Barring the start of leaf clean-up it has been pretty quiet on the maintenance front around the course. 

The much wanted rain finally came, albeit about four weeks late; Superintendents are never happy! This USGA article was a nice reminder that I'm not alone complaining about the weather. The rain totals for last week were 1.25" on Monday  and 3.67" on Thursday/Friday. 

The course held up very well to the storm and the only real issue was the bunkers washing out. We had the entire crew come in on Saturday and spent the day fixing them. By the end of the day all of them had been fixed with only a few holes being left to be raked, which were finished up on Sunday. 

13 Saturday Morning

When the bunkers wash out they require quite a bit of work to repair them.  Before any work can be done they are pumped out. Once the water is removed the silt is scraped off the surface and either removed or placed back onto the washed out floor. Then the sand is pushed back into place with the Sandpro.  In the case of the bunkers that were rebuilt with fabric liners a few years ago, the sand is shoveled up and put back. Although it was a prolonged rain event, it was relatively light so the washouts were not nearly as bad as some previous storms. Even considering that, as a result of the two storms last week approximately 120 hours of labor was needed to repair the bunkers.   

Washouts on 15 on Saturday

John removing the silt on 18

Placing the washout sand back on the faces

Regrading the sand

18 greenside bunker repaired

Putting the final touches to 7 fairway bunker

The greens are looking better but are still thin. I had waited on sodding 10 as the seed popped around October 1st. Since the green was so thin it was difficult to know where to stop sodding; once the seed popped it greatly reduced the amount of sod needed. The temperatures are starting to drop so turf growth is slowing down. As such, the seed will not fill in much more this year. Since it has popped and established well it will help the surfaces fill in come the spring. The plan is to keep pushing as much recovery as possible for the rest of the growing season, knowing that the greens will be perfect again all next season.

I know I've mentioned it numerous times about how frustrating it has been for the last month or so when my hands were tied on what to do. I had to be wary of everything that I would normally do to push growth so as not to do more damage. At least the greens have been playing well and putting true, fast and smooth so all was not lost. The plan over the next few months is to research the best solution so that the next time a perfect storm of events occurs we will be better prepared to recover quickly from it.

Last week I noticed that the irrigation pond seemed over full. I noticed that some old dried out algae had blocked the overflow. I took the boat out to clean it and within a few minutes the boat was resting on the outlet. I thought it strange that the pond had drained that quickly until I got it back ashore and realized that the suction had pulled the boat onto the outlet. The picture below of the water bending into the pipe was pretty neat.

As always if you have any questions please email alan@ledgerockgolf.com

Groundhog Week

It seems like I have started my own Groundhog day, or at least Groundhog Week, where I am in a perpetual loop and the greens look the same week in and out. Switching from recovery to playability mode was very successful and The Rock last weekend went really well. The greens were fully back up to speed as expected and were over 12' on Saturday. The unfortunate part is that they still don't look perfect but the fact they are putting fine makes up for it. They are still putting true and fast today for the Club Championship. 

Due to the early shotgun for the Rock we set lights up around the course so the crew could get started well before dawn ensuring the course be ready. 

Spotlights on 1 & 18 greens

Mowing 16 at 5am

The greens stimping over 12' for the Rock

This past week we did some more work to help the recovery process, but with mixed results. The soil tests that were taken last week came back. I had two sets of tests done; the regular soil test showed that the soils themselves are actually very healthy. The other test is a saturated paste test, which tests the soil with water added to show what happens when the water interacts with the soil chemistry. The test was split into using irrigation water and distilled water on the soil samples. As expected, the irrigation water is adding much more salts and bicarbonates to the system. It also showed that although the numbers are similar on a healthy green (6) to a poor green (10)  the healthy turf is able to withstand the salts, whereas the weak turf and new seed are not able to process it. To use the analogy of a healthy human who can shake off a flu, the healthy greens are comparative; whereas the simple flu can be detrimental to a human who is run down or has a weak immune system.

These three samples were checked using the irrigation water (the areas of interest are highlighted orange)

On 10 we tested a good and bad area to see if there was a difference (there wasn't) but the distilled water freed up potassium and resulted in a lot less salts and bicarbonates (in orange as above) 

Anticipating the outcome of the test results, the greens were flushed on Tuesday. Gypsum was applied first to help flush the salts as the water passed through the system. As the morning progressed, the healthy greens flushed as normal, with the surface water disappearing when the greens 'burped'. However, we started to notice that the thin greens did not drain. Pulling a core revealed that that they were holding water at approximately 4" due to the gypsum no longer being effective enough to move the salts further; the salts created a perched water table. The picture below is not the clearest, but the saturated area can be seen near the top while the lower end of the core is as expected. 

1 green puddling up and not flushing

We sprayed an organic acid to help move the salts further but it only moved them another 2 or so inches. The plan is to reapply gypsum and the organic acid on Tuesday and hopefully it can flush the salts completely out of the system. It is difficult to get the required results as the irrigation water is less than perfect and adding to the problem, so we have to rely on the work-arounds to help. Ideally a large rain event would provide clean water to completely flush the system and help the greens return to normal. 

Flushing the greens

The sensors in the greens confirmed what we were seeing on the surface and in the cores. The sensors are set at 2 & 8 inches. The graphs below are for the upper and lower sensors. The rain event on the 21st can be seen. While a nice rain, and one that would normally be appreciated, this one was not heavy enough to flush the greens. However, it can be noted on the upper sensor that the rain helped push salts past (as it registered a spike in salinity,) but only the sensor on 18 showed a spike in salinity on the lower sensor as the salts passed it. 

The flush on 9-24 can be easily seen also. At the upper sensor the salt levels spike as it passes the sensor, while the lower sensor stays resolutely flat for 1, showing the salts never made it to that level.

The upper (2") sensor graph for 1 & 18

The upper (2") sensor graph for 1 & 18

We finally have confirmed our suspicions and have a definitive answer to why greens that should have quickly recovered from some mechanical damage and scorch have not been recovering. It has been an extremely frustrating period for me, as well as for all of the members. We are trying to fix a problem with a component that adds to the problem. We will continue to do as much as we can to flush the salts in order to push growth and get the seedlings to pop; but until we can get near a neutral base line, it will be difficult. A large rain event followed by some warm and moist  days would be the ideal first step to the road to recovery, as it will flush the system and ensure we don't have to rely on the irrigation water to grow the seed. As I have mentioned a number of times before, a Superintendent is never happy with the weather, even when it has been as perfect as what we have had. The greens will be flushed again this upcoming week and we will continue to push as much growth as possible, while keeping them playing well. 

Other than the few greens that don't look great, the remainder of the course is in great condition. While the beautiful dry weather has been causing problems with getting the greens to recover, the flip-side is that the course is playing hard and fast, which is never a bad thing.

Finally this past week was the first Ladies Behind The Scene Tour, which encompassed 9, 10, 12, & 13 culminating with a nice lunch at the Kohl Lodge. I'm looking forward to next Monday's tour which will include 3,17 & 18.

As always if you have any questions please let me know alan@ledgerockgolf.com

The Rock 2013

The last few weeks have been a challenge. While the course overall is looking good, there are still issues with some greens. What happened to them and the corrective action taking place has been discussed in previous posts. So, what will the greens be like for The Rock tomorrow?  

From tee to green the course is in top shape and nothing out of the normal should be expected. Although the greens will be playing close to normal, some of them are still not looking their best. We have had some good recovery but the majority of the seed did not come up as expected and the thin areas have not grown out as expected. This is exceptionally frustrating as we have done everything to encourage them to heal. I have had numerous consultants out over the last two weeks and they too are baffled at why the thin areas are not growing out. All of them, including myself, expected the greens to fully recover in a couple of weeks. In most areas the plants are not dead; they have healthy shoots and roots but the top growth is not happening. 

I had some soil testing done and a water test taken at the onset of the conditions to investigate causes of the damage. The bicarbonates in the irrigation water have increased 25% since June and the salt concentration has nearly tripled. While we knew earlier in the year we were starting to have problems with the irrigation water, we had been working around it. In simple terms, the irrigation water is tying up nutrients in the soils making them unavailable to the plant and it increases salt, which was discussed in the spring. This added salt has us cautious right now so as not to create additional issues. A gypsum application before the rain last week did not yield the results we expected; it should have helped free up the nutrients. That rain event only provided ~0.3" of precipitation. Although it washed the gypsum in, it was not enough to flush it through to work fully. We have not had much rain since aeration (<2") and have had less than 1" since the issues appeared. These rainfall amounts are not enough to flush the greens (as they were spread out) so I believe the plants are struggling from lack of quality water and that we will see quantifiable recovery after a good period of rainfall.

2 Green on Labor Day

2 Green yesterday - while far from aesthetically perfect, the recovery is noticeable.

I initially had been treating the greens as a grow-in to push growth; since it was not recovering as expected a decision had to be made for The Rock. The extra water required to get the seed to pop and the extra fertilizer to push the growth are not desirable for green-speed. We were faced with a tough decision:  continue the recovery process or prep the greens for The Rock.  The decision was made to prep the greens since the turf is healthy overall, the brown areas are still alive (although not pushing growth), and the weather is perfect. This means that recovery may take a little longer overall (and gives us time for a prolonged precipitation event), the greens will all be up to speed and consistent for the upcoming tournaments. They will still have some thin and brown/tan areas but these are putting fine; the turf is short so the surfaces are even, just a different color. 

In preparation, the greens were topdressed lightly last week to help smooth them further and it helped greatly. They are all back to regular mowing heights and the green-speed today was back just over 11'. It will increase to normal over the next few days.

A question surfaced regarding the plugged areas on greens.  I discussed this briefly in a previous post.  It is not necessary for the plugs to be consistent in size and shape or to completely fill in the area.  The spaces between the plugs protect healthy plants/ new seedlings by keeping the mowers above them.  The bentgrass can also creep into the voids.  For this reason, plugging is quicker than sodding for smaller areas.

Over the last few days the worst looking collars were sodded to help the aesthetics. The sod is from our nursery and is the same variety as the bentgrass on the greens, however, it is maintained at greens height. This means that it might look a little odd on the collars for a few days until it grows up to the collar height. Once it knits, it will be aerated, rolled and topdressed to make sure it is perfectly smooth.

Sodding 4 collar

17 before the collar was sodded

17 after the collar was sodded

So to sum up, the greens are consistent and running at their normal speed but they are not all aesthetically perfect. The recovery, while it has not gone as quickly as predicted, has still shown a lot of improvement and over the next few weeks the greens will recover as they need time to grow out. 

As always, please e-mail me (alan@ledgerockgolf.com) with any questions you may have.  

So why do we aerate and why now?

As promised in the last post, I will discuss the necessity and timing of aeration.  Let's first begin with a course update. 

Overall the course is back in top condition. Over the last week the crew worked tirelessly to get caught up on the backlog from aeration and the wet week that followed. 

The greens that had issues are recovering, albeit slowly. I am very impatient; I have to keep telling myself it has been less than a week since we discovered what was going on. I expect to see the rate of recovery to pick up over the next few days. I held off fertilizing them right away and made sure the plants were strong enough to take on the pressure of being fertilized and the associated extra growth; otherwise they could overfeed on nitrogen and die off. 

They were fed with biostimulants, calcium and other micro-nutrients first to prepare them for the larger fertilizer applications on Thursday and Friday. It takes a day or two for the plant to take the fertilizer up and for it to have an effect. The pick up in growth this morning shows that they are reacting to it and starting to actively grow. The new growth is pushing through moving the brown tips upward. The amount of green tissue starting to push through can be seen in the picture below and if you move the sand around, more plants can be seen ready to break through. 

Each days mowing will take off the brown tips, so it eventually fades out as the green leaves grow. The two pictures below are from 1 green; the top one is Monday around 11am and the lower one from the same angle at 11am today. The recovery, while it still has quite a bit to go, is notable even after 4 days. 

The greens were also seeded this week. We used Job Saver tines on our aerators (pictures below). These little tines are designed for overseeding into an existing canopy. They make shallow holes for the seed. The greens were then rolled essentially planting the seed to protect it and keep it warm and moist so it germinates. Bentgrass seed germinates relatively quickly so I expect to see some more green fuzz popping up by the middle of next week to help speed up the recovery. 

We will continue to fertilize and push the growth, along with lowering the height of cut. We have been lowering the height daily for the last few days with no negative effects. Once the lowered height reaches the sand we will slow the rate at which we lower the mowers. The greens need another very light topdressing to get them perfectly smooth. While they are fine right now, once the mowers get back to cutting at 0.1", it is essential they are perfectly smooth or the greens will be damaged from scalping. The picture below shows one of these imperfections; it is the darker green spot in the lower middle. If it is left un-topdressed the mowers will scalp it leaving a bare spot. 

When we topdress, depends on the health of the plant as we do not want to do any more damage. The topdressing from aeration has been worked in on most of the greens so adding a little more will not cause an issue.  It is essential however that the plants are healthy enough to withstand the stress from the broom. With it being a light topdressing it is easily worked in so, again, it is not as much of an issue as it was during aeration when the holes had to be filled. We plan to work it into the schedule as soon as the turf is healthy enough for us to do so.

So, the answers to the title questions:

The main benefit of an aeration is to provide air and water channels for the roots. The roots are a vital component for the plant as they are the location where the plant takes up nutrients and water. The longer and healthier the roots are, the healthier the plant and the greater it's ability to withstand stress. There are numerous ways to aerate; from solid tining (sticking a fork in it!); to hollow tining (removing soil); water injection (creates tiny channels); deep and shallow tines (varies on how deep you need to go); drilling; slicing and some more I'm forgetting. There are various methods to accomplish these procedures also, each having varying degrees of surface disruption and area disturbed beneath the surface. For example, a spiker (below) leaves a small triangular hole that provides a lot of area for air exchange but it is not a deep machine; it can tuft the surface so it would not be as acceptable as a small needletine, which has less surface area but penetrates deeper and leaves the surface intact.

Most of the deeptine machines also kick as they move through the soil. This action helps fracture the soil and loosen it, reducing compaction and creating more air/water pockets for the roots. The Wiedenmann (below) we used on greens was adjusted to minimize the kick as it was in sand;  the main goal with it was to leave deeper channels through the mat layer.

These methods of aeration also help with soil issues. If a soil does not drain well (like a native soil green), the holes can be filled with a better draining material, improving the composition of the entire profile. 

The hollow tines remove material from the soil. If the goal is to modify the soil, removing a core is better than pushing a hole into the soil, which can cause compaction at a deeper level. Hollow tines also help remove thatch, which is the organic material plants create. Creeping bentgrass is a big thatch producer as it has stolons (runners) that are above the soil. As the plants grow this runner level gets thicker and becomes spongy. On a green it creates a lot of issues from both a golfer and maintenance prospective; the greens are soft, hold water, difficult to cut (as the mower can dig in and scalp),  can dry out quicker as thatch can become hydrophobic, and numerous other issues. Removing it is essential to have quality greens, especially if they are bentgrass. Physically removing the thatch greatly helps in keeping it in check. In most cases it is recommended to remove 20-25% per year, just to keep up with the production. That is over 11 triaxle loads of material per year on the greens at LedgeRock alone! Skipping an aeration can be very difficult to recover from when you consider the volumes that are involved.

Topdressing helps reduce thatch also by simply burying it, which dilutes the amount of the organic material in a given volume. As I mentioned in an earlier post, topdressing also keeps the putting surface true and smooth which helps increase green-speed. Topdressing also can be beneficial when drainage is an issue. As the sand layer builds up it creates a free draining layer for water to move through to drainage channels, which are essential so the water has somewhere to go.

Diluted thatch (mat) and topdressing layer on a green

And finally; why do we do it when we do?

There are a number of factors that influence the timing of aeration. Non-evasive aeration, like needletining, can be carried out pretty much anytime as it does not affect the playabilty of the course; however hollow tine aeration needs to be carefully planned. 

Recovery time drives the timing. The turf should be aerated at a time that minimizes the down time for the course. On average a course can be fully back in play within three weeks from the start of aeration. This period depends on how aggressive the aeration was and how long it took to complete. Sometimes the process itself can take 4-5 days but full recovery should be within 2 weeks from completion provided the weather is conducive to growth. 

Here at LedgeRock we used to aerate as soon as we could in the spring; We usually had all the greens completed by the end of March, which was ideal as it was out of the way and all resources could be directed to prepping the course for the season. The downside was that it took until late April to early May to heal. This is due to the fact the soil temperatures are not consistently warm enough for turf growth until that time. As discussed back in the spring, the slow warm up delayed recovery even further. The decision was made about 4-5 years ago to move our spring aeration to mid- April, when the soils usually start to warm up, so that the course would be playable longer if March and early April were nice. By doing this, recovery time is usually in the 3 week range as opposed to 6-8 as it was when we first started. 

For a similar reason, it was moved to an earlier date in the fall. It was scheduled right after Labor day, however, the temperatures started dropping and recovery slowed. In 2007 there were traces of aeration holes all winter, right up until the spring aeration; almost 7 months! Admittedly they are not all great months for golfing but had they been aerated earlier, they would have been fully healed by mid - September, leaving 6 months of quality surfaces.

The USGA also brought to my attention that moving these dates would greatly reduce Poa annua encroachment. Poa annua is a winter annual which likes cooler weather to bentgrass. By aerating earlier, the bentgrass is more competitive and can close up all the holes, not leaving any bare areas where Poa can get established. This is why you may see courses that are predominantly Poa, aerating when the temperatures are cooler. Since Poa is not as strong of a plant as bentgrass, the cooler temperatures also help it recover from the stress that the aeration procedures put the turf under; Poa would be more likely to die during the summer heat.

Of course you can run into issues if the weather changes a little, as happened to us this year; but the average pattern has to be used, otherwise there never would be a right time. 

This USGA article is a nice resource on the timing of aeration.

Have a great week and enjoy the beautiful weather!