Fuzz!!

After a few cool days over the weekend, the heat has returned. The good news is the really hot temperature are not going to stick around too long and next week it will be back to normal. Superintendents are never happy with the weather, but we cannot complain with the weather the last week or so with highs in the high 70s & low 80s with mid 50s (and lower) at night - an ideal turf world it would have temperatures in that range all summer and 0.25" a few nights a week - ahhh to dream!!

This new shot of heat has brought increased humidity with it and humidity is one of the main contributers to disease. Most turf diseases are fungus' and the majority of the fungal diseases are relatively easy to control. The best way to prevent disease is to have a strong plant so it can fend off attacks, so proper water and fertility management is key to ensure it performs well as a playing surface and still be healthy enough to fight disease. Of course there are times when a healthy plant is not enough and a pesticide is needed to remove the pressure or cure an attack. There are a number of ways to set up a spray schedule - one practice is to spray before you get an attack - the thinking is that you knock back the inactive disease to where an attack can be less problematic. Another is to just wait and spray as a curative although that means having to have some tolerance for damage. Ideally a combination of the two is ideal. 

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is the name given to the process whereby a Superintendent plans how to  provide the surfaces required while still being as environmentally friendly as possible. IPM varies greatly upon people's tolerances for damage, requirements of the club, climatic conditions etc so there is not one option that fits all. Here at LedgeRock I try to minimize pesticide applications as much as possible. We preventative spray for a few nuisance diseases to help knock back the severity of an attack. For most applications I usually wait until there is a certain possibility of an attack or until I start to see the first indications of an attack. This means that the period between sprays is stretched as much as possible, therefore saving time and money while being more environmentally friendly. This method is especially useful in the fall where stretching the window of an application can mean that the weather changes negating the follow up application completely. I am also a firm believer in keeping the plants as healthy as possible so they can fight the disease themselves, reducing the need for chemical input.

As chemistry technology advances the products become more environmentally friendly as the rates are extremely low, so by minimizing the amount of applications it really decreases the amount of potential damage to the environment. 

There are two main types of fungicides - contact fungicides essentially coat the plant so that the disease cannot 'get in'. The other is systemic which means the plant takes it up and fights the disease from within. Contact sprays need to dry on the plant and systemic pesticides need to be watered in so the plant can take it up through the roots. Their uses vary depending on the target pest, time of year, conditions etc.

So to this week. With the increased humidity and the 'perfect' 0.3" of rain we received, I expected we would see Dollar Spot appear, therefore in the rain yesterday we sprayed a systemic fungicide along with some fertilizer. This morning - on the fairways and tees - I was greeted to the most perfect Dollar Spot I have ever seen ..... The little white fuzz is the mycelium on the turf and as it goes away, it leaves little tan spots. It was very frustrating as we had sprayed for it yesterday but the product really did not have much time to get into the plant. Therefore I sprayed a contact fungicide today to stop it in its tracks so now it will attacked from both the outside and the inside. The contact could not be sprayed yesterday as it would not have been able to dry on the leaf. The spots will grow out over the next week or so but at least you now know what all the little white fuzz was today!!

Dollar Spot mycelium (white fuzz) on 6 fairway

The tan spots left on 16 tee after the mycelium has gone

Turf Fans

So why are fans needed on some of the greens at LedgeRock?

A large proportion of the following is taken from my newsletter article at the end of 2009. That summer was extremely wet and cool so the pocketed greens struggled due to lack of air movement. Although they were nursed through the summer by raising height of cut, extra fertilizer & aerations etc they were slower than the other greens. Ultimately they suffered some turf loss after they were hollow core aerated right before a few days of extreme heat, where their lack of roots meant they could not survive the stress - as can be seen in this August 2009 picture of 10 green. 

Just prior to the greens loosing turf the board had approved the purchase of our first fan to improve the areas, unfortunately it was not here in time to prevent the issues that year but have since proved their worth, with those greens now consistently playing the same as the others, even during some of the hottest summers recorded.

We initially started out with one fan to make sure it would work as planned - which it did. We now have five. One for 2, 4 & 10, the worst greens. The other two are used as back-ups or, if needed, on other greens (1 & 17 need them from time to time). The gas powered fans were purchased as they were substantially cheaper to buy and operate than running the power necessary across the course for electric ones. The fact that they are portable is an additional bonus as they can be moved as needed. 

The fan on 2

Growing grass is not the toughest job in the world as anyone with a lawn knows, however growing tight, healthy, quality turf on a golf course is somewhat more difficult especially when all the factors are considered. Climate and weather are two of the biggest and the ones that separate all courses, even including areas throughout a course. Turf type is another factor, with some being more susceptible to stress and damage than others, which coincidentally are actually two more factors affecting the quality of turf. So what else does grass need? Air, light, heat, water and food are the main ‘ingredients’ to a healthy plant, if any one is restricted in any way then the plants health will be compromised; to what extend depends on what and how much is restricted. So let’s look at each growth factor:

• HEAT: In this area heat is generally not a limiting factor during the growing season but in spring and fall turf covers can be used to insulate the turf (while letting it breath and get moisture) and keep it growing. There are also very expensive systems that can cool and heat the soils to maximize growth although these are usually only used in extreme environments (a good example is their use in natural grass stadiums).

• FOOD: This is the easy one to control, we fertilize as the plant needs it to meet its requirements and to help it though the different times and stresses of the year. 

• LIGHT: All plants need light to photosynthesize (which it uses to create energy) and the best light available is early morning sunlight, as such it is extremely important to get as much sunlight onto the plant as early as possible in the day to ensure it has enough energy to survive. Just keep in mind how difficult it is to grow your lawn under trees, the two main reasons are lack of light and the fact the trees steal all the water.

• AIR: Air movement is another vital component both above the surface and below the surface for the roots. A perfect analogy is to think of a pocketed green (e.g. LR #4) as a sauna, the hot air has nowhere to go and just sits there making the environment humid which causes a reduction in transpiration (the plants ability to ‘sweat’ and breath which results in it not being able to cool itself down), it increases the potential for disease and algae and reduces the plants ability to fight stress. Subsurface air movement is just as important as you don’t want the roots sitting in a hot humid environment and you also have the added problem of the potential of increasing compaction (which also effects water movement)

• WATER: This is the big one as it is the source of life. During times of drought we have irrigation but for some reason Mother Nature’s irrigation is just better! Water management is one of the most important items on a golf course; too little the grass wilts, too much and you run into greater disease pressure, greater potential for compaction, algae to in excessive conditions actually ‘boiling’ the plant, so the necessity to carefully manage water is essential. The other side of water management is playability, i.e. having a fast or slow golf course.

To a point all of the above somewhat affect each other but each are compounded by the demands and stresses we put on the turf, examples being; low heights of cut (e.g. our greens are mowed at less than 1/10 of an inch), cart traffic, compaction, disease, water stress and even the practice of mowing frequently adds stress to the plant.

The fan on 4

So now that we have a better idea of what makes grass grow, why do the pocketed greens need fans? LedgeRock has USGA spec greens which means they are designed to drain efficiently while retaining moisture, they do this by having a perched water table, this means they can hold water to a point, but, once that point is reached the water literally ‘flushes’ from the system. However in wet seasons like 2009 they do not perform as well due to the light frequent precipitation resulting in them retaining too much moisture and not ‘flushing’ the water though (they need a lot of sustained heavy moisture to flush effectively). In a ‘normal’ year the greens are flushed every month or so. 

When a root zone has plenty of moisture the roots do not go ‘looking’ for water and get lazy, resulting in short rooting which means the plant has less energy reserves and water uptake is lessened so it cannot endure extended periods of stress as well. (Basically if the plant was human it would have become  lazy, unfit and out of shape). Along with roots shrinking and the aforementioned humidity, the plant has a difficult time fighting stress. The algae (the black areas) on the greens is a good indicator that they are wet. (The pictures below are from a few years ago). It is not too much of a concern as it is relatively easy to control chemically. 

The algae can thin out areas but the underlying factor is the fact that these sheltered greens do not dry out fully as the air moving over them is minimal. In drier seasons those greens were able to go two, three or more times longer without irrigation and when we water, the quantity is much less. Excessive moisture, coupled with the lack of air movement (due to the trees and elevations) created the aforementioned ‘sauna’ effect so the plants basically sit there unable to breathe properly. 

Prior to aeration in 2009 I made a presentation to the board explaining the important of air movement (the only item I did not have any control over). I took core samples of each greens root system and lined them up (see the picture below). It was very obvious what greens were the bad greens as their roots were around an inch (not good!) while the healthy greens had roots of four inches (excellent for August, especially after a wet summer). An interesting point also was that 9 green had the next shortest roots, even though it is up high and relatively open. However it does not receive much morning sunlight so it proved that although it lacked light, and had shallow roots, the fact that it had adequate air movement meant it did not have any major turf quality issues. 

Adding the fans gives back the ability to flush the greens if needed as there is less need to worry about adding to the humidity/moisture levels and as mentioned. I still try to minimize the amount of moisture applied to them but it is nice to have the flush available if needed. The fans also makes needle tining much more effective as there will be better air exchange with the fresh air passing over the turf canopy.

Just how pocketed 4 & 10 greens are can be seen in these two pictures. Even if there is a strong wind felt standing on the tee, the flag will barely flutter on either!! 

Another option we looked at is a Subair type unit. These machines hook up to the drainage system and can literally suck the moisture out of the green (they can also blow air up through the green). Although it would help in drying out the root zone it still would not fix the sauna problem at the surface as it would only be sucking (or blowing) rotten humid air into (or out of) the root zone which really would not help as much as blowing air over the surface and have the plant transpire normally. By moving air over the green surface with the fan and flushing the green, the flushing action will draw the fresh air with it, so while not as effective as the Subair machine, there still is a similar benefit. These machines are useful tools and would be great in combination to the fans, but for LedgeRocks situation they were/are not a stand alone solution. Again to use the sauna analogy - If you were in a sauna and the moisture was removed it would still feel hot - if you add a fan it cools you and it feels better,  if you remove the moisture and add a fan it would be very comfortable - the same applies to the rootzone.

As mentioned in this post there are sensors in a number of greens. They have proved their worth in keeping the greens consistent and showing that the fans are working at keeping the air flowing over the greens, helping them transpire and breathe preventing large amounts of algae to take over which would result in the inconsistent surfaces.

As ever if you have any questions on this or anything send me an email at alan@ledgerockgolf.com 

The fan on 10

The Founders Cup Weekend

After a few hot days this week, a front moved through bringing overcast weather for a few days. The rain bucket on the weather station was blocked so did not record the rainfall. Luckily it still collected it and once it was unblocked, recorded the weeks rainfall - albeit all at one time.... The 0.3" we received set the course up perfectly for this weekend and the cooler temperatures that are forecast. 18 fairway wilted pretty badly on Wednesday when the heat slightly caught us off guard and it was mowed later than it normally would in those temperatures. The stress of mowing in the heat, coupled with the drier conditions caused the wilt. This time of the year it is not much of a problem and it is already looking better (as in the picture below), and should be looking 100% in a few days. It is however something that needs to be avoided during prolonged periods of heat as the damage will take a long time to recover if at all. Having a wake up call this time of the year always is nice to remind us to not let our guard down during the summer heat in July and August. Both 17 and 18 fairways needed to be irrigated to prevent more wilt damage, however the rainfall the following day has made them wetter than the others but with the today's weather, they should be playing like the others very quickly.

The Founders Cup went off this morning without a hitch. Even with the 9am shotgun the crew had the course fully prepped before play. 

Over the last week the crew have been refreshing the bunkers. They checked sand depths, leveled any shelves that had formed and repaired the edges/lips. They also added some sand where needed. Adding sand is not an ideal solution as it can cause drainage issues due to the layering of the new sand on the old dirty sand but it is a short term solution to make them play better. 

You may notice some odd patterns from time to time and usually if it a regular shape it it something maintenance did, or didn't do..... Some of these are easier to identify while others can be a bit of a puzzle....

Here are a few from this past week. The line across the front of 5 fairway initially threw me. I knew it had to be something we sprayed (or didn't) but since I couldn't remember what applications went out , it made me pause to work it out. It was simple once I checked the records - we had sprayed a wetting agent earlier in the week. The product helps water penetrate the soil better and makes it easier for the plant to take up. The product we use is a long chain polymer so it is sprayed twice at this time of the year and, depending on the summer, usually lasts until fall. Here the spray tech forgot to return to the first part of the fairway after his tank ran out. It's not a big issue and the next time it is sprayed will correct it. 

The next one was a little easier identify - a crew member did not tie down his fertilizer spreader so when he drove off the path and into the rough it tipped out of the cart spilling it contents into the rough. Although we shoveled and vacuumed the excess up, there was still enough remaining to burn the plants and cause a dead spot. 

While on the topic of puzzling damage on the course, this is one from a few years ago that took a while to work out. It was after aerating and topdressing. The sand we use is kiln dried to make it easier to spread. Unfortunately this load had not been left to cool long enough before it was delivered. The topdresser leaked sand as it drove off the tee-box and the pile of super hot sand burned the turf. It grew out after a week or so. 

The fans went back out this week on 2, 4 & 10. With the warm weather and the few wet days, algae started to appear on those pocketed greens again. This is to be expected since the air movement is minimal on these so they never really get the chance to dry out fully. The greens were needletined on Tuesday - these tiny tines make channels in the turf so air can be exchanged, providing air to the roots and helping dry the upper profile. Having the fans running in addition is a major benefit as it helps accelerate the drying process. Our aerators have rollers fitted when they are set up for needletining so the process is very noninvasive and does not upset the putting quality of the greens. This post explains the need for fans and why we use them. 

The upcoming week looks like another great week for golf so I look forward to seeing you out there!!

Finally!!! Summer?

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!!

5-14

Going by the temperatures the last few mornings it is hard to believe it is the middle of May. It was 34F when I got to work this morning!! 

Although it lifted pretty quickly, there was also a nice frost, as seen below on the range. 

This spring is on track to be the coldest meteorological spring in history. Below is a graph from the Historic Climate Network (HCN) stations and it is clear that 2013 is currently the coldest, although there are another few weeks left, which could raise it slightly.

In my last post I hoped that the Tournaments would be completed without disruption from rain, but, alas, it wasn't to be..... Shortly after I got home, Brady called to say there was a river on 18 fairway..... I knew in the morning that it would not take much for the course to reach saturation point and the first round of rain proved that. Luckily the GAP matches were almost complete so I told Brady to let them finish, but any remaining traffic would have to remain on the paths to prevent damage to the course. He was able to get the remaining round of the Bro in with the cart path holes before the second storm hit, which left a mess - as seen below. The storm washed out the bunkers and the crew worked late on Sunday to repair the majority of them, finishing the last few holes up yesterday. At least it helped wash most of the remaining sand into the greens and tomorrow they will be back to our normal mowing height. It looks like the really cold weather is gone for the summer so the course should recover fully from the last remaining aeration scars over the next week. 

Another job that was crossed off the list this week will make the walkers very happy. We placed some new rocks into the creek behind 11 so it can be easily crossed again. I added taller rocks this time so it should take longer for them to become submerged, unlike the last ones. 

Finally we rolled the new sod on 17 fairway today. Our greens rollers were not quite heavy enough so we used an asphalt roller. The next job is to topdress which will remove the minor imperfections making it smooth enough to mow. At that point it will be ready for play. 

The Bro

As I write, the first rounds of the Bro 2013 are finishing up. The sun tried it's best to come out earlier but, to this point, has stayed hidden. At least the rain is staying away, hopefully it remains dry long enough to finish the Bro and the remaining GAP matches, which are also on today. 

We  had 0.5" of rain last night and although the course soaked up a large amount of the rain earlier in the week, the addition of last nights rain has left the course very wet. It didn't help that the rain only stopped in the early hours so there was no time for it to soak up. As such the fairways are very wet, with some still having areas of standing water. Normally with it being this wet, I would make it cart path only - for at least part of the day - but due to the busy day today, I made an exception and the course has been protected as much as possible from damage. However please ensure that the signs are followed so the damage is minimized. I can get away with it a little more at this time of year as the turf is growing, a little damage can be tolerated as it will recover quickly. However, during more stressful periods, the course needs to be protected more so the damage is not compounded.

Standing water on 13 & 15

With the busy schedule this morning I brought in some extra staff to make sure everything we needed to do was completed before the tournaments. We had to skip raking a few bunkers here and there to make sure we stayed ahead of play. The ones that were skipped, are ones that usually do not see a lot of 'action', so should not affect play much. Our timing was perfect as the crew just finished before play caught them. The skipped bunkers will be raked in the morning. 

Lastly, I got a bit of a surprise when I stimped the greens this morning. They were back to our (minimum) normal  speed, which was surprising considering the rainfall last night. The height of cut is very close to normal and the sand is finally disappearing. We are very close to being able to turn the groomers on and get them a little faster, at which point they will be perfect!!

The BBQ Member Guest

What a nice day it turned out to be for the first Member Guest of the year. We had a total of 0.69" of rain onsite since Wednesday. We were lucky considering Reading airport recorded over 1.5" foer the same period. We have not had much precipitation since the middle of April so the course soaked up most of the rain, with only the usual areas needing to have traffic diverted around them. 

The rain did prevent us from getting all the roughs mowed as planned, so today we made sure that at least the rough immediately around the fairways was mowed. However we plan on having it all mowed again for the weekend.

The growth on the greens is still slow and yesterdays rain only helped a little. They are putting very true - as one would expect after a heavy topdressing - but they are still slower than we would like as they are just not growing through the sand as normal, due to the colder than normal weather. It is frustrating that they are so close and there is nothing to do but wait for warmer weather. The frost forecasted for early next week is not going to help, but hopefully after that we start to see some more normal temperatures. Speaking with other Superintendents, they are also having the same issue with their bentgrass greens being slow to recover, so at least we are not alone.

Lastly, checking the sod today, showed that it is starting to root. The picture below is the root hairs on 17 fairway. I should be able to reopen the drive off on 1 to cart traffic this weekend. If 17 continues to root as it has over the last week, it should be ready for rolling next week and then it can be topdressed. At that point, it will be close to being open for play.

Fertilizing Fairways

 The fairways were fertilized this week. I use a semi organic product which works better with warmer temperatures, therefore I prefer waiting until it the plant will start to use it as opposed to have it sitting there. The Amonium Sulfate content helps waken the plants in the spring and get them growing. The organic content breaks down slowly over time and keeps slowly feeding the turf throughout the summer. Next week we will apply humate which feeds the microbes in the soil. They help release nutrients from the soil and generally make the soil healthier, which makes it better for supporting the turf. As such, we no longer need to apply a lot of traditional fertilizers, which is better for the environment. The program is working well. I have noticed over the years that the soils have become healthier, since essentially been torn apart with the construction process. After the construction they did not have an odor, now when the soil is disturbed, it smells 'earthy' as you would expect from healthy soils. Other than the low rate spring and fall organic fertilizer applications, I add small amounts of fertilizer in the spray tanks, which helps the turf stay healthy and a consistent color. In this situation the rates are low, the plant using what is applied, so there is no/minimal waste and therefore being better for the environment.

A new tool we are using this year is a gps device to help with applications. It is one of many components that agricultural sprayers use to provide accurate pesticide applications. In the past we would have to send an employee out to flag the fairways so the tractor operator would know where to drive and not leave skips which would result in different colored lines in the turf as the fertilizer released. With the gps we can program our width and by a system of lights and the on-board screen can see where to drive and the area we have applied it to. Another benefit is it can give us a more accurate count of the acreage covered so we know exactly the rate of product we applied. It also means that the employee that would have been flagging the fairways can work on something else. The application time was reduced as there was no guessing where to go (those flags can get confusing!!). 

Over time, and as budget allows, I plan on fitting it to the sprayers also. In theory, it looks like the full gps spray system can save 20% in chemicals on large applications. With the tracking unit attached to the sprayer, it will be able to provide a more accurate savings estimate. The full system allows for each nozzle on the sprayer to be controlled automatically, as opposed to the current set up of 3 and 4 nozzles at a time, being turned on/off by the operator. The individual nozzle control makes applications more accurate, and ensures chemicals only reach the areas that we would want them, minimizing overspray. Lastly weeds etc can be tracked and the machine can taught where they are, so instead of blanket applications of herbicides, very accurate spot spraying can be done, which saves money and is better for the environment. 

The unit on our tractor. The green line on the screen is his last pass. The red arrow is on the line of his current pass. 

The led lights that run along the top change color as the tractor moves on/off line.

The greens are coming along nicely today and hopefully the rain today helped get the remaining sand into the canopy. The heights have been dropped and we are very close to being at our 'normal' mowing height.

On another note, our weather service has issued a cold weather alert for next week. He expects that there will be the potential for frost early in the week, so be aware if you have annuals etc that may be susceptible to cold weather damage.