The wait is on!

Now that Spring aeration is behind us for 2014, I figured an update and what to expect over the next week or so is in order. Even with the delays during the week, we were able to finish all the aeration by Thursday evening. The crew, as always, pulled together to ensure all the aeration and clean-up was completed while we were closed. The only item left is to topdress tees, which is something we can get done early next week as it does not take long. 

15 green after topdressing and brooming

The greens were wet from Tuesday's rain so the conditions, while not perfect, were good enough to proceed. We had some bridging of the holes. This happens when the the soil being removed is wet and it sticks to the top of the aeration hole. It is frustrating as it prevents the topdressing from entering the holes. The brooming usually loosens it up and helps a lot of the sand fall into the hole. We use a 1 ton asphalt roller on the greens to smooth them once we are finished brooming and the vibrating from it helps make the rest of the sand work its way in. Until this happens the topdressing can look heavy in spots. We plan to use the big roller one more time and once it is finished we will brush the greens again. This will move any excess sand around, fill any open holes and smooth the surface. At this point the growth will be at a point where it also helps stand the grass up more through the sand.

Some heavier pockets of sand that will be removed after the final rolling

We had to delay a fertilization last week as we didn't have irrigation to water it in, but it was applied yesterday. We also added fertilizer/soil amendments to the soil before we topdress; this also helps recovery while providing food for the turf for the summer stress. 

Rooting looks good

A cross section of the greens currently. The current and last topdressing can be seen near the surface along with a deep tine hole (light sand)  from last year. The roots in the light sand are more prolific showing how well aeration works.

We are irrigating the greens regularly and will be for most of next week to help speed up the recovery. This results in some extra wetness around the greens so I apologize for the softness while they heal.

Next week the greens will be fertilized more to speed up the recovery. We will roll with the asphalt roller one more time, before switching to the regular greens rollers. We will mow once the grass is fully through the sand and the mowing frequency will increase as growth allows. At this point rolling and mowing will be done when it's dry as I explained here last year. Once there is enough grass showing we will apply Dewcure; this prevents dew from forming, meaning we can perform our tasks and not worry about picking sand up. Dewcure only works on the turf so applying it when there is a lot of sand is a waste. 

Mother Nature controls the remaining aspects of recovery, namely temperature and rainfall.  The forecast looks decent and the soil temperatures, while not ideal, are currently pretty good. If things go as planned, recovery will also!

The irrigation pond has been refilling and should be close to being full by Monday. The electronics in the irrigation satellites have been acting up since we fired it up. They are turning on heads that shouldn't be on, not turning off heads and in some cases not working at all. For example, 5 tee seemed to be running fine this morning but ended up running for 2 hours. John has had a long week firing the system up and trouble shooting the electronics. We have new parts on order so hopefully as soon as they come in, all the issues we are having should be resolved. 

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

Spring?

Spring allegedly arrived last weekend, although the picture above taken this morning would have us believe otherwise. Men's Opening Day was on Saturday and the first of the GAP matches were played on Sunday with beautiful weather both days. It was hard to believe that three weeks prior the course still had snow on it. After a long winter, the full crew started back on the 7th which meant we were able to get the course fully up to shape for the weekend's events. Prior to that, were catching up on the winter work that couldn't be done due to the snow over. The bunker washouts were fixed, the fescues mowed, brush areas cleaned up and debris from around the course removed. 

Brush and fescues mowed and cleaned up

As I mentioned last time, the course came through the winter really well, with minimal damage, so the clean up didn't take a long time. Once the snow finally thawed, we were able to see how much snow mold infection we had and thankfully it was less than expected. The perfect spot of pink snow mold pictured below was on 2 green, showing that the fungicide had started to loose its efficacy due to the long period of snow cover. Thankfully the snow had gone so it could be treated and a few spots like this are nothing to worry about. 

One of the other things you see after prolonged snow cover are tracks in the turf created by voles; the picture below shows some damage on 15 fairway. It usually grows out once the turf starts actively growing. This is a nice article if you're interested in finding out more about voles.

The turf grew a little under the insulation of the snow cover but the growth was minimal and over four months. The initial mowing cleaning the brown leaves off the plants but since the turf was not actively growing, regular mowing was not needed. As the temperatures rose, the turf responded; by the weekend they were growing nicely and we were back mowing and rolling on a regular schedule. 

An interesting side note was that 4 green had the most snow and the longest snow cover. By being insulated longer, it was amazing how much greener it was than the surrounding greens.

We aerated the back tee at the Driving Range, seeded, topdressed, fertilized and covered it. The covers insulate the turf and speed up the seed germination so the tee will be fully healed my the end of the month. At that time we will move back from the front tee and renovate it on a closed Tuesday in May. 

The Range tee topdressed and waiting to be covered

The only other damage around the course was the asphalt by some bridges collapsed. This was caused by the soil eroding by the bridge bulkhead and eventually washing out the soil under the asphalt. The bridge on 7 was the worst and has been repaired but a few others are showing signs of sinking and will be fixed over the next few weeks.

Due to the prolonged winter we are approximately three weeks behind with most of our maintenance, although the associated lack of growth helped us catch up as regular maintenance like mowing was not necessary. Spring aeration is scheduled for this week and so far it has not been without it's challenges. The irrigation pond sprung a leak over the winter. The ice moved the riser pipe so it started to leak. The water also managed to get behind the liner where it is attached to the riser. This eroded the soil under the liner and the liner tore, creating a bigger leak. It has been repaired and is refilling. 

The damaged overflow/riser pipe

The hole in the liner

Repairing the liner after the riser was repaired and the soil backfilled

The one good point of the pond being drained was we were able to check and clean the wet-well intake pipe

Due to the lack of water from the pond leak and the warm dry weather on Monday,  I decided to start aerating the tees first; the aeration process is very abrasive to the turf so there was potential for damage.  We lost Tuesday due to the rain and then arrived to a snow covered property on Wednesday morning.  

Aerating Tees on Monday

Cleaning up the cores on tees

The snow slowly melted so we were able to start the greens late Wednesday morning as thankfully the soil was not frozen.

Normally we start aerating the fairways once they are thawed and clear of snow; usually by the middle of March. The long winter has meant that we lost that opportunity and due to rain events since the snow melted they have remained too wet to pull cores properly. The weather is too much of a gamble to ensure that they will all be done by May 1st, so the plan is to solid tine them and make up for the missed aeration by modifying the fall fairway aeration. The solid tine aeration will not effect play much so if it takes a little longer it will not be a major inconvenience.

The warm days last week really got the turf growing and the course has greened up nicely, which is finally showing that winter is (almost) behind us. Now all is left is for the trees to bloom and it'll finally feel like spring.

The Never-ending Winter

I often get asked what I do, to which I usually reply "I grow grass." As the conversation progresses I get asked the inevitable question - what is there to do on a golf course in the winter and what do you do?

What we do is very weather dependent but  there is plenty of work to keep our reduced staff busy. I always go into the winter with a list of outside and inside jobs to accomplish. At times the list of tasks is never fully completed but each year a number of small, long -term projects are crossed off of the list. The nice part is once they are all completed, it is usually time to create a new list!  

Working on the Clubhouse decorations

A few examples of some of the items we have done thus far this winter are updating our personnel and operational handbooks, painting and doing repairs around the shop, working on the club buildings and pursuing as much continuing education as possible. 

The snow has kept us busy outside this winter - Like removing snow from the Clubhouse roof

The equipment techs will have all the equipment fully serviced and ready to go before the season starts. They have done a great job over the last 18 months, organizing the shop and getting all the machinery to a point where  it can be serviced over the winter. 

Continuing education is valuable to ensure we keep up with new trends, while also ensuring that we stay on top of any issues that Mother Nature throws at us during the season. It also ensures our credits for pesticide licenses and other required licenses are up to date. 

The Central Pennsylvania Golf Course Superintendents Association Winter Education Meeting at LedgeRock

The course has been covered with snow for most of 2014 so far. I had planned on covering the weaker greens going into the winter but the snow arrived before we were able to get to it. The snow cover does not hurt the turf and it makes for a great insulator so the fabric covers are not needed. How much insulation the snow provides can be seen from our sensors.

The sensors from 2 green showing the soil temperatures at 2" & 8" are above freezing

John and I checked the greens this week to see how much ice and snow still remained. The amount of ice largely depended on how much snow cover there was. There was about an inch of ice on 1 and 2 greens with 4-6" of snow on them. 4 green had slushy ice on spots and no ice at all in other areas as the foot of snow still on it was insulating it. The biggest surprise was the new (white) roots that appeared in the plugs. The turf has been slowly growing under the insulating snow cover, which is great news as it gives us a nice head start to growing roots going into the season. 

New roots in 4 green - they are especially evident in the aeration channels (light sand)

Close-up of the new roots growing under the snow

Ice under the snow can pose an issue but it is more of an issue for poa annua. Thick ice cover for around 30 days can suffocate poa annua, whereas bentgrass will survive under a solid ice cover for over 90 days. Since we are nowhere near 90 days, we have nothing major to worry about. 

 Ice Cover on 1 green

The roots on 4

Snow mold can cause issues under prolonged periods of snow cover, with gray snow mold being worse than pink snow mold. The greens and tees were sprayed so I have no worries about them. The fairways did not get sprayed (again the weather caught us) so there is some superficial snow mold on them. I do not expect any major issues from the snow mold on them and will spray them as soon as they are clear of snow and dry enough to put the sprayer on them.

Snow Mold on 3 fairway

The long range forecast is for colder than normal temperatures to stick around for most of March so it will be a slow start to the 2014 golf season; so what do I expect at the start of the season? 

I don't expect the course to look much worse than before the arrival of the snow. The bunkers will be washed out, so it will take a day or so to tidy them up, followed by a few weeks of making them perfect. From a few course tours there does not seem to be much tree debris, so clean up should go pretty quickly. We had a few trees marked to come down, but they may have to wait until during the season if we get delayed.

The new truck has had a baptism by fire (or um snow!)

The turf should come out pretty good. I am predicting the course to be very wet for a period after the snow melts. This means that I expect there to be a lot of cart and golf restrictions at the beginning of the season. I explained last year the issues that frost and freeze/thaw cycles can cause. The decisions made over the next few weeks will be crucial to how the turf health is conditioned for the summer. We lost root growth last fall dealing with the issues we had so we need to maximize root growth this spring. Healthy roots ensure the plant can withstand the stresses of summer. We have a nice head start with the roots growing under the snow but need to make sure we do not damage them which will set them back. 

Slushy ice on 4 green

The course is currently saturated and I expect it to be a while to fully dry out. The issues occur when the surface is frozen but thaws during the day; the top of the surface melts while the soil underneath stays somewhat frozen. When this occurs, traffic on the turf causes the roots to sheer at the frozen/thawed interface setting the plants back. (See picture below.) We will try to minimize any inconvenience but protecting the course at the start of the season will pay dividends once the season starts in earnest. 

Bentgrass is slow to wake up in the spring so green-up will take a while and it also means that it will take longer before we can put the turf under stress as it needs to be actively growing to withstand it. 

We are scheduled to aerate the greens on April 14th but that will depend on what the weather does. Most likely we will be able to aerate at that point as hopefully the turf will have dried out by then. Aerating the tees shouldn't be too much of an issue but I am concerned about getting the fairways done as it is hard to predict when they will be dry enough to do. I will be updating the blog regularly once we get started.

Even if we get delayed, by mid May the weather will be warm enough to make sure the aeration is healed and the turf up to speed. And this winter will be a distant memory!

If you are interested in some more info on ice and snow cover the USGA green section has some nice articles on the topics.
What Is Going On Under The Snow
Snow/Ice Cover
Icy Situations
Early Spring Is An Exciting Time On The Golf Course

Another year in the bag!

As the last few hours of 2013 wound down, the focus moved to the new year and the upcoming season. 

One of the last nice mornings before the snow arrived

The cold weather arrived early this fall so we lost some late season recovery/rooting but it remained relatively dry so the course was playable right up until it snowed. We had some special guests for the Goat Cup in November and they looked great doing their bit 'mowing' the fescues by 1 tee!

The goats feeding by 1 tee for the Goat Cup

We had planned to cover the weak greens for the winter but the early arrival of the snow meant that we did not get to it. Luckily the snow insulates the turf so it was not too much of an issue short term. Depending on the weather going forward we will cover them if it looks like they will be covered long enough to see a worthwhile benefit; but we also have to be mindful of when we need to remove them for play. 

Ice is not an issue at LedgeRock as the greens are bentgrass, which can withstand around 90 days of ice cover; whereas poa annua can only survive approx 30 days under ice before it suffocates. Snow mold can be an issue with prolonged snow cover, so the bentgrass surfaces have been sprayed which should last the winter, minimizing any damage that may occur from it. Desiccation is the other worry over the winter as the irrigation system has been winterized but is more of an issue earlier in the winter while the turf is still slowly growing.

Blowing out the irrigation around 15 green

The remaining snow on 1 the day after the first snow of the season

Due to the shade, the snow lingers longer on the pocketed greens

One of the questions I am always asked is what do we do in the winter? The majority of the staff has been laid off so there is plenty of work to keep the six of us remaining busy! Scott (Shop Manager) and Jeff (Equipment Tech) are busy going over and servicing all the equipment for next season. They are currently finishing up the reel mowing equipment, which is usually the most time consuming. My assistants and I have been busy plowing snow, preparing schedules and budgets for 2014 while keeping up on any miscellaneous maintenance that needs to be done around the property. We also have some tree work planned for when the weather is cooperating. 

Cody waiting for the plow truck to finish

Checking the course in the snow

Turfnet is a web based resource for Superintendents and Scott has been featured twice this fall in their tips section for some of his ideas.

Equipment Warning Video

Banner Video

  

Looking forward to a prosperous 2014! I hope that everyone enjoyed a wonderful New Year's celebration!