May 4th Update

Another beautiful morning at LedgeRock!! However it is hard to believe we had another frost delay this morning, the fourth this week!! Thankfully it is not too much of an issue now that the daytime temperatures are increasing and overall the last few days have been beautiful. 

The greens are still quietly progressing, even considering the frosts, and are very close in being back to normal - with today being the first day we were able to lower the height. They are scheduled to be lowered again tomorrow. Depending on how they look, they will be lowered from there and should be close or back to normal height by Thursdays Member - Guest. 

This chart was included in our weather report this week. It shows that March and April have been the second coldest in recorded weather history, so it is not in our heads!!

Now that the turf is starting to grow more vigorously, the mowing schedule has started to increase and, from Monday, we will finally be back on a regular maintenance schedule. The sprayers will also be really busy for the next few weeks as they need to get a number of early season applications out that set the course up for the season. Amongst them will be crabgrass & white grub prevention, wetting agents to help the soils retain water when the dry weather comes and of course regular fungicide, weed and fertilizer applications as needed. The fescues are on the list of areas to be sprayed also, to ensure they remain weed free. This year I plan to mow them more throughout the year so they remain more playable and by some landing areas will mow them at rough height to help playability as we did last fall.

This week also saw the last of our projects getting finished up. We added an extension to 17 fairway. Last year we moved the tees forward to help drives get nearer the end of the fairway, hopefully leaving players with an easier shot to the green. A number of balls were landing in the right rough, which resulted in tough side hill shot. The extension will help balls bounce down from the hill so as not to penalize a slightly errant shot but enough rough remains to penalize a bad shot. The area had been mowed lower last year to make sure it would work as planned and since it has, it was decided to convert it fully to bentgrass. 

This picture shows the outline of the area that was extended. Although from this angle it does not look like a lot, it does add meaningful room for longer drives.

The cut line from the tee

Sod removed

Prepping the area and starting to sod. Yes!! that is our loader on the fairway!! The tracks on it have very low ground pressure which makes it a very useful tool at delivering big items in areas like this.

Almost finished

Job done!! Since the hill is steep, the sod is bumpy right now from us having to walk on it during the project to water etc. Once it starts rooting it will be rolled and topdressed and it will match fully to the rest of the fairway. It should be fully playable in 3-4 weeks.

On a side note, while hand watering the sod from the sprinkler this morning the foot valve stuck, leaving the fairway flooded by the time we could get it valved off..... This was the river I was greeted to at 8am today!! The head is fixed and everything is back to normal, except the end of the fairway is saturated so it had to be staked off from cart traffic for today. Hopefully it dries out enough to be opened up again tomorrow.

Best of wishes to Nate Menon today on his Golf-a-Thon. He played though while we were working on the irrigation on 17. I have to say I was more than impressed with his drive from the forward tees - this is a picture of him getting ready for his second shot - who said 17 is a tough hole!!

The other project finalized this week is the back pond on 10. As planned, the bank along the path was sodded to match the green side bank. The sod here is a little bumpy also but don't worry we were not sloppy!! I want to see if the daffodils, bluebells etc that grow there will grow through the sod like they do along the creek. As such, I didn't want to disturb the soil much on the bank to ensure the bulbs stayed as intact as possible so that next spring when the turf is still dormant they might be able to pop though. Now that the sod is down it is easier see the bigger bumps, so this week we can fix them and then, once the sod knits, it can be rolled smooth.

As always if you have any questions let me know

Ladies Opening Day

May 1st has brought out the sun along with some beautiful temperatures making for a perfect day for the well attended Ladies Opening Day. The weather is a big contrast to what it was for both the original, and rescheduled, Mens Opening days. It looks like the nice weather is actually going to stick around for the weekend too!! Although late, spring definitely has arrived!!

Today I switched to the aforementioned 'regular' greens mowers and with it a marked improvement in the quality of cut on the greens. As expected, the grooved roller automatically lowered the actual height of cut, which resulted in bringing up a little sand and dulling the mowers. The amount of sand was minimal enough so it didn't affect the putting quality so the only negative was some extra work for the mechanics.

We are just two weeks out since aeration was finished and, even considering the weather, the greens are right on schedule being 85-90% back to normal. There is still a little sand to contend with and, as it works it's way into the canopy, I can lower the height of cut and get the greens back to their usual standards.

I put up a picture of the solid roller mowers in last post so wanted to post a picture of the grooved/groomer head mower also for comparison. The groomer is the spiral roller in front of the reel which is a powered comb (for want of a better description) that helps stand the turf up for a better cut. Currently they are turned off, otherwise it would pull the sand up out of the canopy and leave a huge mess.....

The grooved roller I use is very aggressive but I like it as it ensures very little of the grass is pushed over before seeing either the groomer or the reel, which gives a better cut. It can add a lot of stress during the summer months so it is changed out, if needed, to a less aggressive type to help the turf. 

My iPhone really does not like to post upright pictures of the Prism Gauge, so once again I apologize, but here you can plainly see the difference the roller makes - the right half (lower in the picture) is the cut from the grooved roller. You can see how much cleaner and shorter it is than the side cut with the solid roller. Needless to say, the smoother the cut the better the ball roll. You can also see the remaining topdressing in the canopy. 

The cleaner cut is also quite obvious in these pictures. 

Finally a picture of the clippings and you can also see that the sand picked up is minimal.

I have mentioned the use of Dewcure to remove the dew, which makes it easy to mow the greens first thing and not worry about the sand sticking to the rollers and leaving a mess. I took this picture on my way in yesterday morning and you can easily see the lack of dew on 15 green and approach, which is contrasted with the heavy dew on the fairway.

We're also working on finalizing some projects, so more on them later in the week.

Update 4-26-2013

It has been a very busy week and a lot of work was accomplished.

Firstly the greens - they are coming along nicely even though the temperatures haven't been very cooperative. As planned, they were rolled for the second and last time with the asphalt roller on Monday and mowed on Tuesday. Even with the raised height of cut and mowing in the dry, as expected, the mowers collected a lot of sand on the first cut, which destroyed the reels. However it did clean them up nicely and they were sprayed with Dewcure so that they could be mowed in the morning without the worry of picking sand up on the rollers. They were also sprayed again with fertilizer, but unfortunately there was frost on three mornings this week, so they still are not growing very quickly. 

We mowed again on Wednesday coupled with a regular roll and I was actually able to get a stimpmeter reading that looked half decent!! However there was very little grass collected so there was no need to mow on Thursday and a roll sufficed to increase the speed. The cut this morning yielded a nice surprise - the basket had mostly grass in it which means the turf is finally stating to grow through!! After rolling today, the stimpmeter reading jumped another 3/4 ft, so although not up to our usual standards they are in decent shape, especially considering we are only ten days out from aeration and the weather has not been conducive to growth. 

They were sprayed again today with Dewcure to ensure they can be mowed and rolled over the weekend. Since they are not growing aggressively, the plan to roll tomorrow and mow and roll on Sunday is sufficient to maintain them while not slowing down progress. While I'm not chasing greenspeed right now until they have recovered more, it is nice to see how they are progressing.

The last step is to lower the height of cut. I will do this incrementally as not only is it better for the turf, but if it is rushed, we will be mowing into the sand again, which will set us back. The warmer weather in the forecast is promising, and hopefully the sand works in a little more so I can start lowering the heights and switch back to the 'regular' mowers. The 'regular' mowers have a grooved roller which provides a better cut - I use mowers with solid rollers after we topdress for two main reasons; it saves us beating up the reels on the everyday mowers - Secondly the solid rollers are less aggressive on the turf and therefore less stressful which is beneficial considering the beating the turf takes during this time. The solid rollers ride 'on' the turf, whereas the grooved rollers 'dig' in a little so even though both are set at the same height setting in the shop, the actual height of cut will vary between the two and this is another reason the solid roller helps as it is not riding in the topdress but on top.

Below is a picture of one of LedgeRocks mowers with the solid roller cutting unit fitted.

This is a picture of the clipping from the first cut. You can see the sand intermixed with the clipping. The mowers were treated to a much needed grind as soon as they arrived back at the shop!!

This is a picture of a prism gauge. This tool lets turf professionals see the actual height of cut, while also showing the quality of the cut. (sorry it is upside down...). You can see on one side the cut is more level than the other. The smooth side was the pass that was just mowed while the other is uncut. Our regular height of cut is ~0.1" with the grooved roller. The mowers are currently set at 0.125" with the solid rollers.

Here you can see the furthest part of the green has been cut (lighter area), exposing the sand again....

Lastly a picture of the clippings from this morning and it is obvious that the sand is disappearing.

This week we also started deep-tine aeration on fairways. Our machine needed a lot of work over the winter due to the battering our hard soils have given it over the last six years, but thanks to out mechanics it is like new again and working flawlessly. It is a slow operation, however the benefits are considerable. The machine 'kicks' as it enters which heaves the soil therefore helping fracture the soil, relieving compaction and providing drainage. The large holes also provide air channels for the roots. When we first started deep tine aeration we were barely able to get it to go in 2", now it is close to 6" which may not seem like a lot, but it shows how much compaction has been relieved already by using it.

So to some of the other items that we have been up to this week.

We covered the fescue areas that were seeded last year by the clubhouse and 12 tee. These areas didn't come in very well and were covered with weeds. We scalped the weeds down, reseeded, topdressed and fertilized these areas. I did not spray the weeds as it would have prevented the seed to germinate so this way I can get the seed to take and then clean the weeds out. The areas were covered to help warm the soils up quicker which will make the seed germinate quicker than if it was in the open.

You may have noticed I've grown quite a nice crop of clover this year!! It was all sprayed this week and any resilient areas will be resprayed as needed. Herbicides need to be sprayed in dry weather so sometimes our applications have to be delayed until the weather permits. Here's the proof it's dying as it is starting to curl up!!

We also got a few projects completed this week. 

I'm sure you have had a scare or two on the drive off from 1, especially on a damp morning. I know of at least two carts that flipped over and more than a few scares from coming over that little hill by only for the cart so slide and hit the asphalt sideways. To address this, we removed the mound and made sure the entry onto the path is now flat. The area also needed an extra irrigation head, so it was the perfect opportunity to do that also. That mound, the lack of irrigation and the traffic beat up the turf badly in that area, now that it has been regraded and the irrigation added, it should look good all year and be a lot safer for cart traffic.

Removing the sod - the mound can be clearly seen in the tree shadow

The sod removed

The sod stored for reuse

The mound from the greenside bunker

Grading the area

Adding the irrigation

The finished product

and the new view from the bunker.

The other project we completed this week was to tidy up the back left pond on 10 (did you even know there was one there??) After numerous unsuccessful attempts to try and make it more presentable, I decided going all out and sodding it might be the solution. What a difference! It has cleaned up the entire area immensely. The plan next week is to sod the bank along the path to the ball washer and tie it all together.

Spring is slowly getting here - the leaves are finally starting to pop!!

I'm sorry for the long post but as I said at the start, we had a busy week and I wanted to cover all of it, as well as keep up on the condition of the greens and how they are recovering.

Have a good weekend.

Greens Post Aeration Recovery

A member asked me yesterday if I was going to roll the greens today for the GAP matches. After explaining why I wasn't going to roll, I realized that I didn't discuss here what is involved in getting the greens back to top condition.....

When I would aerate in the past my main concern was to get the greens putting fast as quickly as possible. The issue with that was due to the constant mowing and rolling (which dragged the sand up to the top, leaving a mess) and managing the fertility it took anywhere from 3-4 weeks to get them back to 100% which wasn't acceptable. Therefore, I adopted the current approach, which has worked well, although it means the greens are really slow for the first week after aeration. Now that I have the fertility program dialed in (and assuming the weather cooperates) they are really nice after two weeks and are back to 100% well within 3 weeks after we've finished topdressing.

The first thing, as noted in an earlier post, is to roll them with the asphalt roller to take out all the major imperfections after the aeration process. They are fertilized regularly to ensure they grow back through the sand. I have to be careful not to over do the amount of fertilizer applied as I don't want to create more thatch which would negate the topdressing..... Irrigation is key at this point too, as it (obviously) helps the turf grow and it also helps knock the sand into the profile.

The greens are then rolled a second time with the asphalt roller to make sure the mowers do not scalp the turf. The mowing is held off until the majority of the turf is through the sand. This ensures a couple of things - firstly the longer grass ensures the cut is cleaner and therefore less damaging to the plant. Secondly, sand dulls the reels quickly, so the less sand they see the longer the edge lasts, which in turn, ensures the plants are  being cut cleanly as opposed to torn which damages them. 

Dew is another thing that needs to be taken into consideration. The moisture makes the sand stick to the rollers on the mowers and the greens roller. As it crosses the green the rollers 'pull' the sand out of the canopy, leaving it back on the surface, making the green look like it had a light topdressing - which obviously sets the progress back. As it builds up on the roller it eventually falls off in clumps  which leave a mess on the green and especially on the edges where we turn (mowers) or change direction (roller). These require extra labor to clean up and again the clumps on the green set the healing process back as it is more sand on the surface to damage blades and to get worked back into the profile. The final item to consider is when the sand builds up on the mower rollers it physically raises the height of cut of the mower, which in turn means it takes longer to get the greens down to the proper height of cut. As such, for the first few times, I wait to mow and roll in the afternoon to avoid these problems and ensure the healing time is minimized.

I use a product called Dewcure which removes the dew from the turf. It is expensive and it does not last long so I have to time my applications to ensure I get the maximum benefits from it, i.e. when the greens are ready to take regular mowing and rolling. 

The good news is we are nearly at that point. The plan is roll them again tomorrow with the asphalt roller, re-brush them to make sure any final imperfections are smoothed out and any clumps of topdressing are removed; brushing also makes the turf stand up so it can get a better cut. They will be mowed on Tuesday afternoon and sprayed with Dewcure so we can mow them in the mornings. As the growth continues through the sand I will lower the height of the mowers as it allows. 

Of course this still depends on the weather and how well the growth continues. The frost this morning will slow things a little but they are progressing better than I expected considering the weather and by next weekend, while not 100%, they will be getting very close.

Lastly I made a 20 ft pass on the big practice green with the roller to show what happens when we roll the topdressed greens with dew on them. Here you can see the sand build up on the roller (even with the light dew today). You can also see the turf is lying down (which would be bad if we were to try and cut as the mower would ride over it) and finally you can see the sand pulled onto the top of the rolled turf.

The next two show the lighter color of the sand on top of the turf.

I understand it is frustrating that the greens are slow for a week but remember that it has only been 5 days since we aerated and topdressed them heavily. This method of recovery gets the greens back up to speed as quickly as possibly while also ensuring they are fully healed in the process and ready to sustain the standards required of them during the summer. 

If you have any questions on this or anything, please email me alan@ledgerockgolf.com 

4-20-13 Update

I can't believe I had to put on a winter jacket again this morning before riding the course..... The storm last night didn't drop as much rain  (0.44") as expected. Unfortunately due to the fact the fairways still have hole in them from aeration and therefore holding water (as explained last weekend) I have to keep carts of them again today to prevent them being cover with tire tracks. So the cart rules for today are path only where available and roughs only where there are no paths. If the forecast holds true and it stays breezy today then hopefully it will dry the fairways out by tomorrow to let carts back onto them.

The good news is the combination of the heavy rain, yesterdays fertilizer application and the warmer temperatures the last few days really made the greens heal a lot over the last 24 hours. The top picture is from around 9 am yesterday morning and the bottom one is from around 8am today, showing how much the turf has grown through  and the sand has worked in. As I mentioned earlier, the  upcoming forecasted cold (& possible frost tonight!!!) will slow down the healing somewhat, however I think that, even if though they will not be 100%, they should be in pretty good shape by next weekend.

Aeration Update

We're done!!!

The greens aeration went really well. The crew worked really hard and had all 4.5 acres greens, collars and approaches aerated and cleaned up in 11 hours!!! I borrowed some CoreHogs based on a recommendation from a local Superintendent and they really helped speed the process up. 

As I mentioned in the last post, I held off on topdressing until Tuesday. It worked as planned although we had a few issues along the way..... Our big topdresser broke down, which meant we had to go back to the old school way and shovel sand into the topdresser, which slowed us a little. A shower in the early afternoon was enough to halt progress for a little also but luckily the sun popped out afterwards and dried the turf up quickly. I had sprayed a number of greens on Monday evening with a product that removes the dew so we could start right away on Tuesday morning (the sand needs to be dry to brush in) so even with the delays we finished up the last greens by 6pm.

The final items were to go back around and clean up around the edges to ensure there are no bentgrass plugs left in the roughs and to roll the greens. I use a 1 ton asphalt vibratory roller to smooth them back out after the procedure. It can be a little scary watching it drive up on the greens but  since the greens are sand based it tightens them back up nicely without the worry of them compacting or causing issues with drainage. 

I posted up a sequence of pictures to show what goes on while we are closed.

Getting started on 7 green

Finishing up on 5 green

The CoreHog on 3 green 

The crew collecting the cores from 2 

This is what the greens look like after the cores are cleaned off. You can see how the old sand bridges holes as it is damp. By leaving it overnight and watering it helps open them up so the topdressing can fill the holes.

Loading the topdresser by hand when the Dakota broke down......

Topdressing 3 green

The Dakota back in action!!

Getting ready to broom - The pull behind type broom works well for us, although if I had to ensure all the holes were filled completely (ie if I was modifying a push-up style green), I would hand broom and follow it with the pull type to smooth the surface.

Job done!!

This is an older picture of us rolling 2 green

Since we only get to aerate and topdress heavily twice a year, I want to maximize the benefits so put down plenty of sand to ensure the thatch is kept under control. We use approx 8.25 tons/acre during the spring and fall aeration processes. For reference, our light topdressings are approx 2 tons to the acre. The total used for the year ensures the thatch is kept under control without having to resort to more aggressive operations which would disrupt play even more and also ensure the greens remain fast and true all season.

So to answer the big question... When will the greens be back to normal? This is tough to answer considering the current weather pattern. The greens were fertilized twice last week in preparation for aeration and were fertilized again today - this new recovery program (which worked really well last year) should have them 100% by the months end, however (like all recovery programs) it depends on the weather cooperating. Right now, the long range forecast for the next week or so is for cooler than normal temperatures which means that the turf will be slower to grow no matter how much fertilizer is applied. 

Today's graph from the soil sensors shows how the average soil temperatures have dipped again. So, where a week ago, we started to see the course green up with a flush of aggressive growth, now the turf is slowing up again as the temperatures are still not quite there for maximum growth. I will be monitoring the temperatures and fertilizing & irrigating accordingly to ensure the greens heal as fast as possible but there is only so much I can do without a little help from Mother Nature.....