Course work

This morning we started the week off right by changing pin locations and mowing greens and collars.  This time of year, mowing is less about managing growth and geared more toward cleaning and smoothing the putting surface.  As long as the weather is warm, we will continue weekly mowing to keep our greens in shape for play.  In the coming weeks we will apply a heavy layer of  topdressing sand as cold weather sets in.  The sand serves as a blanket for the winter, protecting the crown or growing point of the bent grass (and poa) plant from winter desiccation.  Desiccation is a concern without snow cover, and to this point we haven't had much in the way of snow and have been irrigating fairly regularly.

Just as snow protects the plant from desiccation, too much snow cover can lead to snow mold, and for that we are planning our second preventative fungicide application this week.  For this application we will be applying Instrata and Rhapsody, which should carry us through February.  About a month ago we applied Spectro90 which we use for a short term preventative in case of big, early snowstorm.  That product has all but worn off, so as soon as the wind dies down we will put out the Instrata/Rhapsody combo that has worked nicely for us that last couple of years in preventing snow mold.  As winter sets in fully, we will discuss different forms of snow mold and hopefully continue answering the age-old question, "so what do you guys do in the winter".

Compost is Complete

We finished topdressing compost on fairways approaches and tees!  It took a little while with our schedule split between our two courses, but we got it knocked out.  120 yds were spread over 26 acres for a rate of approximately 4.6 yards per acre.  This is a little lighter than our rates in the past, but we are confident that we will have good green up in the spring and that our nutrient levels will stay strong without a synthetic winter fertilizer application to these areas. 

We are toying with the notion of including rough in our future applications of compost and foregoing any synthetics if possible.  That isn't to say that we won't use any slow release sources, but to this point, we are very pleased with the results and hope to expand our program even further.  For more information about the benefits of compost check out the United States Composting Council website.  On a side note, Chris Johnson has been asked to give an hour long webinar for the GCSAA in January on our compost program here at Legacy Ridge.  We are all looking forward to viewing it and are proud of the notoriety Chris and Legacy Ridge are receiving in the matter.

Compost is here

A sure sign that aeration is upon us, 120 yds of compost arrived today and will be a mainstay in our parking lot until aeration is completed.  In the past we have ordered 200yds, but with a tight budget for the remainder of the year, we cut our rate slightly to save a little money.  We have discussed before some of the benefits we hope to realize in amending our soil with compost, but there is no better time than after we pull aeration cores.  Just like we did in the spring after the cleanup of cores is completed we will topdress approaches and tees with a heavy dose of sand.  Depending on weather and timing, we will likely topdress tees and approaches in conjuction with fairways.

The compost serves two main purposes, though we are treating it in this case as a fertilizer source and secondarily as a soil amendment.  While the two go hand in hand, we don't use nearly the amount of compost that we do when topdressing sand to fill aeration holes.  Our concern with using compost alone as an ammendment in the case of approaches and tees is that it lacks porosity and in the profile could eventually lead to a less firm playing surface.  Obviously we have similar concerns about fairways, at the moment we feel the benefits outweigh our concerns in this case.

An ideal solution might be to blend a topdressing sand with the high quality compost we purchase, but to this point we are unable to buy the large quantity of sand neccesary and settle instead on compost alone.  We supplement with sand topdressing in isolated areas, primarily swales and drainage areas in certain fairways to aide in water percolation.

On a side note, the compost this fall is easily the product we have received to date.  A new screen had to be purchased by our supplier to reach our specs, but in our opinion it was well worth it.  It should drag in with little or no mess left behind, which is great for everyone.

Interseeding

This morning we verticut greens again in conjunction with a sand topdressing, only this time with a bit of a twist.  With conditions definitely favoring bentgrass at the moment, we took the opportunity to interseed T1 bentgrass while our Poa Annua is stressing a little more from the heat.  After Poa has gone to seed in late spring, it weakens and can quickly lose ground to the deeper-rooted bentgrass when maintained properly. 

We applied seed with drop spreaders before the topdressing went down at a rate of about 1/2#/1000 sq ft.  T1 is a variety we have had success interseeding with and on our nursery green.  It establishes pretty quickly and is a beautiful shade of green when compared to the Dominant Blend bentgrasses we began with 18 years ago.  It is aggressive laterally and has proven to fight off Poa Annua under our maintenance regimen on our Nursery Green.

Following the seed , we applied 24 tons of 80/20 USGA sand/peat mixture with our topdresser, drug it in with our cocoa mat and said a little prayer for seed germination.  The peat isn't normally incorporated in our topdresssing sand, but should hold a little more moisture than straight sand to help the seed stay moist longer.  We will give the seed a light watering each morning to help along germination.  There should be another slight increase in speed following our verticut, and with speeds already at 11' today, it is recommended to keep the ball below the hole whenever possible.

         

Thinning the Herd

This morning we vericut greens and collars.  Verticutting or vertical mowing is a cultural practice we use on a pretty regular basis to remove thatch and thin the putting surface.  During the growing season we will typically verticut greens 2-4 times in conjuction with our biweekly topdressing to maintain a firm playing surface and prevent "puffy" soft greens.  We generally see an increase in green speeds a few days following a verticut and topdress.   

The material removed when we vericut is primarily made up of old leaf tissue, stolons and sand.  Ideally we would like to see the first two and less of the third, like in the picture above.  We removed and collected about 5 cubic yards of material from our greens this morning, which will be headed straight to our compost pile.   

The main challenge with verticutting is cleaning up what is left behind the machine.  We collect as much material as possible in our mower baskets, what remains is picked up by a riding greens mower or blown off with a back pack blower.  Our verticut reels are set to 1/8" deep, so to me it's amazing how much material is actually removed from such a small groove.      

After a light topdressing, our greens should be noticeably firmer for days to come.  The grooves left by the verticut will be visible for a few weeks, but will not affect playability in any way.  Our main goal is to remove as much thatch as possible, replacing it with sand.  Thatch prevents moisture and nutrients from reaching the soil, and in the case of a putting green, can lead to disease and a decrease in playing quality.  This in conjunction with core aeration and lean fertility, are the best means we have found to keep thatch to a minimum on our greens here at Legacy Ridge.  



Here is a short clip taken from the grass plants perspective.

Tee and Approach Aerification

Yesterday afternoon we received some much needed moisture in the form of a rain/snow mix. As of yesterday there were a couple of wildfires burning near Denver, so the moisture was well received by nearly everyone.

As soon as the snow melts off, we will begin aerating all of our tees and approaches with a tractor mounted aerator. We are using 5/8" hollow tines set at 2"x2" apart that should create a hole about 4" deep.

As soon as the plugs have had a chance to dry a bit, we sweep them up and add the plugs to our compost facility.

The next and final step in the process is to fill the new holes with sand. We apply a mix of topdressing sand and bunker sand from G&S Solutions for this. Once the sand has dried we work it into the holes using a steel keystone mat and apply water with a few irrigation cycles.

For about the next week the tees will feel soft underfoot, but as the holes fill in and heal, the tees and approaches will firm up and be back to normal very quickly. We know the aerification process can be a distraction to our guests, but it is necessary to relieve compaction and thatch that builds up over the course of a season. It also allows water and oxygen to reach the root zone much easier, and with the addition of sand, will provide for a firm playing surface for the coming season. Please bear with us as we complete the process as quickly and with as little disruption as possible. We will be working around play as best we can, so if you encounter our crew please allow them to move out of your way before proceeding. Thank you for your patience, pictures will follow soon.

Catch Up

Being that we haven't blogged anything useful, we will post twice today and explain one of our newer cultural practices, topdressing compost.

For the last few years we have been experimenting with compost as a fertility source, primarily on our fairways. We have sent off a number of samples with a wide range of results, with a Hageman Earth Cycle compost coming out as the best product for our purposes. It has nice balance of macronutrients (NPK), a good C:N ratio, and a very tolerable amount of sodium.

We typically try to apply 5 cubic yards per acre per application using our large TyCrop topdresser following core aeration of our fairways. Though it does leave a bit of a mess immediately following the application, after it has been drug in it quickly disappears into the canopy. It is not uncommon to have small amounts of pebbles and bark chips in 200yds of compost, so after a few irrigation cycles we clean up the remaining excess with our turf sweeper.

The benefits of topdressing compost are numerous, but our primary motivation is building our soil with organic matter, beneficial fungi and bacteria that also serve as a slow release form of fertilizer. These microorganisms improve soil structure, make nutrients already in the soil available to the plant, and create a "living soil" that synthetic fertilizers destroy over time. On top of all this, our soil can store hold more water as a result of compost and humus being introduced into the profile.

As a fiscal decision compost makes a lot of sense as well, the nutrient content of our Hageman compost would cost many thousands of dollars more in a synthetic form, and we wouldn't see all of the other benefits I mentioned above. Overall, incorporating compost into fairway aeration (another fairly unpopular cultural practice) has proved to be very beneficial for our course, benefits that should be enjoyed for many years to come.