August 25, 2011

Thought that I would share an experience that is new to me – flower blooms on an elephant ear plant!

I have been growing elephant ears for over ten years now and I have never had one bloom – I didn’t even know they bloomed!

I called a few of my expert gardening friends to ask if they had ever seen an elephant ear in bloom and they all said “no”, including a friend and grower who has been in the greenhouse/ flower business for over 25 years.

I did a little research and found it isn’t uncommon for elephant ears to bloom, but because these are tropical plants that need heat, blooms are rarer further north than south.  Perhaps the excessive record heat that we had late June and throughout July was the trigger...

August 19, 2011

On Wednesday we stripped the white tees on 9 and 13, and the 7 black, blue, white, and yellow  tees and sodded them with “low- cut” Kentucky bluegrass.

Last June, Dave Oatis, the USGA agronomist for the Mid- Atlantic region, walked the course with Chris, Bucky, Gary, Joel, and I. At that time Mr. Oatis recommended that if we ever had the opportunity to sod any tees, low cut Kentucky bluegrass was proving successful and that we might want to give it a try. Mr. Oatis and other USGA agronomists have observed that the low cut varieties have been showing better recovery and wear tolerance than the traditional bent grasses on many regional golf courses.

We will be re-opening these tees once the sod roots, and from that point on we will be evaluating it for ourselves.  We also encourage you, our members, to share with us your thoughts and opinions of the low cut blue grass (and the bermuda) compared to playing off the bentgrass tees. 

 

 

Roll of low cut blue

The finished 13th white tee

August 11, 2011

Earlier this week, we sodded the 7^th yellow and silver tees with Bermuda grass as a trial. Bermuda loves the heat so we think it will perform well in this teeing area. The former drawback of using Bermuda turf in this area was a lack of cold tolerant varieties that could survive cold winters. Over the past decade hybrids were developed through selective breeding, and quite a few cold tolerant varieties of Bermuda grass are now available.

The Bermuda variety that we chose is called Riviera. It is grown by Tuckahoe Turf  Farms of Hammonton in their Estell Manor fields, approximately 15 miles away from here. They have grown this variety there successfully for over four years without winter loss. Other golf courses in our area have been experimenting with this same Bermuda variety on tees, fairways, and driving range tees with good results. It is also the same turf used at Lincoln Financial Field for the Eagles. Knowing that other superintendents have had success with Riviera, and that it can handle the wear and tear of professional football, I am optimistic that it will prove itself here.

August 6, 2011

A little more than a week ago we fertilized the tees. Due to application errors combined with daytime temperatures climbing higher than was forecast, many of the tees were damaged. We watered and flushed to no avail.

Some of the damaged turf will re grow but too much is lost to fill in satisfactorily. We continue to syringe the tees and apply natural growth hormones to the tees to encourage as much re growth as possible. Paralleling this program we are aerating, overseeding, and lightly topdressing the tees, with the most damaged taking first priority. I am confident that these programs, along with late season deep tine aerification, etc, will make the tees stronger in the long run.

The tees have always presented more challenges to our staff than most other playing areas. Within any tee complex we deal with a wide variety of soils and grasses, water needs, compaction, shade, tree roots, wear, and localized micro environments that can be very harsh. For example, on 4 we range from a very heavy soil that holds water to a sandy mix that is droughty. The former receives irrigation once a week while the latter needs irrigation daily along with afternoon hand watering. On seven, which is a closed pocket, we use fans, but still the temperature will rise 10 to 15 degrees higher than the open areas of the course, placing way too much stress on the turf. Remember the picture of icing down the turf that I recently posted? That was the 7^th tee. Every tee complex has different, and similar, challenges.

That’s not to say that the fertilizer application is not to blame – it is. But it explains why any error on a tee will not be forgiving.

Our intent now is to establish an acceptable stand of turf as quickly as possible through aerification, overseeding, and topdressing. After establishment and maturity, I plan to aerify and deep –tine aerify the tees on a more regular basis, and topdress them with a sand/ peat topdressing material, embarking upon a long term soil modification program. At the same time, we will be testing a few different seeding mixes and turf types to see what does best in our soils and micro climates.

In all, we will do our best to make this into an opportunity to do better.

July 30, 2011

I’ve always told people who’ve asked me about the greens staff that I work with best people that I have ever worked with...every day they teach me something new and inspire me.

The following is an email I received today that goes with everything I have ever said of the greens department staff –

Ken,

  I just had a call from Melissa Fata - the head teller at Cape Bank in Linwood.  They have been doing a food drive for the last couple of weeks.  Today Clara, Denia, Pedro, Edgar, Marisol, Max, Isabella and Isidro came in to cash their checks and brought quite a bit of food to donate.  Melissa said the box is now overflowing.  She was so touched by their generosity that she just had to call and tell me.  She also said they are always so pleasant when they come in.  Please let them know their “good heartedness” does not go unnoticed!  We are lucky to have them as part of our team.

Have a Greate day!

Candy Jankowski

July 23, 2011

On Friday, July 22, the temperature rose to 102 degrees with a heat index topping out at 116 degrees. Although we had many hot days last year, this day beat them all. Today is forecast to be pretty much the same.

We continue to do all we can to hold conditions. Cool season turfs such as bentgrass, blues, and ryes will decline in this heat. Poa annua, a winter annual, simply wants to“check out” as it has evolved to do and is supposed to do.

To relieve the heat we increase syringing – not watering. Syringing is the art of applying a small amount of water on the plant to cool it down. Just like us and any other life of cells, turf can suffer fatal heat exhaustion. Consistently cooling it down throughout the day can help to prevent turf from becoming over heated, increasing poa’s chance of survival, and suspending decline of the other grasses.

At the same time, as heat weakens turf and its natural defenses, diseases have an easier time of taking over. Brown patch, pythium, and anthracnose are the most active in the heat, and if left unchecked, these diseases can take out acres of turf in hours-yes! in hours!

We have applied preventative fungicide sprays to the greens, tees, and fairways to suppress these diseases. They can never be eradicated totally, so we have to be diligent and watch for any “breakthrough” so that we can reapply fungicides immediately.

The heat is not a good thing – it is really tough on the grasses, and on people. We will just continue to do the things we do and do them to our best ability so that the turf has its best chance of making it through these ridiculously hot periods.

Using ice to cool turf on 7 tee. Also, as the ice melts, the cold water seeps into the soil and drops the soil temperatures

Poa yellowed due to heat stress, but will recover when the temps go back down.

 

 

Edgar cooling down the 7th green

Close up of a syringe/ misting nozzle.

Pythium on ryegrass rough

July 3, 2011

The Southern Pine Beetle (SPB) population has been on the increase in southern New Jersey, and we recently have identified it on the golf course, most notably in the areas near the 13^th green and 4^th tee.

The SPB attacks all pines, but favors the native pitch pine. The adult beetles bore into the inner bark and the female then lays her eggs. The hatched larvae then feed on the inner bark, girdling the tree on the inside.  The beetles also transmit “blue stain fungi” which colonizes in the trees xylem, blocking water movement in the tree. When these larvae mature, they bore out of the tree and fly to a host tree to lay their eggs and the process begins again with a new generation. Once infested with the beetle and blue stain fungi, the tree is certain to die with in a month or two.

Spraying a pitch pine near the 11th green.

Having found the SPB, we have contracted with a local tree service to do preventative sprays to do our best to hold off further infestations. Last Thursday we sprayed about 50 trees and next week we will spray at least as many more. Due to the expense, we will be concentrating on the specimen pine trees and ones that are “part of the course”. Our plan is to protect as many of these pines as is feasible.

Dead pitch pines to the right of the 13th green that were attacked by the SPB and blue stain fungi earlier in the year.