Wednesday, September 23, 2015

September 23, 2015



A few notes!

Aeration is over! It went very well, and with the weather being cooperative, the greens and fairways are healing up faster than normal. I think it’s a very good omen for the upcoming fall!

We are over seeding only a few areas on the fairways and tees – with a good summer we did not experience much turf loss, and so mainly our seeding is aimed at increasing the bentgrass population where the poa is a concern. We will be changing over the type of growth regulators we use on the fairways to weaken out the poa in favor of the bent grasses.

We installed a new circulating pump for the water feature on 12. The new pump, an upgrade to a 3 hp, delivers more gpm than the original, and is pushing three to four times the amount of water over the waterfall next to 12 bridge. I am really happy with the entire project, from cleaning up the pond banks to adding the water fall, and circulating water to reduce algae buildup. The moving water also inhibits mosquitoes because they need stagnant water to breed.

The weather continues its dry pattern.  We did receive almost 6 tenths rain the other week, but it only gave us a little, very short time relief. Within days the sun appeared, temperatures climbed, the wind began to pump up again, and the humidity dove down to 40% or lower. Suddenly, we returned to needing  four to six persons hand watering with hoses. Computer models for the coming weekend argue – one says we will get heavy rains while another moves every storm around us or below us, and then out to sea. I give up trying to figure out any of this, and just deal with the day on hand!

Today is officially the first day of fall- the September Equinox, when the sun is directly in line with the earth’s equator. This occurred at 4:22am, when many of us were sleeping (not me!). On this coming Saturday night through Sunday morning there will be a “blood moon” harvest moon lunar eclipse.

As far as winter predictions go, I do not have a crystal ball- well, I do, but it cracked long ago. According to Liveweatherblogs.com:
“New Jersey starts off slow this winter but a nice snowy finish with even a significant blizzard in February. Overall snowfall is above normal due to the strong to super El Nino headed to the Northeast. Expect one significant ice storm in January as abundant moisture moves north into the state with colder temps down at the surface. December may surprise you with some pretty mild days. “
The Farmer’s Almanac and more scientific computer models seem to predict the same type of scenario.
I never know what to think of the weather or predictions. Believe it or not, at one time I was accepted into Penn State’s school of Science and majoring in meteorology…





Saturday, September 5, 2015

September 5, 2015



Although it is very dry here, due to receiving no appreciable precipitation for some time now, and combined with cycling heat waves, we are not in a drought as defined by the NJ DEP drought watch or the U.S. drought monitor. If this dry, warm weather continues much longer, that may change, and if so, there is the possibility of water use restrictions such as we had in 2000.

According to the NJ DEP drought watch, we are categorized as “moderately dry”, and as “abnormally dry” by the U.S. drought monitor. After “moderately dry” the NJ DEP has two other stages - “severe” and “extreme” The U.S. watch has three other stages – “severe”, “extreme”, and “exceptional”.

Both sites base their warnings specifically on precipitation, stream flow, and groundwater levels for regions first, and then for counties. It’s not a perfect science because rain does not fall evenly, even within a small area. For example, the last rain we had was on August 11. On that day, we received .5”, while other courses in the area reported as little as .3”, and there was an exceptional downpour near Wildwood that produced 4”. Same storm, but with some very different amounts of precipitation.  4” is a lot of rain, but let’s be realistic and understand that most of that down pour ran off the hard ground and was no help to the soil or roots, so in fact, that 4” was less helpful than our slowly falling .5”.

Nevertheless, we are dry and concerns are growing. As always, we are using our water meters to monitor soil moisture so that we only use the amount of water we need. We also have an afternoon watering crew that monitors and does any necessary hand watering on the greens, tees, and fairways. We also assign staff to hand water important rough areas that are in play. Recently, we have been assigning up to six persons or more out of our ten person staff to water, and another to repair irrigation. It hasn’t been easy, but we have an excellent staff that is going above and beyond to keep the course the best it can be under these challenging conditions.

According to the long term forecast, dryness is predicted to continue. A thunderstorm will not be enough to give any long term relief. We will need a few days of steady rain to turn things round.

Saturday, August 29, 2015

August 29, 2015



“a necessary evil”….

Maybe necessary, but not evil.  I hate that. What is so evil about doing something that improves the golf course? Evil would be to sit back and do nothing, allowing conditions to slowly deteriorate.
Let’s call it a very much needed aeration. There is nothing evil about it, our staff, or what they do.

Greens and fairways will be improved on September 8th and 9th, and depending on progress, weather, etc, we may need to continue improvements on the 10th. We will keep nine holes open each day, so keep your tee times!

“a necessary improvement”…

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Monday, July 13, 2015

July 13, 2015



White turf?
The last two seasons we have incorporated a newer herbicide into out grassy weed control program that controls goosegrass , crabgrass, and common bermuda grass, along with limited control of a few species of broadleaf weeds.
It works by disrupting carotenoid biosynthesis and chlorophyll production, causing photosynthesis to stop. Without the plant able to convert sunlight to energy, the plant uses up its stored carbohydrates and then dies. This process takes approximately three weeks. In some plants, such as common bermuda grass, several applications are needed to control the plant.
You are not seeing ghosts or snow! 
Yet, you can see where we have used this chemistry, and how well it is working!


Friday, July 3, 2015

July 2, 2015



A few topics…
In May we had little rain – less than an inch – yet June brought close to 9 inches and was the wettest June since 1920, missing the record by less than a 10th of an inch. The radar shows a line of heavy rain storms bearing down on us this morning, today, June 2nd. I am concerned that this will continue to be the summer’s pattern.
Is the rain helpful? Like with anything else, excess creates problems.  With the rain, roots have shortened up due to the lack of oxygen in the soil – more or less they were suffocated back towards the surface where there is typically more air. We are seeing this on greens, tees, and fairways, and where drainage is less than adequate, decreases in rooting is more pronounced.
On the 11th green at the bottom right front corner where the soil becomes saturated and cannot drain due to  its poor construction, and the clay layer underneath, anaerobic conditions have taken over. Sulfur dioxide, a product of anaerobic respiration, has damaged the turf roots, weakening the plants to the point where anthracnose, downy mildew, and differing species of pythium have easily able to attacked  and thinned patches of poa. We have been solid tining the area and we also ran the verti-quake through this section. Pesticides do help reduce the populations of attacking fungi, but cannot overcome the wet conditions. We are continuing to do our best to remedy this situation.
 
***
As you can see, the rain causes other problems for the turf and the staff. It took five of us to lift and pull this cart, buried to the axle, out of a wet area behind the 9th green. The person was taking a shortcut off the cart path that at best might have saved him 10 seconds. It ended up costing the staff 7 labor hours.


***
I don’t want to rant, but we are finding and plugging out divots on greens…1 last week, 2 this week…


***