Greens Aeration, Grow-in and CGSA Fall Field Day

Greens aeration was completed on September 17. The process took just under two days to complete and went pretty smoothly. The aeration process consisted of aerating the greens first, then picking up all the cores we pulled from the aerator with our core harvester, then topdressing the greens with a fine sand, brushing the sand into the aeration holes, and then finally fertilizing the greens the next day to get the fertilizer directly into the soil.

14 green after being aerated

The aeration process aids in helping many things. It helps reduce compaction from foot and equipment traffic by pulling material and loosening up the rootzone. Pulling cores helps to remove the amount of thatch. Thatch is dead and decaying plant matter that forms a layer in the rootzone that can affect root depth and water infiltration if too thick. The holes allow for better air movement and water and fertilizer infiltration which are all very important in maintaining a healthy plant. Topdressing also allows us to add a more desirable material into our rootzone and reduces any layering that may occur over years of growth and fertility.

3 green right after topdressing and brushing

The grow-in of the flooded valley is also progressing nicely. We have now cut all greens and tees atleast once and will be cutting some fairway areas soon. The areas are continuing to fill in and thicken up very nicely, especially with the additional fertilizer and cutting the have received.

Forward tee on 7 after cutting

We are also in the process of switching out some old malfunctioning sprinkler heads with newer ones. This will obviously allow us to water in areas that we were not before because the heads were not working properly. These new sprinkler heads are also much more efficient than the old and we will hope to continue to replace our old heads with new as funds allow.

New sprinkler after installation

This past Sunday and Monday the 22nd and 23rd I had the opportunity to attend the 2013 Canadian Golf Superintendents Association annual Fall Field Day at the Wascana Country Club in Regina. This was a great opportunity as things like this are not in our province very often. It was great to network with fellow superintendents and learn from them and hear how they are doing things. It is also great to visit places like the Wascana that are known to be some of the best maintained courses in our province and see that we are in very similar condition to them for the most part and that all of our hard work must be paying off!

2013 Fall Field Day at Wascana Country Club

Our greens are still holding a lot of colour late

into the fall this year

 

2011 Flood Recovery

It has been a busy last few weeks here in Mainprize. There has been a lot of jobs taken on, but most have been finished successfully. The weather has also smartened up for us and been quite hot and dry lately, which is a great change.

One quick not so positive thing to touch on. On the evening of August 22 there was some vandalism done to number 13 green. There was a total of 28 gouges taken out of the putting surface. It is really hard for us to see this happen as a maintenance department because we really do take pride in trying our best to provide our customers with the best possible conditions that we can. So it hurts to see someone go out and abuse all of our hard work.

Some of the gouges on 13 green

We received our new Toro 1250 sprayer on September 5. We have used the sprayer three times so far since we have received it and have been very happy with its performance. Our 15 year old John Deere sprayer was beginning to show its age and mechanical issues unfortunately were becoming very common. Having this new sprayer gives us the peace of mind that we will be able to use our sprayer and know that it will do exactly what it should. The sprayer is definitely one of the most important pieces of equipment that we have, especially given the large amount of disease that the course has had lately.

Our new sprayer

We finally after many delays began the seeding process on the 2011 flooded holes 4, 5, 6, and 7 on Thursday, August 22. We completed seeding on Wednesday, September 4. For this process we used a hydroseeder. The first thing we did was put out the seed using our big overseeder behind a tractor on fairways and rough. For greens and tees we pushed a drop seeder to put the seed out. We then worked the seed into the root zone mixture using our John Deere bunker rake. We then finished by putting a hydroseed mixture out over the entire area. The hydroseed mixture contained mulch, tackifier and fertilizer. The mulch is used to protect the seed, hold in moisture to keep the seed moist, and to help hold the seed in place in wind and rain. The tackifier is the sticky substance that holds the mulch and seed down against any environmental elements. And the fertilizer is used to provide food for the seed to germinate and once it is becoming established also. 

Seven fairway after seed and hydroseed applied

It has almost been a week now since the last area was seeded. I am happy to report that the grow-in process is going quite well. The earlier areas that we had seeded have lots of growth and are filling in quite nicely. But even our most recent areas are germinating well now and are looking like they should turn out well. For the rest of this process now it is basically up to the irrigation system to do its job and keep the seed wet. We will probably begin cutting some of the greens and tee boxes in a little less than a week and some fairways will be first cut in a couple weeks.

Germination five days after seeding

Seven days after seeding

Seven fairway 15 days after seeding

It is hard to believe that it will be the middle of September very soon and that the golf course season wrap-up tournament is this weekend already. The season has went by very fast. We will hope that the nice weather continues far into the fall so that we can accomplish a lot more on the course before winter and be able to keep golfing for a while yet. It has definitely been a weird year this year but I believe it has been very successful. We have accomplished a lot of major projects and the course is just looking better and better every day.

Hole 3