Spraying again

Spraying greens again this morning for Pythium Root Dysfunction. This is a drench application that is watered in to target the roots and the pathogen working on the root system of the plant.
I don't think we are still losing ground on the greens. Some look better and some look about the same. Either way that's a victory considering the amount of play yesterday and the high humidity we were experiencing yesterday.

Spraying greens

What's the expression? Throwing everything but the kitchen sink at them? At this point I'm ready to go home and tear out my kitchen sink and throw it if it would help.

A look on the positive side

The bermuda grass has never looked better!

The greens have some issues - they turned south overnight. I am almost certain it's not a disease but I have sent samples away. I'm afraid it might be bacterial wilt. Quite a few clubs in the area are struggling with this right now. Kingsmill, Fords Colony, Williamsburg National, CCV, James River, Kinloch, Petersburg CC, and others are struggling with greens right now. There are a few confirmed results of bacterial wilt in the area and there's not a whole lot you can do for this. I'm going to put down another application this weekend to help knock it back in hopes of starting to regenerate new growth.

For all of you that stayed off the golf course on Friday...THANKS. It really helped not getting all that traffic on greens today. It says a lot about our membership that you would stay off your golf course to help us survive this difficult stretch of weather we are having. Thanks.

Seeding collars

We were seeding the collar on #5 yesterday evening, and did #6 & #7 this morning. We're going to baby these areas to see if we can get some significant germination with a far superior variety of bentgrass than what we have out there now.

Greens

Just a few days ago I was writing about how good the greens looked......not so much today. The greens have absolutely taken a dive off the cliff. This is a picture of the Buffalo Blower parked on the side of #5 green for some added air movement.

If you look at the areas in front of the fans on #5, 6, and 7 the greens are in decent shape within 15'-20' around the fan. Outside of that area away from the fans are really starting to look bad.

Many of the clubs in the area with older greens are struggling this summer. We are in a little better shape than some of these clubs because our greens just now started struggling whereas other clubs have been struggling the last few weeks.

All these problems with greens stem from the large amounts of rain this month followed by extreme heat. We have had almost 13" of rain this month vs 2.1" last year. Some of the large rain events this month were followed by extreme heat and humidity - thats a deadly recipe on any bentgrass greens in the Mid-Atlantic.

Soil samples

Here is a picture of me taking soil samples before the flush. I like to compare our soil chemistry before and after a flush. I'm going around today to take the "after" samples to see how beneficial our chemical and calcium applications are in aiding the flush.

Greens After Flush

I've never seen the greens turn around that fast after a flush. They are 100% better than they were before that rain. That was a desperately needed clean rain flush that was timed perfectly. Still have a month before we are out of the woods buy I feel much better them this week.

Rain

We got 1.3" of rain last night.  It couldn't have come at a better time.  We were set up to flush greens through the irrigation system, but mother nature did it for us with clean water.  I sprayed a combination of wetting agents and a soil stripper in the morning in preparation for the flush last night.  The greens were about 3-4 days overdue for a flush but with the hot nighttime temps I had to keep pushing it back.  It's best to do it when the nighttime temps are a little cooler - the water tends to push that cool air through the root system bringing in oxygen and flushing out sodium.

Greens and heat

The greens are starting to decline with our recent weather. This is a picture of the green just inside the collar on #11.

The greens are a little worse than they were last year at this time even with the crazy summer we had last year. This is probably due to the wet July we have had. July 2010 - 2.1" rain & this July we have had 11". It's better to stay dry through July and August because we can control the amount of water going into the greens at the right times. Excessive rainfall can cause the root system to boil with excessie heat and humidity.

We are still in ok shape for this time of year. It will just take some tender love and care to keep em up to par. BRING ON OCTOBER!!!

Prepping #2 green

Here is a picture of us getting #2 greens ready for morning play.

Pictured: Jose Luis in blue changing cups (9 seasons here), Dogoberto mowing approaches around greens (6 seasons here), Hugo blowing (8 seasons), and Israel blowing (3 seasons).

Greens and heat

This morning we are just using blowers and a squeegee to get dew off greens. I haven't mowed greens since Wednesday. I'm actually scared to put a roller or mower out on the greens right now with this weather. With the limited amount of play we are having it just doesn't make sense to
stress the greens with increased green speeds for a few groups. We are going to mow greens tomorrow.

Pictured with squeegee is Hugo (8 seasons here) and Israel blowing (3 seasons here).

Roots #14 green

This is a picture of the roots on 14 green through the low area in the middle of this green. They are less than an inch in length - for this reason we are in survival mode through August.

Didn't do anything to the green this morning and will probably do the same tomorrow because of extreme temps and humidity. They'll be slow the next few days for this reason.

Friday low temp

This was a picture taken at 5:00 am on Friday morning in my truck. With lows now getting below 80 the greens will be struggling. This is an incredible stretch of extreme heat coupled with very high humidity.

Before and After Pics #8 Bed

Tree behind #11 green

This White Oak behind #11 green got struck by lightning a few weeks ago and it isn't going to make it. The strike fried the wire to the fan on #11 and #6. The fans have been re-wired and are back up and working.

CNN - About half the U.S. sizzling under heat

Be careful out in the heat this week.

Sent from the CNN App for iPhone
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Hey, check this out from CNN:
About half the U.S. sizzling under heat http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/21/heat.wave/index.html?iphoneemail

Sent from my iPhone

#15

The Bermuda in the rough, tees, and fairways looks great this time of year. The hot, humid weather is perfect for growing Bermuda.

Surface temps

This is an actual photo of a canopy temperature on Wednesday at 3:00. The ideal canopy temperature for bentgrass is 65-85 degrees. Lightly misting off greens will bring this 113 down 4-6 degrees for only about 20 minutes and you have to be careful not to get them too wet or more root loss will occur.

The temps and humidity are brutal this week. The poa is starting to struggle on greens.

Greens

The greens are still in fairly good shape for the middle of July. There are spots like this one in some of the collars that are really starting to decline. These spots can be seen on most of our weak greens (5, 6, 8, 11, 13, 14). It is fairly normal for this time of year on these greens. I'm really starting to keep them on the dry side in preparation for the extreme temperatures on the way later this week.

With these type of temps I hope we don't get any rain showers totaling 0.3"-0.5". That could be a serious problem if coupled with the heat and humidity they are seeing throughout the center of the country right now.

Crew

Golf Maintenance Crew

Friday

What a great morning. Low of 61 degrees this morning. This weather is doing wonders for the greens - always nice to get a little break on the heat in the middle of the summer.

Rain Thursday

Another 0.3" last night with some limbs down.  This rain will not hurt us on greens - they were starting to really starting to dry out the last few days

New bed on 8

Installing new plants in new bed on 8. Going to get main plants in this week then continually add in new stuff throughout the year.

Pumping bunkers

Most of the bunkers drain good but there are a few on 8 that don't. We are in the process of getting these pumped out and all the washout repaired.

Weeds

Nutsedge is popping up in spots around the course. This is a week that gets bad with wet conditions. With all the rain we have had lately it is getting worse and worse. We are spraying for it the next couple days and should have the majority of it knocked out by the end of the week.

Greens

The greens are in good shape after all that clean flushing rain last week. #5 is looking much better but the next few days are a little concerning with high temperatures and high humidity. The greens are still a little on the wet side - moisture paired with high temps result in root loss.

Rainfall totals

Tree on #18

The tree on number #18 fell. This tree has been leaning for the last few years and finally went. Unfortunately it landed on a $8000 irrigation controller and crushed it.
The tree will be cleaned up when it is dry enough to get a contractor in here with a excavator large enough to pick up that large of a tree.

Fixing bunkers

What the amigos like to refer to as "Mexican Power"

More bunkers

Bunkers

After 2.5" of down pouring the bunkers are destroyed. It will take us a few days to get them all repaired. This type of rain was good for the greens - bad for the bunkers.

Rain

We got just over 1.1" of rain on the golf gourse last night.  A much needed rain that flushed the greens with some clean water and pushed some fresh oxygen into the root system. 

Not a wet spot on the course - it was so dry it sucked everything right up.

Storm Cleanup

The course got trashed last night from tue storm cell that came through. It's going to take us a couple of days to get all the leaves and sticks blown and cleaned up. All for just 0.2" of rain - not even an irrigation cycle.

Windy day

The fireworks were canceled due to the winds coming off the river tonight. We noticed the winds today on the greens - they were drying down pretty fast this afternoon. 10-15 mph winds with high temps results in us chasing our tails during the afternoon handwatering.

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#5 green

Most of the greens look good but #5 is struggling like usual - and that's been with relatively decent weather lately. We've been getting rain with some hot humid days, this combination will usually weaken them. We're not going to roll it with the other greens tomorrow and it will be on a separate mowing rotation for the remainder of the summer. We might only mow the weak greens (5,6,8,13,14) 3 times a week during the summer to give them a chance to survive the summer.

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Red Oaks #14

We have a group of red oaks that are yellowing out on #14. This is a combination of things that include leaf anthracnose, root rot canker, and insects. A sample has been sent away for analysis. I'm working with Bartlett Tree to see if we can save them.

Spraying Nutsedge

This is First assistant Ryan Dwyer spraying nutsedge at the club. Nutsedge is popping up in a lot of areas around the neighborhood because of the recent rainfall. This weed gets worse the wetter it is.

Ryan has been here 3 years total and is my right hand man on the golf course. Ryan worked here for a year or so and left to assist with the grow-in at Vinnitera then was recruted back a few years ago.