April snow, greens update

#10 Tee.  April 15, 2014

Although, it doesn't look like it on the course right now, it was great to finally get some warm weather over the weekend.  The fairways, tees, and greens are now pretty much fully greened up, and I now we have a much more definite view of which areas of turf are going to recover on their own, and which areas require seed.  

#5 Green after greening up

Last week, along with opening the course, we began our recovery process.  The three greens that we are currently covering, seven, eight, and nine, have been slit seeded with new varieties of bentgrass.  They were each seeded in three different directions so that the new turf will be able to fill in quickly once it germinates.  We are hoping to see some grass growing by the beginning of next week.  The covers not only help to get the grass to grow faster, they are allowing us to seed earlier than we normally would be able to get the seed to germinate.  The other thin areas on uncovered greens and the dead areas on fairways will be seeded when temperatures are higher.  

Slit seeding #8 Green

Close up picture of the slits the seeder makes.  The seed is
dropped into the slits, and then the slits are rolled shut.

Last Friday, we also sprayed green pigment on the greens to help the ground absorb some heat from the sun.  I wasn't sure if it would really be effective or not, but after seeing that the greens were the only turf not covered with snow, I have to think that it has some effect on soil temperature, and we will take any help we can get!

No snow on green pigment sprayed greens.

Covers also did their job absorbing the sun's heat.

For the time being, the holes with covered greens will continue to be played to temporary greens until we see what kind of success we have with our seeding.  Eight and Nine are still looking very thin and weak, but Seven is already looking much better just from being covered, and I believe that we will be able to open it much sooner than the others.

#7 after only five days under cover

Along with getting the course opened up and the greens seeded last week, we were also busy with many other tasks on the course.  Fairways and tees got their first mowing, we finished cleaning up all the sticks and debris that accumulates over the winter, and we started up the irrigation system.  We were hoping for another busy and productive week this week, but mother nature had other ideas for us....

#6 Fairway getting its first cut of the year