Warm + Rain = Disease

Unfortunately we seem to have slipped into a similar weather pattern to what we had at the beginning of the year.  Last night we had a very noisy thunderstorm come through the area, luckily we only received a half an inch of rain overnight.  Now though, we have had a steady light rain for the past few hours and it doesn't appear to be letting up very soon.  It appears that it may rain off an on for a few more hours.

So far the course is handling the water relatively well, but there are definitely some squishy areas out there.  With the temperatures that are forecasted, this is turning into a superintendents worst nightmare.  Saturated soil, high humidity, and night time temperatures over 70 degress are an ideal breeding ground for turf diseases, especially pythium blight and brown patch. 

Pythium can be a very devastating disease if it goes unchecked and untreated.  So far we have only seen very isolated patches of pythium in our bentgrass areas, because they have all been treated preventatively for it.  Monday we did have quite a bit of the disease in the intermediate rough, and for the first time since I've been here at Calumet we went out an specifically sprayed the intermediate rough for pythium.  Given the current forecast, it was a good decision.

Brown patch is a different story though.  After the rain on Sunday, brown patch really kicked into gear, and many of our wet low areas got hit, especially #7 about 50 yards from the green.  Brown patch is typically not devastating to turf like pythium is, but all the fairways were treated with fungicide on Tuesday so the disease is no longer active.  The affected areas should be fully recovered in a week or two. 

Course Conditions, July 24

UPDATE:
Due to the continuing rainfall.  There will be no carts for the rest of the day.  Once the lightning clears the area, walkers are welcome to come out and play.

Earlier I posted that we dodged a bullet last night.  We did, but this morning we didn't.  It has been pouring here for about an hour, and in that hour we have already received over an inch of rain, and it doesn't appear to be letting up any time soon.  The lightning display has been incredible too.  As of right now, there are no carts, and it's likely to stay that way for the whole day.  As always, we will evaluate the conditions later in the day and I will keep the blog updated with the latest information.

Course Conditions, July 23

So far this morning we seemed to have dodged a bullet.  We received 1.2" of rain overnight on top of the 0.5" we got yesterday morning, but that is nothing compared to what some areas farther north received.  Channel 7 was reporting this morning that O'Hare got 5.5" of rain in 2 hours!  There is more rain out to the west that looks like it could hit us, but it's still hard to tell.  Most of the rain appears to be headed north, lets hope it stays that way.

All that being said, the course was very dry going into yesterday's rain, so it has soaked up the water fairly well.  Carts will be going this morning as long as we don't get any more rain.  I haven't been able to survey the entire course though, so there is a chance that they may need to be in the rough only depending on how the water soaks in over the next few hours.  Why in the rough when it's normally fairways only?  That is because the rough doesn't really get much irrigation so when we have long dry periods where the fairways are getting watered, the rough is much more able to soak up the rain.

So far so good

Even with the air temperature at a sweltering 98.4 degrees, the course is holding up quite well.  To keep the chances of promoting disease to a minimum, we have been very conservative with our irrigation.  Yesterday afternoon the fairways and greens got a little crispy, but after some much needed irrigation late last night and early this morning they are holding up to this heat very well.  With the humidity being so high this water should last us a few days.  We will continue to be diligent with our watering and monitoring of the turf and hopefully apart from some burned up rough areas, come out of this heat wave unscathed.

Here Comes the Heat!

After all the whining and complaining about the rain and dismal weather this spring from superintendents and golfers, mother nature appears to have decided that it's time for payback.  Although, this time most of the complaining will be coming from superintendents and not the golfers.  We are in the midst of a very dry strech, but this weeks cooler temperatures provided some great golfing conditions.  Without much heat we were really able to dry out the golf course without too much risk of having grass wilt and die.  The coming week will be a different story with the forecast calling for a significant amount of heat and humidity.

Over the past few days we have made some preparations for the heat.  The first is that we have "loaded up" on irrigation Thursday night and Friday night.  Once the heat and humidity arrives, we want to be watering as little as possible.  Irrigating at night prolongs the amount of time that the grass is wet and encourages fungal disease, so we watered everything the past two nights so that we can wait until the heat has passed to water.  During the heat, we will try to get everything by with hand watering and running sprinklers selectively during the day.

We will also be easing off some of our mowing and rolling of the greens, and the front rollers on the mowers have been changed to solid rollers to limit the stress on the turf.  Our normal rollers (on the mower) are grooved to allow the mower to settle into the turf and provide a truer height of cut, but these grooves can be stressfull on the turf, especially on the cleanup passes when the mowers are turning.  So for this heat wave, we have switched our front rollers to solid rollers without grooves.

If the heat wave really comes to fruition, I will make sure to keep the blog updated on how the course is holding up, and some more of the strategies that we use to make sure the turf comes out of it healthy.

Emerald Ash Borer Update

In 2008, the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) was found to be infesting trees very near Calumet.  In fact, the main infestation was less than a mile to the west of us in Hazel Crest.  Within a few days of the discovery the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the Village of Homewood paid us a visit to check our ash trees to determine the extent of the infestation.  It was quickly determined that some of our ash trees had the EAB, they had been here for a few years, and that many of our ash trees were showing the tell tale signs of the borer being present. 

One of the signs that can be seen from the ground is woodpecker damage.  EAB larvae are just under the bark of the tree and the woodpeckers work to get them out of the tree.  Woodpecker holes alone do not necessarily mean that EAB is in the tree.

Trees that have been infested for a few years will begin to thin out near the top of the tree, and will also have water sprouts or "suckers" coming out of the trunk and lower branches.  "Suckering" is common on many trees, but is not the normal growth habit for ash trees.   The thin top and the suckering is a result of the EAB larvae burrowing just underneath the bark of the tree and cutting off the supply of water and nutrients to the top of the tree.  The suckering is essentially a last ditch effort for the tree to survive.

You can see in this picture the burrows or 'galleries' that will eventually cut off the trees water supply and kill the tree.

The signature sign of the EAB in the tree is this D-shaped hole in the bark.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but this is actually a very small hole.  It is only 1/8 of an inch across.  Ash trees may have other D-shaped holes that are larger, but those are made by native ash borers that do not kill the tree.

So what is the fate of the ash trees at Calumet?  Unfortunately, most of them are going to end up like this tree on the right side of the fourth fairway.  We have about 90 ash trees on the course right now.  When the EAB was first found here, we selected 13 trees that we deemed valuable to the golf course and we are treating those on a yearly basis.  Most of those trees are still very healthy.  The difficulty is that these treatment will have to continue indefinitely to keep the EAB out of those trees.  Last summer we were thinking that the ash trees were going to live for awhile because most of them appeared to be healthy still and only showing minor signs of decline.  Coming out of winter this year was a different story.  Many of the ash trees on the course are in severe decline and quite a few, especially around the perimeter of the property, are completely dead.  We haven't gotten a total count of trees that are suffering, but we are estimating that we will be removing at least 30 or 40 ash trees this coming winter.  This is just an unfortunate reality of what can happen when an invasive pest comes from another country and our plants aren't able to defend themselves.  Hopefully, the ash trees in key areas that were selected for treatment will continue to thrive. 

Its a beautiful morning

We watered!

After a dry and beautiful Independence Day weekend, the golf course finally needed some water that was not provided by mother nature.  Even though we were watering in chemicals (grub control), the golf course was definitely in need of a drink, so we are going to count that as the first regular irrigation cycle of the season, and a big cycle it was.  The course was very dry and our goal was to water heavily to provide the turf with enough water to last a few days.  A superintendent's, golden rule for irrigation is "water deeply and infrequently."  Wetting the entire soil profile and then letting it dry as much as possible encourages deep rooting of the turf.  On the other hand, watering light and frequently keeps the top of the soil profile moist and causes shallow roots because the turf never has to work to reach for the water.  Watering deep and infrequently is a practice that homeowners need to follow also.  Too many times I hear about and see yards or businesses that have the sprinklers turn on everyday for a few minutes.  Not only is this practice wasting a great deal of water, it's encouraging shallower rooting of the turf, contributing to disease problems, and not allowing the grass to be prepared for stress.  If you are one of these "offenders," consider changing you irrigation habits.  Make sure to stop Adam or Me on the course and we can explain to you how to slowly change over to proper irrigation habits.  (It could get ugly if you go cold turkey on the watering.) Your grass and the environment will thank you.

Keeping with the topic of yard advice, time is running out to apply preventative grub control products, that is the chemical that had to be watered in with the irrigation yesterday.  We apply grub control every year to a good portion of the golf course.  Greens, green banks, tees, tee banks, fairways and about 15 feet of the rough around the fairways are treated for grubs.  Other areas of the rough we are willing to take a chance on damage because they aren't as important to golf, and they are not irrigated.  Grubs prefer irrigated turf over non-irrigated turf.

The forecast for this week looks absolutely beautiful, and dry so I'm sure that it won't be the last time we water this week.  Summer is actually here!

Unexpected Storms Last Night

Last night we came very close to running our first full, overnight watering cycle of the year.  No, I'm not exaggerating or joking, we have not had to run a normal irrigation cycle yet this year.  The only watering that we have done is either to water in chemicals and fertilizer, or some minor hand watering of the greens.  After the last few days with no rain, the course was finally becoming dry and we were set to run a full cycle last night.  Then last night some unexpected storms rolled through with an incredible lightning display, a little bit of small hail, and an inch of rain in less than an hour.  Fortunately, the course was quite dry and was able to soak up most of the rain.  Also, considering how fast the rain fell, I'm sure that a lot of it ran off into drains and the creeks before having a chance to soak into the soil.  I would not be surprised if we actually do need to run an irrigation cycle before the end of the weekend.  Not really having to water until July has to be some kind of record.