Thursday, November 17, 2011
Twitter Added to the Blog!
I have started a twtter account, and have added it to the blog. For those of you who use twitter, you can follow the link to follow me, and if you don't have a twitter account, my last five "tweets" will show up on the right side of the blog. Using twitter will be a great way to send out short little notes about what we are seeing on the golf course and to quickly provide up to date information about course conditions. If for some reason the link to follow me isn't working, my twitter handle is @CCCSupt
Final Cut
Over the last week or so, we have been making our final preparations for winter. Beginning last Friday we gave all the bentgrass areas their final mowing of the season. Surprisingly we still cut a fair amount of grass in some areas of the fairways, but on greens and tees there wasn't many clippings. I take this as a sign that the grass has finally gone into dormancy and we can stop mowing and begin our last tasks in getting the course ready for winter.
On Tuesday we took advantage of the warm weather and applied dormant fertilizer to the greens and the tees, and then watered it into the soil . Dormant fertilizer helps the turf to stay strong through the winter and helps it to green up quickly in the spring. Wednesday we began applying preventative snow mold fungicide on the fairways, and we will complete the greens and tees today.
Tomorrow, we will be blowing all the water out of the irrigation system, so if you are out on the course don't be alarmed by sprinklers popping on and off.
On Tuesday we took advantage of the warm weather and applied dormant fertilizer to the greens and the tees, and then watered it into the soil . Dormant fertilizer helps the turf to stay strong through the winter and helps it to green up quickly in the spring. Wednesday we began applying preventative snow mold fungicide on the fairways, and we will complete the greens and tees today.
Tomorrow, we will be blowing all the water out of the irrigation system, so if you are out on the course don't be alarmed by sprinklers popping on and off.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
It's November Already?
Wow, I'm looking back at my last post and realizing that it's been a month since I've posted up any new content. October seems to have just flown by, and I apologize for not keeping the blog up to date recently.
In the last month, the course has taken on it's fall look. About half the trees have lost their leaves now, but we still have a long way to go with leaf cleanup as the silver maple trees make up about 30 percent of our tree population, and they have barely begun to shed their leaves. As you can imagine, leaf cleanup is our main task in the fall, and it continues until Thanksgiving, some years it carries into the first week of December. Other changes that occur to the course during the fall is the 'Washington' creeping bentgrass that is present on on most of our greens turns purple, it is most noticeable on the 18th green. This is a physiological reaction to the colder temperatures, and has no impact on the health of the plant.
A few weeks from now, we will be giving the golf course it's final preparations for winter. On November 18th, we will be blowing irrigation system out, and during that same week we will be spraying preventative fungicides for snow mold disease and applying dormant fertilizer to the greens and tees. The final step in winterizing the turf will be a heavy application of topdressing sand on the greens around Thanksgiving. This heavy topdressing helps to protect the plant from the cold dry winds we can get here, and it has also helps the turf green up quicker in the spring.
Although we are nearing the end of the golf season, we are still working on some projects. The main project that we have been working on this fall is reducing the collar widths to a uniform size of 48 inches. Those of you have been out to play this fall have probably noticed the areas of collar that are being mowed down to greens height. We are a little over half way in the slow process of reducing the height of cut now, and there has been very little area that has been damaged. Over the past few weeks we have been working on "Phase 2" of this project which is making some areas of collar into rough, and reducing the collar size from the outside.
This past weekend, I got a chance to get away from the area and visit my alma mater, Penn State for a football game. When I planned this trip in June, I was definitely not expecting the weather conditions to be what they were. Hopefully we don't see anything like this for another month or so.
In the last month, the course has taken on it's fall look. About half the trees have lost their leaves now, but we still have a long way to go with leaf cleanup as the silver maple trees make up about 30 percent of our tree population, and they have barely begun to shed their leaves. As you can imagine, leaf cleanup is our main task in the fall, and it continues until Thanksgiving, some years it carries into the first week of December. Other changes that occur to the course during the fall is the 'Washington' creeping bentgrass that is present on on most of our greens turns purple, it is most noticeable on the 18th green. This is a physiological reaction to the colder temperatures, and has no impact on the health of the plant.
A few weeks from now, we will be giving the golf course it's final preparations for winter. On November 18th, we will be blowing irrigation system out, and during that same week we will be spraying preventative fungicides for snow mold disease and applying dormant fertilizer to the greens and tees. The final step in winterizing the turf will be a heavy application of topdressing sand on the greens around Thanksgiving. This heavy topdressing helps to protect the plant from the cold dry winds we can get here, and it has also helps the turf green up quicker in the spring.
Although we are nearing the end of the golf season, we are still working on some projects. The main project that we have been working on this fall is reducing the collar widths to a uniform size of 48 inches. Those of you have been out to play this fall have probably noticed the areas of collar that are being mowed down to greens height. We are a little over half way in the slow process of reducing the height of cut now, and there has been very little area that has been damaged. Over the past few weeks we have been working on "Phase 2" of this project which is making some areas of collar into rough, and reducing the collar size from the outside.
This past weekend, I got a chance to get away from the area and visit my alma mater, Penn State for a football game. When I planned this trip in June, I was definitely not expecting the weather conditions to be what they were. Hopefully we don't see anything like this for another month or so.
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