The rain is back

 


The wet weather has returned and so have the cold temperatures and frosty mornings. An inch of rain accumulated on Tuesday but carts were back out Thursday just in time for more rain Friday. It sounds like a weak La Nina is in place would should give us more mild temps and drier weather this winter, just not in the next 7 days! You can always access this weather station at our facility here.


The bent greens on the South were topdressed again last week in front of a different rain storm. We will stay on top of applying sand through the winter to help defend against foot traffic and ballmarks while the bent growth is slow.


Some people have noticed our two Christmas lights out on Carmel lake and the pond on 17 south. These green laser lights come on at night and help deter geese from hanging around the property. 


In wetter periods it is easy to see earthworm castings form on the fairways. These castings are result of the worms coming up for air after the rain saturates the soil. While ultimately a good thing (the worms are providing free aeration) the castings do make a mess and are not aesthetically pleasing. Last week we put out a treatment that should help slow down the casting formations. More drainage and topdressing of the fairways will also lessen the severity of these castings.


Tree work has continued over the past two weeks. Last week while we were dry two large dead ash trees were removed from the right of 11 South. We will tackle that large oak stump this winter after our new mini-excavator and track loader show up.


James and Conner dug themselves a nice hole on 18 North last week to fix a leak in the city water pipe that fed our facility as well as the driving range building. This pipe was buried in concrete from a previous fix and ended up having a leak in two different spots. Fed from the back of the clubhouse this little 1.5" pipe carries a lot of responsibility so we are glad to have it patched up correctly.


The frosty mornings have given us a chance to focus a bit on our buildings. Here in the pumphouse the guys are getting ready for the new acid injection system to be installed. This system will meter in a two different products to help alleviate our bicarbonate problem and allow us to produce some healthy turf.


Back outside we applied another herbicide to help prevent any more Poa annua from germinating around the bent greens in the zoysia. About half the greens have significant patches in the collars where the Poa seed has taken off this fall. Most of that seed was probably harbored in on the new sod and started to germinate before we started making pre-emerge applications in September. Either way our options are limited to take out existing Poa while the zoysia is semi-dormant. This additional pre-emerge will halt anything else from germinating and it may burn the Poa that is present which is why we went the extra mile protecting the bent with a board. While we wait and watch the zoysia go deeper into dormancy (which opens doors for post emerge products) we will continue to mow and scalp down the Poa that is out there so that playability is not an issue. The other 200 acres of the turf on property are super clean and looks solid going in to the winter!! Stay dry the next few days!

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