Maybe the weather will make up its mind in April

 

The weather continues to fluctuate on a wide scale, from about 35 degrees to 90 degrees on any given day. The rough has seen frost form up on the leaf blades twice this week and probably once more on Saturday morning. The bentgrass greens on the South and starting their recovery process. We have mowed them a few times and hope to do so again on Friday and then roll through the weekend. These greens are rolling adequately one week out from aeration and as they continue to perk back up from the processes last week the holes will continue to fill in.


The big mess for the week was spreading gypsum across most of the property. While we have a good amount of calcium in the soil, most of it is locked up because of the existing salt buildup. Our injection system is up and running but it will take time to flush the salt out and start seeing results of newly released nutrients. This gypsum application will help supply needed calcium this spring for healthy turf and better water infiltration in our clay soils.


We opted to use bulk ag gypsum for this process. Bulk gypsum comes landed at $125 a ton vs pelletized gypsum at $510 a ton. We spread 75 tons across the property so while we are still kicking around some of the larger chunks of ag gypsum here and there hopefully you can appreciate some cost savings involved.


We had some sand left over from greens aeration so we went ahead and lightly topdressed the zoysia approaches and tees on the South on Monday. This pull behind Dakota topdresser is 1 of 2 new units that will help us get around the courses much faster and more frequently for these light sanding events.


The zoysia has been greening up consistently but you can certainly see some yellow rectangles out there on a few holes. During the first two weeks of February we went after some rogue Poa annua in the fairways with a non-selective herbicide. Where we sprayed the first week the Poa died and the zoysia is greening up just fine, although still slower than areas that were not sprayed. The zoysia (and the Poa) in the areas that were treated in the second week of February must have just started to try and break dormancy for the first time. The Poa powered through the herbicide and the zoysia got shocked back to dormancy. Another week or two of consistent warm temperatures will have everything evened out.


While we wait for two newer rough units the old ones were sent out to chop down the rough to its in -season height of 1.5" this week. We hope to keep the height here to provide a more playable and consistent surface.


Early in the week we went back over 11 South to finish cleaning up some trees from the prior weeks storm damage. The tulip poplar in the middle of the photo was half uprooted and leaning into a nice looking oak. Micah roped up the poplar and we pulled and cut it off the oak. This leaning oak in the foreground was also removed. The benefit here will be much more sunlight on 11 approach and fairway in the afternoon.


We had to bring in the outside contractor to grind these larger stumps, especially with the uprooted ones. He made quick work of them and we are cleaning up behind. The giant oak that fell down a few years ago behind 11 green was also removed, ground and cleaned up.


With all the greens head sprinklers replaced on the South, we are now continuing to work through all the fairway sprinkler heads and replace the nozzles. After 15 years of pumping pond water through a plastic nozzle its ability to distribute water properly gets compromised. Replacing these nozzles should allow for proper water distribution across the zoysia.


The purple martin gourds are back up in the native area on 6 and right of 15 south. We will continue mowing down the natives for a few more weeks and then apply a growth regulator to help slow this grass down into the drier summer period. Enjoy the spring weather swings while you can!

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