Our spring in Arizona continues

 

Charlotte remains in an extreme drought so with less than half an inch of rain over the past month coupled with 90 degree days and high winds we have called quickly upon all of our new toys to keep both courses playable and healthy. The new sprinkler nozzles, fertilizer programs, acid injection system and Turfrad moisture sensors have the zeon looking especially good on the South. The poa scattered here and there is seeding out so it will start to disappear naturally and with the help on some herbicide next week.

The turfrad along with the acid injection and sprayer applications of wetting agent are proving to be extremely valuable in the drought. Each day our moisture uniformity gets better and we are using water efficiently. Most of 4 fairway is within 5% moisture level which is extremely consistent!

This week both courses got a fairway application of wetting agent and essential nutrients via our Predict N program. While the fairways will continue to get their fertility from the sprayer we will go out next week with some granular fertilizer for the rough. This application will release nitrogen slowly to the rough and also supply some potassium through the season. In a few weeks as the rough wakes up we will also be applying some compost in higher trafficked areas to help with overall health and water holding capacity.


Our new native area mower has arrived and been put straight into action. This is a more robust unit that can handle the natives much better than the previous zero turn machine. We can also put a sickle bar boom mower on this Ventrac machine which will help keep the stream banks a little more under control.


Two new greens rollers for the bermuda greens arrived today as did two new pull behind rough mowers. These rollers are heavier than the units we have currently so this should help get a few more inches of roll over on the Champion bermuda. We are excited to put all these units right into action.


The bunkers continue and always will take up plenty of our labor force through the week. The edges were sharpened up this week along with another mow on the faces at a lower height.


The bentgrass nursery greens on 5 North and 8 South are down to a height that matches the golf course so we are finally able to patch up a few remaining spots from wear last season.


Bartell's was out again this week to work on the bridge on 15 South. These glue beams had separated a bit so new threaded rods were placed every 24" to tighten everything up.


The ryegrass on the range has not enjoyed the drought so far. The bermuda is waking up here and we will continue to push the fertility to have an acceptable surface to hit off of.


It looks like only a few more days of 90 degree temps and then things get back to normal next week although there is still no significant rain in sight. The Agronomy team is up for the challenge!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to Carmel's Agronomy Blog!

Image
  Greetings all and welcome to the first post of Carmel's Agronomy blog. This page will be updated most Thursday afternoons by myself (Chris Harriman, Director of Agronomy) or by South Course Superintendent Micah Pennybaker or North Course Superintendent Eric Downs. My first order of business here is to thank both Micah and Eric for getting this property through one of the toughest summers on record. Our goal of enhancing the golf experience at Carmel by promoting healthy and consistent conditions is set and we are off and running. Although this is our first post for Carmel, this is about the 900th blog post of my career. Each of those 900 posts were from golf courses with bentgrass greens. Diving into the consistency and conditions of the South Course greens is not just a priority it is a passion! So far, we have modified greens mower setups including changing out rollers and lowering heights while increasing additional rolling frequency. The water has been turned down, Subairs tu...
Read more

South greens aeration complete

Image
  This past Monday for aeration week did not start out exactly how we would of liked. Another nationwide long severe thunderstorm rolled through with some serious wind and frigid air behind it. Thankfully less than an inch of rain was observed and not much of it was in the form of hail although we could make out some tiny indentations on the North greens from what may of been a quick hail storm at some point. One huge oak uprooted right of 11 South and it did some damage to other surrounding oaks as well. In addition to aeration we were also tasked with cleaning up this area. The North team came over to help out and the main positive is that much more sunlight will be coming through in the afternoon to help keep 11 approach a little drier. While our kids sat home from school on Monday we ran out and got started with aeration. 6 greens were cored with 3/8" tines and blown off before the storms rolled through.  The SavATree guys were the only ones that braved the afternoon rain ...
Read more

Beautiful weather for golf!

Image
  80 degrees and low humidity is ideal for golf but we sure could use a little rain for the turf out there. A big focus over the past few weeks has been identifying irrigation issues and making sure the zoysia on the south stays healthy going into dormancy. This head for example on 18, was stuck in the same position and needed to be replaced. A stuck head quickly leads to a section of the approach area to be wet and then the rest of the turf it was responsible for watering to be dry. In addition to the water quality issues we discussed last week, we are working to come up with a plan to solve how to best deliver water to the turf all across the property. The cooler nights allowed us to put the verticutter out on the bentgrass greens this week. The vertical blades were set to just tickle the top of the turf, slicing any longer leaf blades and helping tighten up the bent. A light dusting of sand topdressing followed the verticutter.  The more aggressive greens groomer brush fol...
Read more