Steamy but ready for Club Champ

 

The calendar rolls on and even though we continue to lose a little bit of daylight each day the temperatures and humidity are sticking around. Another bout of rain is headed our way for Friday which at the very least will knock high temps back to normal (around 90) for a while. Our pre-emergent herbicide app finished up this week on the Zoysia fairways and approaches. This poa annua prevention is the first step in keeping these fairways clean through the winter and spring. Conditions right now are a great reminder to those of us with thinning patience in the spring waiting for green up. Hot and humid is what warm season likes.

The last two weeks have been the nastiest stretch for the bentgrass so far. Weekly soil and foliar fungicide apps along with the fans and careful water management are keeping these surfaces alive. This is also the worst stretch for ballmarks as humidity and moisture content can be high at times and the impact of the ball is always going to leave a bruise in 100 degree heat. Do your part with ballmark repair and the weather will change eventually.

As a reminder the South will be closed next week on Monday and Tuesday the 24th and 25th for greens aeration. We will be pulling small 1/4" cores out of the greens, blowing them off and lightly topdressing behind. This process allows for some much needed oxygen exchange after a long hot summer. The holes will heal quickly and as we get a few more nights in at least the upper 60's, green speeds will inch back up.

Also next week we will be putting out a fall fertilizer application on most of the rough across both courses. Similar to the compost we applied to the spring, organic based fertilizer comes with a ton of benefits. Enjoy some AI reading here for a few minutes:

Organic fertilizers offer profound, long-term benefits to soil health that go far beyond simply feeding plants. While synthetic fertilizers provide quick, targeted nutrient spikes, organic inputs actively build the biological and physical foundation of the soil.

Here is a breakdown of the primary benefits organic fertilizers bring to the soil:

1. Enhances Soil Structure and Tilth

  • Aggregation: Organic matter breaks down into humus, a sticky substance that binds soil particles together into aggregates. This creates pore space.

  • Aeration and Water Infiltration: Better aggregation allows oxygen to reach plant roots and improves water infiltration, reducing surface runoff and pooling.

  • Moisture Retention: Humus acts like a sponge, holding several times its weight in water. This significantly increases the soil's drought resistance.

2. Feeds and Stimulates Soil Biology

  • Microbial Diversity: Organic fertilizers act as a food source for beneficial soil microbes, including bacteria, fungi, mycorrhizae, and earthworms.

  • Nutrient Cycling: These microorganisms break down complex organic molecules into simpler, plant-available ions, creating a living, self-sustaining nutrient web.

  • Suppression of Pathogens: A high population of diverse, beneficial microbes naturally competes with and suppresses harmful soil-borne pathogens.

3. Provides Slow-Release, Balanced Nutrition

  • Gradual Availability: Nutrients in organic fertilizers are typically bound in carbon structures that must be digested by microbes. This means they release slowly over weeks or months, matching natural plant uptake curves.

  • Reduced Leaching: Because they release gradually, organic nutrients are far less prone to leaching away during heavy rains, protecting local groundwater from nitrate and phosphorus pollution.

  • Micronutrient Diversity: Unlike many synthetic fertilizers that focus primarily on N-P-K (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium), organic sources (like compost, kelp meal, or manure) naturally supply a broad spectrum of vital trace minerals and micronutrients.

4. Improves Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC)

  • Nutrient Holding: Organic matter increases the soil's Cation Exchange Capacity—its ability to hold onto positively charged nutrient ions (like calcium, magnesium, potassium, and ammonium) and prevent them from washing away.

5. Buffers Soil pH and Mitigates Toxicity

  • pH Stability: Over time, heavy use of synthetic chemical fertilizers can dramatically acidify the soil. Organic matter helps buffer pH swings, maintaining a more stable environment where nutrients remain chemically available to plants.

  • Heavy Metal Binding: Humic substances in organic matter can bind to heavy metals or excess salts, rendering them inactive and protecting plant roots from toxicity.


We continue monitoring the collars on the South closely as we head into fall. Organic fert was drop spread on the collars this week in order to keep building a healthy soil medium for the zoysia. With a 12-15 inch sand base underneath, nutrients flow through quickly and end up out of reach for the zoysia on top, meaning more applications and more intense management is needed here.


It was another big week in keeping the bunkers in shape this week. The mowing and edging is just as big of a chore as the cleanup of debris out of damp sand is. The guys are getting the hang of it now and the result is looking pretty sharp. 


We continue hacking down some of the natives as time allows, the sickle bar has certainly been a help in getting closer to the creek.


Good luck to all the players across the various Club Championships this week! Let's hope the rain plays nice!

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