Superintendent News

February 6--Most all of Nebraska received some very welcome moisture this past weekend with many places receiving 10 inches of snow.  Here in Gothenburg we received just a couple of inches but in both North Platte and Lexington there was about 6.  So we could have fared better with snow cover but we did receive some good rain and that will definitely help the turf through February.

I attended the Nebraska Turfgrass Conference last week and learned about some new practices that should benefit us directly.  Most interesting was a discussion of fairy ring and its control.  You can read more about this disease in a summer post below.  The approach we use was very similar to the research presented but there were a couple of subtleties to the program that I am anxious to try.  Also some newer chemistries were discussed for poa control and disease control.  It is always interesting talking to other superintendents about what works for them in their situations.  Each golf course is unique in soil type, management practices, and microclimate so what works for one may not work for someone else down the road. 
Despite newer and better chemicals for turf management there are no "silver bullets" that fix a particular problem.  Often when asked a lawn question people want a "spray xxxxx brand and you should clear up the problem" answer.  Rarely is that the case as many particular factors lead to situations that can cause turf stress.  So I will give them the long answer about proper aeration, irrigation scheduling, fertility requirements, etc. all having an effect on their yard.  Probably not what they want to hear but entirely true!   There really is no magic potion that cures all turf problems but that in itself creates an exciting and dynamic environment to work in.  

January 27-- Still "hot and dry" this winter.  The past month has seen little to no moisture and the turf is looking much worse than a month ago.  We did water greens with our deep line system and will probably do so again next week.  The soil moisture is pretty good but the plants are getting dry and crispy on top due to warmer than usual temperatures and wind.  There are many factors that can lead to winterkill but in our region it is usually due to dessication which is the drying of the crown.  The crown of the plant is the growing point and if it is damaged then that plant is dead come spring.  The difficulty during winter is despite high soil moisture levels plants cannot take up that water as effectively as in the summer.  Frozen soils and decreased plant activity limits the uptake of water to keep the crown hydrated.  Rarely does turf die in December and January but conditions during those months can weaken turf and lead to a disastrous February.  The next month's weather will play a huge role in how the turf survives this winter.  There are probably 3 scenarios that could happen.  Continued weather like we've had would probably allow us to charge up the irrigation system early and hope we don't get a late cold snap.  In that case, dessication issues would probably be avoided.  The better scenario however would be to get some snow cover in February.  The most dangerous situation would be continued drought but turning sharply colder.  So we are carefully monitoring conditions but are somewhat hostage to the weather at this point. Hopefully a good February will lead to good conditions come this spring.

December 22--The fall golf season wrapped up on November 30 on a beautiful day.  The next day winter weather set in with cold and snow and it hasn't felt much like golf weather since.  November was mild and dry and allowed us to work on some bunkers and do a couple of irrigation projects that had slipped down the priority list.  We blew out the irrigation system on November 16 and 17 and finished putting out our greens covers the following week.  We have not had much in the way of moisture but the 3 inches of snow we did get in early December has stuck around for awhile.  The turf does look better now than last year as 2010 December was quite dry and cold; so we will see how the rest of the winter treats us.  Hopefully we can get some more moisture in January and February to put our grass in good shape come spring.
Once the cold weather set in, we moved our work inside and have been doing the customary sharpening of reels and bedknives and replacing worn parts.  Cutting quality is a number one priority to me.  It would seem relatively simple but there are many variables that can affect quality of cut.  It first starts with the design of the cutting unit itself which can vary amongst maunfacturers, but just like everything else cutting units continue to be tweaked to get maximum performance.  The sharpening we are doing right now also is also critical to the cut.  Grinding angles and how the reel meets the bedknife are carefully adjusted.  Finally, day-to day adjustments keep the cutting units working properly through the season.  A clean cut minimizes stress on the turf, visually looks more appealing, and on greens undoubtedly affects playability.  The most time consuming task we do is mowing so to send out a poorly tuned unit would really be a waste of time.  Thats why we are always striving for good quality of cut.  Todd Bubak is in charge of keeping the mowers in top working order and does a great job of doing so.  So during the offseason it is always fun to look at a newly sharpened reel dream of its performance in the spring!

Enjoy your Holiday Season and I will try to slip in a few more posts after the first of the year to whet your appetite for the upcoming season!

October 7-- The golf season is winding down but there will be a few more great days to get out and play.  As temperatures cool our mowing schedule is winding down also.  Next week will likely be our last mowing for the year.  Whatever growth we get from then on will help the plant accumulate more carbohydrates for the winter.  So with mowing and irrigation tapering off we switch our focus to bunkers, cart paths and other practices that prepare the turf for winter.  Once again this fall we will "reshape" our bunkers to alleviate any problems like sluffing faces, uneven floors, etc. that may have occurred throughout the season due to rain, wind, or play.  Some bunkers will receive sand if needed.  Uneven and poorly drained paths will also be addressed this fall.

There are many other things we try to get done in the fall as far as the turf is concerned.  You may have noticed the white patches of grass scattered in the fairways.  This is a chemical treatment that rids our fairways of stray bentgrass patches similar to last year.  We are slowly but surely cleaning up the fairways with this treatment. 
Another unseen herbicide treatment is taking place this fall that targets poa annua in fairways and collars.  The effectiveness of this treatment will not be seen until next spring.  Look for some thinning of collars and parts of fairways as the annual bluegrass is removed.  Right now our population of this weed is relatively low so the thinning will be minimal and the desired turf species should fill in those voids quickly next spring. 
Also in prep for winter we will aerate October 17-19 and then topdress greens heavily the next week to protect our greens from dessication.  Greens should still be good as the topdressing will be worked in and will smooth the surface providing decent putting until closing time.  We are also making the rounds with fertilizer to boost the plants health as we head into winter. 
So despite a slowing down of our daily mowing tasks we have plenty to do to prep the course for winter.

September 19--Not much new to report other than Wild Horse has been busy lately.  You can see the extra traffic taking its toll on turf near cart paths and more ball marks, but otherwise the course is beautiful as always this time of year.  The "wooga" is turning color and contrasts nicely with the deep green invigorated turf.  This really is the perfect time of year for grass.  Soil temperatures have cooled but air temps remain mild.  Summer pests like crabgrass, insects, and fungal diseases are on the wane.  There are still a few rough spots from this summers heat and some minor grub damage but the course is looking pretty good.

August 18 --The fairways responded well to the iron application made last week.  That coupled with some cooler weather and a couple nice rains and the fairways are looking better than they have in a month.  The grass has caught its breath  but soil temps are still high so the turf is not quite as good as it will be in couple of weeks but overall the course looks good for mid-August.  There has been some extended periods of leaf wetness from fog and heavy dews that is causing some disease but most damage has been limited.



This is a picture of fairy ring on #1 green.  So what is fairy ring?  It is a soil-borne fungus that is nearly always present but only exhibits itself when conditions are right.  Apparently this year with extended warm, wet soil conditions has been very good for fairy ring.  When the fungus is really active you can see little white "mushrooms" in the outside of the ring.  Interestingly the fungus causes damage to the turf indirectly by creating hydrophobic soil conditions (meaning the soil repels water).  Amazingly you can barely stick a pocket knife into the soil in the ring because it is so dry but yet outside the ring will be perfectly moist.  How this exactly happens is up for debate but somehow the fungus creates a coating on the soil that repels water as it grows.  The damage to the turf is actually drought stress in the ring due to not having any soil moisture.  This year has been especially tough on #1, 5, 13, and 17 greens.  The remedy once you notice the ring is to poke holes in it and/or apply wetting agent to try to get the water down into the soil profile.    A couple of years ago we started spraying preventatively for fairy ring and have had good success, but this years conditions have just plain whipped us.  But we have learned some things about wetting agents and fungicides and which are more effective.  Also we will probably do a mid-summer greens aeration next year with small tines to try and open up the soil during the heat of the summer.  For now the grass has thinned considerably in those rings but should start ot recover starting in September.


August 8--

This picture shows some of the chlorosis on our bluegrass fairways.  Most of you have probably seen this condition in your lawn or on your trees.  It is just a yellowing of the leaf blade and is usually most prominent in high temperature and high moisture soils.  The grass tends to get what I call "leggy" when it is chlorotic.  The leaf blades tend to elongate and the turf is not as dense and healthy.  You can see in the middle of this picture some patches of ryegrass (darker green).  Ryegrass holds its color better than bluegrass in high temperatures.  We are in the process of spraying iron to mask the chlorosis and with some cooler night temperatures this week, watch how dark green the fairways will become by this weekend.


This is a sight you don't see much anymore at Wild Horse.  Ant mounds galore!!  Three years ago we decided that the ant population was getting out of control.  The mounds were pock marking the fairways, gumming up the mowers and were just overall unsightly.  So we have persistently been after ants since.  When I first started this program I somewhat doubted our ability to control ants in the long-term because of their sheer abundance and close proximity to untreated areas (i.e rough).  I experimented with different chemistries and timing in smaller areas.  Once I was on to something I went to larger areas and can report that the ant population has been severely diminished much to my excitement.  We still have some areas (like that seen above in 14 fairway) that need attention but we are quite happy with our progress.


August 4--Aeration went well last week and we finished up in 3 days thanks to my diligent crew.  We have the system worked out pretty well now.  We (Todd Bubak) start aerating about 2 AM so we have plenty of plugs laid out for the crew to attack during the day.  About 10 AM (or when dry) we send out two draggers with steel mats to break up the cores and one blower to blow the duff out into the rough.  This proces goes to about 5 or 6 in the evening.  Repeat next day and soon you are done.  The holes are nearly healed already and fairways look pretty good other than being a bit chlorotic (yellow).  I will explain that issue with pictures and explanations in the next post.

Still lots of great golf to be had this summer.  It has been hot but looks like we are going to catch a break and cool off a bit.  Come out and enjoy Wild Horse.  Greens are still rolling great, fairways are still lush and the rough has lost some of its "gnarl" without significant rain for about a month. 

July 21--Hot, hot, hot is the word this week.  We haven't had an extended hot period like this for a couple of summers.  Now is like the first few days of two-a-day football camp for turf.  You see real clearly if your turf is "in shape" or puking its guts out!  This is one of the few times that it hasn't been wall to wall green at Wild Horse this year.  But don't panic, the turf might not be brilliant green like in June but it will survive.  So what are you seeing out there?

Lots of areas on the greens surrounds that look like this.  Many people mistake this for some type of fungus but actually it is just heat/drought stress.  The patchiness looks like fungal activity but it is just differential drying of the soil and related heat stress to bentgrass patches that have invaded our greens surrounds.  We try to stress the bent as much as possible without killing it so the overseeded rye and bluegrass can take over.  A real fine line when it goes above 95 degrees.  You can read more about our attempt to eliminate the bent from our collars in the September 1 entry below.

What about those patches in the fairways?

That is a patch of poa trivialis or rough bluegrass that unfortunately has found its way in to our fairways.  What you are seeing is its susceptibility to dollar spot fungus.  The other grass around it is nearly unaffected.  We are also spraying those patches of poa triv with a chemical to try to eradicate it (as you can see in the second photo).  So hopefully the combo of chemical and fungus can get rid of this unwanted grass.

I don't have a picture of golf cart tire tracks causing yellowing of the turf, but most of you have seen it.  This happens most often on hills that are starting to become drought stressed.  The cart runs over these hills when its hot and bang you have yellow tracks.  I have heard many people think it is chemical tracking but it is simply drought stress exacerbated by traffic.  It is nothing to worry about and will happen on occasion as our goal is to keep the course on the dry side.  The marks look kind of goofy but will recover quickly once temperatures subside or soil moisture improves.
 
So it is summer and there are some minor blemishes but the goal is playability and not aesthetics here at Wild Horse and that remains consistent throughout even the hot summer months. 

 May 12-- Superintendents are always defending their aerification practices by extolling their benefits to golfers who think we are just out to make a mess.  Many times the benefits derived from aerification are unnoticed, but I have some pictures that clearly illustrate the virtue of poking holes.  In the first pictures you can see some broken darker green lines which is where the holes are.  That grass is obviously healthier and happier!  The bottom two pictures illustrate that the holes punched by the aerator definitely improve water infiltration.  The dry brownish squares you see are where the aerator was picked up to miss the sprinkler.  Proof that we are accomplishing something when aerating and not just "making a mess".




April 21--A couple of people have asked why we don't burn all the rough every year.  There are 2 good reasons that we burn each part once every 3 years.  First, logistically it would be nearly impossible to burn everything in one year.  The amount we do now is a full day's  work and as mentioned in previous posts is physically all we can do.  So to burn all would take 3 days-it is hard enough to find one day in April that is conducive to burning let alone 3 days so the amount we do now is just right.  Also, burning every year would change the composition of the rough dramatically.  Doing so would weaken the grass stand allowing weeds to become problematic.  Also there would not be enough fuel to carry a fire if burned every year.  So we feel a 3 year rotation is the optimum burn schedule.

April 14--FIRE!!! FIRE!! FIRE!!




We conducted our burn on the 12th as planned and it went quite well.  The grass dried down well and the breeze was managable.  It was probably one of our better burns and as expected produced a huge amount of smoke.  The timing was just right as we had a lot of green bluegrass starting to come so the fire will set that back real good.  We have a rain event coming in which will be good to knock the soot down but will help rejuvenate the rough quickly.  That means thicker, gnarlier lies later this summer unfortunately, but we hope this practice keeps our "wooga" playable.
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I greatly appreciate the crew that helped perform the burn.  It is a lot of work and everyone is whipped by the end of the day.  It is a fun day but remaining careful and vigilant takes its toll so once we're done we are all relieved!

September 1--Here's the long story on our greens surrounds management and how it has evolved from day 1 and the goal of our overseeding program.  Our surrounds were originally planted to fine fescues after much consternation.  The goal was to provide a nearly green-like surface that allowed putting and bump and run from off the green.  Unfortunately, bentgrass seed from the greens contaminated the approaches and over several years has become the predominant grass on the collars.  Bentgrass naturally plays softer than fescue or even bluegrass/ryegrass (fairways).  So in order to make the bent play well, it really needs to be dry, and lean on fertility.  This sometimes can cause the collars to look "a bit haggard" and not as "pretty" as the fairways.  Some people care about playability; some more for looks so in order to please everyone including myself we are overseeding with ryegrasss and bluegrass (same as our fairways).  Most everyone loves our  fairways and in hindsight we should have probably planted that around the greens, but at that time I was not convinced that the bluegrass could be managed to play firm and fast enough.   It would not have eliminated the bentgrass contamination but we would be closer to our goal.  The overseeding program is a long term conversion to a stand of more favorable turf (blue/rye).  In order for this to be most effective, it is necessary to abuse the bentgrass in order to give the blue/rye a competitive advantage.  So that means dryness to the point of losing some grass (as seen on #1 and 17 approaches) and constant growth regulation which can give an off color to the greens surrounds (especially during heat spells)  Pictured below is a bentgrass patch that is succumbing to drought, but you can see the sprigs of ryegrass that are surviving and thriving.  The conversion process may take several years but each year we hope to get more and more blue/ryegrass in the surrounds. Once this happens, we can become more aggressive chemically in removing the bentgrass.  So what does all this mean to you?  Most days you will not notice anything, but there will be times that the collars will be off color or even a bit thin, but as the years go by we will get more of the grass we want there and gradually they will look and play better.





Feel free to contact me at jmahar@cozadtel.net or 308-537-4430 with questions/comments.

Josh Mahar
Certified Golf Course Superintendent