Bumper Crop
The warm and dry weather pattern that dominated August will continue until Labor Day weekend. The lack of rainfall has put the greens, tees, and fairways under considerable stress. We are still in great shape and I am pleased with how the course looks and plays.
The hot and dry conditions, hydrophobic soils, and low fertility is favorable for the development of fairy ring. This was taken on the 9th fairway a few weeks ago.
I have elected not to apply a curative control. The reason for this is cost. The cost to apply a fungicide, foliar fertilization and wetting agent greatly out weighs what mother nature can do for free. It doesn't look great but plays just fine. I applied a granular fertilizer last Friday and Im hopeful that with some beneficial rainfall it will slowly disappear.
The bumper crop we are growing is crabgrass! We have epic proportions on some of our tees, approaches and fairways! I have never seen such poor efficacy from my springtime preventive crabgrass application. I can only venture a guess that this summer weather is to blame. I have sprayed some of the tees and will continue to target all areas of the course as time,weather, and labor allows us to do so.
We are currently aerating tees and green collars on a ongoing basis until they are finished. This is a labor intensive process. I hope to complete this in the next two weeks. Fairway aeration will be scheduled in mid to late September and is a week long process. Greens will be dethatched the week of September 14th. I also plan on dethatching green surrounds to improve playability.
As always I am trying something new and different from season to season. I am trying to grow some Zoysia grass on the roped off area of 1 green. Its a warm season grass but will survive our winters. Ill go into more details in the next update.
Lastly while scouting some milkweed down behind the 5th green I found some monarch caterpillars.
Looking forward to sweater weather and fall ball! See you in the fairways!
The hot and dry conditions, hydrophobic soils, and low fertility is favorable for the development of fairy ring. This was taken on the 9th fairway a few weeks ago.
I have elected not to apply a curative control. The reason for this is cost. The cost to apply a fungicide, foliar fertilization and wetting agent greatly out weighs what mother nature can do for free. It doesn't look great but plays just fine. I applied a granular fertilizer last Friday and Im hopeful that with some beneficial rainfall it will slowly disappear.
The bumper crop we are growing is crabgrass! We have epic proportions on some of our tees, approaches and fairways! I have never seen such poor efficacy from my springtime preventive crabgrass application. I can only venture a guess that this summer weather is to blame. I have sprayed some of the tees and will continue to target all areas of the course as time,weather, and labor allows us to do so.
We are currently aerating tees and green collars on a ongoing basis until they are finished. This is a labor intensive process. I hope to complete this in the next two weeks. Fairway aeration will be scheduled in mid to late September and is a week long process. Greens will be dethatched the week of September 14th. I also plan on dethatching green surrounds to improve playability.
As always I am trying something new and different from season to season. I am trying to grow some Zoysia grass on the roped off area of 1 green. Its a warm season grass but will survive our winters. Ill go into more details in the next update.
Lastly while scouting some milkweed down behind the 5th green I found some monarch caterpillars.
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