A Week Of First

It has been a busy week of firsts for the season. As usual everything hits at one time durring the transition out of winter into spring. We have been begun to get the golf course back in playable condition for the upcoming season.

This week we have changed cups, removed winter debris from bunkers, put out tee makers, fertilized greens, mowed selected fairways and even aerified many areas on the course.

Last spring we started with an earlier than usual aerification of selected areas and this year I have carried that process forward. With all of the renovation work that has taken place over the last several years, I feel there is a need for additional aerification to alleviate some of the compaction from the heavy equipment utilized.

By the end of next week weather permitting I am hoping to have all of the fairways aerified. This is a slow process because it is being done in a manor not to effect play. We will try to aerify one or two fairways a day and cleanup right behind so that it looks like we never did anything. This different approach works now since it is mid March and we are having limited play.

We will still be performing our normally scheduled aerification April 12th-15th to the main play areas. The bonus early aerification will go a long way to help with recovery from all of the construction traffic the course has been subjected to.

Late Season Fertilization

Today we applied a dormant fertilizer to the rough that will provide nutrients for the turf to deal with the upcoming winter. If there is one single most important application of fertilizer made all year, this would be it.

Timing

The timing of the dormant fertilizer application is critical for the overall success of the nutrient uptake within the plant. An application made to early will force succulent growth, which increases the turfs susceptibility to winter disease and low temperature kill. An application made when the turf has already gone dormant will have not have any positive effects to the turf and essentially be a waste of money spent of the materials applied.

Principles of Late Season Fertilization

• Nitrogen uptake continues at the roots even though shoot growth has ended. In cooler temperatures root growth continues.
• Increased chlorophyll content means increased photosynthesis.
• Increased photosynthesis means increased sugars. Since turf is not growing at the time of the fertilizer application the sugars which are produced are not used for growth but stored to enhance winter survival and spring recovery.
• Late season nitrogen promotes deep rooting during fall. Plants go into spring and summer with deeper, healthier roots.
• Spring green up is early because the nitrogen stored in the roots is there ready when shoot growth resumes.

Benefits of Late Season Fertilizing:

• Increased winter hardiness
• Improved stress tolerance
• Early spring green up
• Reduced need for early spring fertilizer reducing the flush of spring growth

A Little Help

After the pipe has been installed and the heavy equipment is gone, the turf that was subjected to abuse needs a little help. Each of the areas of disturbance has received additional fertilizer to help with the recovery of sod re-establishment.

Around the areas were the sod was re-installed, there are some small gaps and seams that has also been repaired with a sand and seed mixture. This mix contains a Ryegrass/Bluegrass blend, which will help with the complete recovery from the irrigation installation.

Burn Lines

Recently distinct brown lines in the rough areas have appeared, have you noticed? If you look closely, the lines appear to be going in patterns back and forth throughout the rough.

The lines have been caused by fertilizer burn from a rough fertilizer application made this past Monday. There was as small leak from one of the tractor mounted spreaders that sieved material through a hole and fell onto the turf. This leak was not visible to the operator applying the fertilizer due to the location being behind the spreader out of sight.
Unfortunately the fertilizer fell to the ground at a heavier than desired rate, which caused a burn to the turf. After the initial damage is done, the grass will recover and fill back in laterally and all signs of burning will be gone.