Rough fertilizer application

Usually in mid-June, it is important to put a small quantity of fertilizer on our rough turf. We delayed this application a couple of weeks because of the severe heat we experienced in mid June to this past week. As many have already commented, our rough is already pretty tough, why fertilize more. Allow me to explain.

• The fertilizer which we applied last fall has been used by the plant and there is little if any fertilizer available in the soil for the turf.
• Summer fertilization helps to provide energy for the cool season turf so it is better able to fight off disease, heat and drought pressures. We apply about 25-30% of the yearly requirements with the summer application. About 1/2 of the amount will be released slowly to the turf over the next 8 weeks or so and the other half will be available as soon as it is irrigated into the turf.

Fertilizing the rough will also fertilize the bermuda that compromises some of our rough. Well, that is true but if we do not encourage our cool season turf to stay alive, it will be over run for sure by the bermuda. There are plenty of areas which are more shaded than others where bermuda grass is less inclined to grow. We applied this product to all first or possibly second rough passes and between tees and fairways. We also placed the product in high profile areas near the clubhouse and also under some of our heavily treed areas to encourage the turf to strengthen during the next 2-3 months of fight for available moisture from our tree population.

Russell using the Lely spreader to apply our material in the 3 shots below. The material is thrown about 17-18 feet on either side of the spreader for a total width of 35 feet.