Spread It, Vertical It, Trim It, Fill It and Please DON'T Step Through It

 What a rollercoaster its been over the last few weeks with our work here at Glen Echo. This week we're reaching the peak and heading down the biggest drop. All of our grounds responsibilities are coming together to start all at once but our staff along with some pretty good weather I must say are knocking it out of the park with a couple twisty loops in between.

SPREAD IT

The pandemic has created some shipping issues with parts in repairing some of our needed pieces of equipment. Our spreader is down and with the onset of warmer weather our zoysia is hungry and ready to move a bit so we borrowed a spreader from the best Super I know, my brother and spread a couple tons on our fairways over the past couple of days. Little more spreading to do as well with a little nitrogen to go into the roughs to push a little energy into them for the summer stress period. Oh what a challenge it will be playing from it over the next few weeks! Hit em straight.

https://youtu.be/pXnd4mWMpLg

VERTICAL IT

Did a little vertical mowing on our greens the last couple of days. Its normally completed a little earlier in the season but timing has not been where I wanted.  You say vertical, what do you mean? Well, allow me a moment to explain. Greens mowers have a piece of metal that stretches across the ground and stands the turf up and the blades then come through and cut it off. We are talking about a setting of about 1/8" maximum which is about 30 sheets of typing paper. Pretty thin. Below are pictures of a normal mowing reel and a vertical mowing reel.

Regular mower with a straight bar across the bottom that stands the blades up and anything above the top of the bar gets cut by the spinning blade.

The vertical mower cuts down into the surface of the green. 37 blades across 20" spaced at about 5/8" apart. Its purpose is to cut any bent grass in its line that have bent over and grown laterally which is its nature.

Our vertical mowing only goes about 3/8" deep helps to manage the bent grass in the manner that I anticipate. We went front to back on Tuesday and today we went the opposite direction and made what appears to be a checker board pattern across the greens to insure we could cut many of the longest blades. Tuesday we did a light sand topdressing behind the vertical mower than brushed and mowed. Today we only brushed behind the vertical cut and mowed. The disruption of the surface lasts a few days but I would anticipate by this weekend the greens should be at their normal roll out.

https://studio.youtube.com/video/eIUkyFNgzjw/edit

  The arrow on the left is pointing to the shorter lime green poa annua.We have reduced its competitiveness with a growth regulator called Paclobutrazol in an effort to encourage the bent grass to out grow it. The arrow on the right/middle is pointing to bent grass plants which if you look at the length of their overall leaves are 3 to 4 times longer than the poa and much wider blades as well. We don't vertical very often because it can reduce the competitive advantage bent grass has over poa but a cut like this can stimulate growth of the bent and force it to push out more leaves from the crown(growth center of the plant). Ultimately it improves ball roll out for future rounds of golf. Now you can go to a depth of an inch or more but that's usually done much earlier in the season to allow for proper healing. Scheduling had not allowed us to get this process completed in the last few weeks but the timing of the cool down over the next few days works perfectly for this cultural practice. 

 

TRIMMING IT

The staff have been hitting the property with trimmers attempting to get all trees, fence lines and other structures trimmed up over the last couple of weeks. They are weekly trimming and hover mowing our bunker banks which is usually a 6-7 hour job for 3-4 people. Once the heat of summer arrives, there is a bit less growth which saves some time. 

FILL IT

Our grounds detail work as we've mentioned in the past are our tennis courts and pool. Continued clean up including painting the asphalt  area and getting the shade structure painted and cleaned. Cleaning  stored away furniture and existing furniture that overwintered at the pool. Becky's been hard at work getting the urns filled and the giant hanging baskets placed at the pool. Touch up painting of the pergola and attaching the sunshade to its roof all in a days work for our staff. 

 We removed some hanging baskets from the Pro Shop front area and have added some new baskets to the Field Bar. Becky planted those last week with Caladium, Sun Patiens, Asprargus Fern and Coleus. Six in total. Should be a good look this season.

 

Please DON'T STEP ON IT

Speaking of Becky and the work she does comes the last but not least of our blog. We have a couple of ornamental plantings that are in some high traffic areas, especially around the pro shop. They were put in place over the years to give a great back drop to our closing hole and to give cart and walking traffic a defined area to walk and or drive around. Last weekend, I happened to be up around the pro shop and saw with my very own eyes people walking directly through the bed area. 

Our walk on and walk off area at the practice green was an embarrassment for me and we have made great strides in improving this area. We improved the soil structure and increased the irrigation to small directed heads for this walk off area. We also placed stakes and roping that can be moved to spread the wear and tear. Every foot print through the ornamental bed compacts the area and does not allow water to penetrate properly and damages plants. We appreciate you walking a few extra feet to protect the work our staff has spent many hours completing.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for your time and hopefully you get out and see  us over the next few days.

April Cold, It Will Get Better

25 degree low for this morning, that is a bit chilly for April. Luckily for the zoysia it is just beginning to green up down in the crown of the plant so we did not lose much ground. We just some rough grass on the short range yesterday. First mow of the tall grass this season. We do have a few spots on the course that might need some trimming by next week.

I feel much better this year going into the season than last year. A year with our staff operating for the most part on their own everyday. All of us are much better organized than last year plus we did nothing to zoysia going into winter so we should be in good shape this season. No doubt last year we had some growing pains with me being completely consumed in my clubhouse/GM role.

We've got our areas sprayed as needed, we are a little behind in pre-emergent applications in the rough after all the rain but with cold temperatures and applications starting last week, we should be able to catch up pretty quickly.

Seed head applications for greens has shown excellent results so far with very few seed heads emerging. We will have seed heads but I think our levels will be reduced with our late November application being instituted this season.

We do have some significant tree removals to perform here in the month of April. The dead oak off of 10 white tee, believe the Oak is dead along the right of 15 about 100-150 yds but need to verify and the dead elm along Lucas & Hunt on #4. We will do some of the work ourselves and some handled by  contractor to reduce weight on upper levels of tree to our staff.

Laser-leveled both 5 tee and 14 on Thursday. 5 tee fairly solid but 14 tee is a bit soft from moisture so we will have to delay its install to insure it dries down properly. I would expect we will get at least one of them grassed in the next 7-10 days and hopefully 14 soon thereafter.

This will be my 10th full growing season at Glen Echo. I think we've made tremendous strides over those 10 years. We had a bit of a rough greens year in 11 and a very dry year in 12, zoysia took a bit of a ding last summer but overall I think this small in number and dedicated group of staff members have provided excellent conditions for our members and guests. Operations much larger than our organization have had difficulties matching our conditioning year end and year out. I look forward to seeing you on the course.

Course Work This Past Week

The staff has been busy this past week finishing some of our approved tree management work. We've also been picking up a great deal of limbs, raking up sweetgum balls and other debris on the course. Becky has returned to begin work on bed clean up and other horticulture activities.

Interesting information, went back to a September 2009 PowerPoint I did for the green committee and 7 of the 20 trees removed in main play areas this year were mentioned by me as trees to watch. Well, we watched them and their structure continued to worsen creating a hazard and time to remove. Two were Silver Maples near the tennis courts and one Sweetgum which was removed so that we could then replant 1 tree in an area that would allow for full, proper and mature growth instead of compromised, leggy and weakened structure. The staff were also working down along 3 fence line where some dead trees were removed near the tee area to prevent damage to the fence and protect staff and golfers from debris dropping.

I also finished the remaining spraying of our fairways/tee areas for pre-emergent and non-selective weed killer to kill poa annua which has been popping up over the winter.

As mentioned in the blog post yesterday, I was able to get our seed head control out before a big warm up this week and rain. Wind came up pretty fast this morning and a flat tire on the spray rig but finally got it completed.

Hollowed  Silver Maple that was removed.

An even larger Silver Maple that was compromised even more.

This Sweetgum was near the other two trees and was tall and thin and was removed to allow a new tree to be put in place of the three trees.

This was the area in question along #18. We will get the stumps ground out and then place a tree somewhere in the area near the stump on the left. There are large Pin Oaks to the right which you can see the outline of limbs coming into this picture.  

Turf Rising Means Poa Annua Is Waking Quickly

Yes, our turf is rising from it's winter slumber, especially our poa annua. We have a variety on our practice green that wakes up a bit early. I think it awakens early because of a micro climate created by the large parking lot and roadway which is next to the green. The black asphalt absorbs heat which is then transferred onto the green artificially inflating its temperature.  It is also orientated toward the west which gives it a good sun field most of the day.

Interesting note, I just went out and took some soil temperatures of our greens at a 2" depth, 1:15 p.m. Practice green was 54 degrees, #11 which faces to east was 50 in the front but only 43 in the back where it is shaded by the large Pin Oak. 13 green which is facubg west was 51 degrees.

At the tip of the tee is a seed head that has already developed on the practice green. 

Each season, we begin to count growing degree days (average heat accumulation) to determine when to apply specific products to prevent or reduce the effects of weeds, insects and fungus. Yes, scientific models are developed to help us to predict when to apply these products making them more effective. Poa annua seed head development, crabgrass control, broad leaf weeds, beetles and other pests are treated from these various models.

The model we use for poa annua seed head development is the 32 degree model.

Allow me a moment to explain how this model works. The high temp for Friday March 4th was 43. The low was 37 giving us an average of 40. We then subtract the 32 degree base number from the avg. temp for the day which was 40 giving us 8 growing degree days. We then accumulate the days totals until they begin to get near the target number that has been developed over the years by researchers as well as practical experience we have seen on our course.

We use GDD Tracker from Michigan State University. As you can see by the map, we are getting close into the target time for applying the product.

We utilize 2 growth regulators that work in combination to reduce the impacts of seed heads. The predicted outcome is about 50% control which does not seem very good but if we used no control measures, you would come to appreciate at least 50% control. 

We attempt to apply our product when we are trending toward 300 growing degree days. 

Right now we are at 221(we were at 8 growing degree days last year on this date). This week's warm up and rains should shoot us well past the 300 target mark before the end of the week. 

So what does this mean, yes I am either spraying later this afternoon or Sunday morning with rain predictions for most of this upcoming week. We sprayed last year around March 20th or so. We should go past that growing degree number by Thursday of this week. 

What does this mean for the season. Right now we are accumulating heat days about 2 weeks ahead of last year. Will it last? I don't know but we are trending for an earlier season so we will keep our fingers crossed. The weather does have a tendency to average itself out. Of course if we continue this warming trend, that creates tremendous pressure on our staff because everything is sped up, staff are not in place and those problems that come along with too much work and not enough time. Also, applications and sprays get pushed very close together which can create problems for us. Some of our chemicals don't play well together if they are sprayed to closely to one another.

Greens aeration is scheduled for March 21st pulling cores and March 28 contracting a new service called Dryject. More information on this over the next couple of weeks.

In the Beginning, From This to That

In the beginning, which starts on or around February for our fairway/tee Dormant Zoysia grass, we start the process of cultural practices to bring our fairways from

                                                                                This

To That

The last few days with unseasonably warm temperatures and drier conditions, we began spraying our fairways with our pre-emergent product Ronstar which is the best product on the market for our 27 acres of fairways. This has to be done during dormancy or when the warm season turf is at rest so the herbicides have little to no negative effects on the turf. There are less expensive products than Ronstar on the market but these products disrupt root growth and or could further damage areas that have been weakened by shade, traffic and excessive moisture issues. Our fairways are the largest area of tightly mowed turf on the property and are a significant feature of our course. This is why we are using this products as well as making a concentrated effort in reducing the impact of bermuda contamination we have in the fairways. Our Bermuda Eradication Program as you know involves spraying other selective herbicides that negatively effect the bermuda throughout the growing season and replacing larger patches with new Zoysia sod. 

We also use a non-selective herbicide Prosecutor(Round Up Generic) in the mix in winter which will kill the poa annua which has germinated in the fairways since last fall. If we did not kill these spots of poa on the fairways, they could become pretty large before we begin mowing and disrupt your lie on the fairway and will also contribute many more seeds to the weed bank in the fairways that we continually fight. 

It will take about 2-3 weeks for the chemical during cooler temperatures to begin to show the effect of the Prosecutor. The pre-emergent is for crabgrass/goose grass weed control to prevent them from establishing in our fairways. The weeds actually germinate and then when the root of the weed comes in contact with the chemical it kills it. We will also be spraying our tees and range tees as well.   

Video Regarding Tee Aeration, Juvenile Red-tailed Hawks and Other Information

Rain put a damper on our tee aeration plans today. We will probably finish the work next week. Video discusses that work as well as the fairway turf situation, greens bunker edging and a couple of other areas. Photos below also add to discussion later of these subjects later in the video.

Our Red-Tailed Hawks picked up stakes and moved to the Sycamore near 5 White/Blue tee this year. I had kind of lost track of them this season until Ms. Herrin mentioned where they were located. If my eyes don't deceive me I think we have 2 juveniles about ready to take off on their 1st flights soon!

https://youtu.be/0kS6uzl8yzU

Bunker edging. Sand was deep enough along edge I had to use a spade shovel to reform the edge. Back 9 are complete as is  Holes 8-9. Hope to finish the rest of the front next week.

From time to time you will notice some black algae appearing on greens. This usually occurs because of climatic conditions, warm and humid conditions and sometimes and the end or past time for a fungicide application. The past 6 weeks have seen a weekly application of some type of required spraying product either it be a growth regulator, summer root disease management product and wetting agents to keep profile consistent in its moisture content.

This is from the 2nd green and the ugly reddish colored turf is poa annua which does not like Paclobutrazol, a growth regulator product we have been spraying every 30 days or so to help reduce the impacts of poa on our greens. My last application last week was 1/2 the rate of the month before.  As we get into summer, we cannot over stress the poa annua or it becomes poa deadua.  Too much poa annua dying quickly could contribute to yours truly's untimely demise. This type of condition does help bentgrass grow into the area and improve our total amount of bentgrass coverage. Losing 20-50 poa annua is something I do not want to see in my lifetime unless I was spraying Round Up and trying to kill it. 

Poa Annua, Where Is It?

Over the years at Glen Echo I've heard many ask about the poa on our greens. Some think its gone away.  Our poa has not gone away.  Poa annua is a part of all of our putting surfaces. In 1995 when the putting surfaces were gassed and grassed with a blend of Cato/Crenshaw Bentgrass, there was not any poa. 20 years later, we have greens that average 20% with some as high as 50% or more. We've made efforts to reduce the amounts over the last 7 years since I have been here. Some years it seems like we take 2 steps ahead and other years we take 3 steps back. The poa right now on the greens has a tendancy to be a lighter/lime green looking color with a seed heads interspersed.  The pictures at the bottom of the post points this out. In most cases instead of large patches of poa annua without any bent grass, we now have both bent and poa spread throughout the greens.

A course that has been around for 114 years like Glen Echo can have many different species of poa both annual varieties as well as perennial. As you can see now in some areas of the rough,  poa annua is seeding profusely. We are right in the middle of what is called the seed head flush. Pretty simple explanation is poa annua plants are in full bloom right now. This is charted using Growing Degree Day Models which help to time applications for weed and insect control.

Overall, we've had pretty good timing on our greens and our efforts to reduce seed head production. This is one reason why many have difficulty seeing the poa on the greens because we reduced the negative impacts that plants can make on ball roll and have reduced the overall seed head production on our greens. We've not eliminated seed heads by any stretch but it has improved. This season has seemed to be one of our best since I've been at Glen Echo.

Factors we  continue to fight here at Glen Echo when it comes to reducing the amount of poa annua on our greens.

• Greens have not been grassed since 1995. Most clubs in the district have regrassed since then and some have done it twice. This is not an option at this time. The course cannot close from September to May/June the next season. A number of clubs in town were able to renovate greens due to large scale MSD projects which helped fund improvements. Some also grassed before the economic downturn in 2008.
• The variety grasses we have now were developed in the 80's and probably have 25-50% less grass plants per foot then the new varieties. The tight turf does help to reduce poa from over taking a green. 
• Greens have no drainage except natural flow except #9. Installing drainage using a technique by a few contractors in the country can cost $ 7-10,000 per green. It does improve playability, dries quicker and can reduce poa stranglehold with drier conditions.
• Trees which cause shade and reduce air movement keeping greens wetter longer.
• No fans on greens. Air movement helps in drying greens which poa annua does not appreciate. At least 6-8 greens on the course could use a fan. $ 7,000 per fan plus electric install which could double cost per green.
• Poa population, seed bank on a 114 year old course. Using some products on he market with the percentage of poa annua on our greens could lead to massive turf loss. Newer grassed facilities can use these chemicals because there percentages of poa annua are so much smaller.

So what is a guy to do if we cannot actually make  any major changes to infrastructure at this time:

• Improve and expand  knowledge to combat  issues regarding our greens.
• Provide proper cultural practices to our greens, ie fertilization, water, aeration, disease management, and many other factors to encourage bent and discourage poa.
• Add newer varieties of bent grass in the fall with seeding. Called inter seeding, some advances are made but it is not easy with greens being kept at normal cutting height and fall weather having a tendency to be dry which does not encourage baby plants at 1/10 of an inch to stay alive.
• Continue to use growth regulators to keep poa annua in check or reduced if conditions are right. 
• As the financial climate improves, contract drainage installation to our worst greens.
• I've left this for last but remove trees that are creating excessive shade to green sites. East and southern exposure trees are the enemy to all of us because they suck the life out of our greens. They reduce sunlight in the morning and mid-day and if sunlight is reduced you are guaranteed to have a reduction in air movement across the green surface.  Scientists says wind speeds of 4 MPH or more are needed to allow the plant to open its stomates which allows the plant to exchange gases, reduce moisture and heat build up in the plant by encouraging its processes such as respiration and food production to happen.(simplified version) Lack of plant processes leads to energy reduction, heat stress and senescence of leaves.(physiological decline,death)

The arrows are pointing to areas of poa annua in the 12th green. You cans see some seed heads but not an
all out blooming like you might see on some green surrounds/rough.

Another spot with the darker greenish blue areas of bent grass. I will use a regulator next week that should shrink the poa annua a little further and allow the bent grass to become a little more aggressive. I do all but eliminate the use of this product in the summer. Might tickle it a little this year but have a tendency to shy away until the real heat of summer has left us in September where we hammer it again until winter.

This is showing the back edge of a green and collar on 16. Our collars have a tendency to have more poa annua. Part of the reason for this is the seed bank is higher outside the green and foot traffic/equipment move the seeds onto the green surface. There is also a problem with collar height turf staying alive. The collars are 3 times the height of the green requiring more water to stay alive. We apply water to the greens to keep the greens alive and not enough for the collars. We have to hand water during the summer months to keep the collars alive. Stress on collars is significant and turf is lost. When turf is weakened or lost, poa annua seizes its chance to invade and it does.

Greens and upcoming aeration

Posted a video regarding our greens and the regulator that we are using to reduce the activity of the poa annua. We also aerated 18 green today in preparation of our work next week.

I also sprayed our seedhead suppressant material as well today.  We use a Growing Degree Day Model to determine when to spray the product.  Take the average temperature for the day and subtract that number from the base which is 32.  Add those numbers each day since mid-February.  The range is around 220-500,  I usually spray before we reach 300 growing degree days. Some years it works better than other years but we expect to have around 50% reduction in poa seedheads which helps bump the ball off line when putting over the next couple of months.

The walk off area on 5 green.  Mostly poa annua on this collar. Too much shade folks from too many trees. Need to do some sod removal but my nursery is not strong enough at this time.  Maybe I will shorten some approach bent and use in this spot.

Guys finishing dragging 18 green in our practice run for the aeration coming up Monday.

Final surface.  Looks pretty good.  Vertical mowing lines in the surface as well.

Long Range Tee

As you might have noticed, we are not on the grass on the long range.  I've been over seeding with ryegrass the east 1/2 of the tee over the last couple of years to get our weed population under control, namely poa annua and crabgrass.  With the dry fall and very cold winter, the ryegrass is very sparse and the Patriot Bermuda is just starting to peak it's head out.  

In an effort to speed up our growth and get the grass tee open, we are placing a permeable cover over 1/2 the tee.  It will allow moisture and air to pass through but will hold enough heat to get the soil temperatures up and germinate some ryegrass and give the Bermuda a kick.

In the meantime, we hope to open the short range zoysia tee by this coming weekend.

Permeable cover on long range.