Storm damage Part Deux

 My brother Ed who is superintendent at Franklin County Country Club in Washington sent me some pictures regarding his straight line wind damage from the other night.  We ended up lucky in comparison to his problems.  Over 40 trees down.  Here are a couple of pictures.

Storm Damage

No major damage from the early morning storm that passed through the area but there were a couple of mid-sized trees that that were damaged.




The view from the 11th cart path looking over toward #4.  There was another small Ash on the right of #12 that was blown over as well.

There is a Spruce on the left of the path along #2 that had two central leaders.  The top of one of these forks

was snapped off.  The tree should be ok for now. 

Course is open today.

Course closed due to snow

Maple syrup

Chef Rob and his staff prepared our first small batch of maple sap over the weekend into Maple Syrup and it tastes yummy.  Chef came up with the idea of boiling it down in his steam cooker.  It can only handle about 15 gallons of sap at a time.  As it boils down, you add more material to the cooker.  Our sap production this year is very disappointing but at least we have enough material for the 40 Mile Wine Dinner held later this year.  I expect we will have some additional sap drawn this week with cooler weather on the way so our members can enjoy some french toast or pancakes.

You can see the remnants of the foam from the sap on the inside of the steamer.   We only have a little over 1/2 gallon but the the taste is really good!

Preemergent/Poa annua applications to Dormant Zoysia

During the month of February or very early March, we apply our preemergent(Ronstar) and non selective weed killer(Round Up Pro) to our Zoysia areas of the golf course; fairways, tees and green surrounds that are solid warm season grass.  We make the application this time of year because the Zoysia grass we are trying to protect is dormant and will not be injured from the spray.  Round Up is safe to use only when warm season turf is dormant.  We wait for temperatures to rise above freezing and sunny days.  The chemical will move more readily through the plant if the conditions are warmer and sunny.

Our first target we are trying to control is any cool season grass, mainly poa annua which has germinated in the fairway/intermediate cut/ tees and green surrounds.  This application will also kill knotweed and will restrict the growth of rye, fescue and blue grass.  If this material is not sprayed out, there will be large clumps of weed grass that seeds profusely and will leave our fairways very clumpy until we begin to mow in late April/early May.


Our second target is to prevent crabgrass and goose grass from germinating in the spring and summer.  We make this combination tank mix to to reduce wasting time and energy of a second application.  This material will lay dormant on the surface of the soil until it is needed in the spring.  This year, we are using Ronstar because it has the least negative activity on the root systems of our warm season grass.  We had great warm season turf last year and I want to continue that push into this year as well.  This material does cost more but it is wise to change chemistry's every few years to reduce the potential for resistance.  We will be using Barricade on our rough areas in late March to early April along with a broad spectrum selective weed killer.

Here's the spray rig after the tank was emptied this morning.  We utilize a soap marking system and some green dye to help outline the areas that we spray.

This picture is along the right side of #18 fairway.  You can see how excessive shade encourages poa annua.  Without the leaves on the trees,  you can still see the affects of the shade.  If the poa was not sprayed, it would begin to choke out the zoysia.  Our trees provide character for the course but also do encourage our poa annua population to explode.

Course Opening/First Mowing

The course will be opening at 12:00 noon today.  We will have to keep #11 green closed due to wet/soft conditions but the rest of the facility will be open.  We appreciate your patience during this very warm weather while we allowed the greens to thaw which has allowed the surfaces to begin to firm up.

We are doing a walk mowing on the greens today to get some of the winter fuzz/trash removed from the surfaces.

We currently have  white/blue markers set together and red markers are set out.  Three ball washers will be set out on each side for your convenience.   Once March arrives, all equipment will be placed out on the course.

There is still some healing that needs to be accomplished over the next months on our greens.  Some sanding/seeding and plugging will be done to encourage the areas to knit back into the complete surface you have been familiar with here at Glen Echo.  Our core aeration in late March should help to finish the healing process as well.

First mowing of the season.  A light walk mowing to cut off some of the winter fuzz.  Lady is ready for another season here at Glen Echo