Update on Fairways/Bermuda Grass coming out of winter

The last few days warm temperatures and rains have encouraged the zoysia grass and at the same time have awakened our bermuda grass, some which was dormant and some was chemically injured last fall.  A majority of the chemically injured spots are beginning to see plants emerge out of the ground.  I made a couple of videos discussing the progress and give you some additional details on what you are seeing in our warm season turf.  I would expect very soon you will be seeing some large patch on both the zoysia and bermuda grass.  Air temperatures in the mid-70's and wet conditions contribute to this disease beginning to expand.  In most cases, the 3rd to 4th week of April are prime times for disease to begin to be seen.

Red-tailed Hawk Cam at Cornell Unviversity/Harrison Bay Eagles

Cornell University has a Red-tailed hawk cam setup and it appears a baby has arrived.  Check it out at:

http://www.livestream.com/cornellhawks

Also, a reminder about the Eagles at Harrison Bay, they are getting really big!

http://harrisonbayeaglecam.org/

Wet course but work does not stop

Wet course after overnight rains but there are always projects that must be accomplished.  Learn to be flexible.

The staff put almost 2 yards of concrete to cover the spillway to 15. Finished picture tomorrow.

Contractor came in and ground our final 5 stumps today. Began the clean up. Hope to back fill with soil and sodded within 7-10 days.

Staff cleaned up the long range walk path today.  Straighten pavers and apply fresh free chipped oak mulch from our tree management plan.

Final work project was pretty major.  Digging out sunken area on main road bridge to determine why it was collapsing. Sinking old concrete roadway was covered by 5-6" of multiple asphalt overlays. Will cover early and have road open by 11 a.m. Evaluating a couple of potential fixes for the 3- 22" drain pipes.

Russ, Tom and Jason assisting Skip to open the bridge covering.

Jason in the area where the old concrete was collapsing.

About a 2' deep hole dug out in preparation for repair tomorrow morning.

Bermuda grass encroachment on collars

With rain coming in later today, I came into work this morning and sprayed our collars and edges of greens that are contaminated with Bermuda grass.  The plants just emerged this week and protocol for Tupersan, the product we used says to spray at first emergence and then follow up every 4-6 weeks.  It also needs to be watered in within 3 days to activate it in the soil. 

I had sprayed a preventative application earlier in the week of a product that protects the greens from some summer diseases and needed a few days between applications so the bentgrass/poa annua would not be injured.  The Bermuda product inhibits the photosynthesis of the Bermuda grass and it will slowly begin to die.  Of course as you know, Bermuda is a horrific weed.  Its root system is fairly deep into the ground and braches out in many directions this the need for follow up applications.  One of the unique benefits of Tupersan is that seeding can take place right behind an application.  It is the only pre-emeregent product that is on the market that allows seeding. 

You can see the Bermuda in this picture off the back of 5 green collar with the long stolons that attach themselves to the soil surface. We are trying to injure it at emergence since it is weaker and more vulnerable and the chemical can create significant injury.  Follow up treatments will insure that plants trying to creep into the area are kept out of the collars and greens.

Bermuda suppression product in rough

Sprayed a little over 7 acres of first cut of rough this morning in an effort to suppress some of the bermuda that has popped out in the last few days.  This spray consisted of 1/2 of the product that I use on the fairways at a slightly higher rate.  I sprayed Fusilade II around holes 1-3 and 13, 15-18.  In most cases, it was about 30 feet but I did go a little further out in a couple of areas. The rough will turn slightly off its emerald green color for 7-14 days and will green back up.  The bermuda should turn off color and then red but will come back in 4-5 weeks. If the bermuda would have grown out sooner, I possibly could have gotten a second spray before the heat of summer sets in.  The product is not supposed to be sprayed on the cool season turf during summer. The second spray could also conflict with Member/Guest in mid-June.  I will keep you informed if we decide to do another application.  It can be sprayed again in the fall which we will do this year.

After the rain stops this week, we will spray holes 4-5, 7-8, 10-12. This spray should give us some relief from the bermuda since we mow our rough between 2.5" to 3".  I'll take a couple before and after pictures and post them later next week so you can see the difference in the color of the rough.

Short Range grass tee opening Saturday, April 26th

The short range grass tee will open Saturday , April 26th!!

Seed and rough grass beginning to pop

A majority of our turf regeneration efforts are done in the fall with drill seeding close rough and late fall fertilization.  Once the turf awakens in the spring, we evaluate our progress and make plans for further renovation as necessary.  We drilled 4000 pounds of a fescue/bluegrass mixture last fall into thinned rough areas.

We began to use our renovaire aerator at the end of March to pull cores on all of the rough.  That effort is still going with Skip closing in on the last two holes.  Around he first of April, we over seeded a very large area on the left of #3 with Fescue.  It has been drill seeded in the fall as well.  This area is over burdened with shade and the trees out compete the weakened turf grass for available moisture.  We will add a part circle head in this area which should increase the amount of moisture this area receives.  Some root pruning of the trees should be helpful but there are 3 layers of trees in this area which reduces our ability to prune the total area.

Seeding is very limited in the spring due to pre-emergent applications being made at the same time but the area on 3 is in deep shade so we made sure it was not sprayed.  The area covered about 20 yds from the fairway to 12 cart path and  about 50 yards long.  The grass seed has germinated and is about an inch tall as seen in the picture below. A little patchy but our nemesis poa annua usually fills in the voids pretty quickly.

The staff used almost 200 yards of sod behind 15 green and used another 200 yards of sod on stump holes and worn, rutted areas around trees.  The delay in turf green up and subsequent rough growth has put our turf a couple of weeks behind. My first rough mowing of the year was a week later than last year. This week we are making  sure the close rough is getting mowed twice before the rains set in. The turf is beginning to expand and grow and in most cases will fill in the voids in the rough.  There are still some areas that will get some attention but in most cases there will be more than enough grass to swallow your errant shots from the short grass fairways and tees.

Area on #3 that was seeded the first of April. New grass growing but existing turf that was there has filled in the area quite nicely with increases in temperatures and timely rain.