Fairway Aerification

I am winding down another busy Tuesday, but before I head home for dinner I want to get out a paragraph or two explaining what we did today, and why I feel it necessary to explain why we did it. All 18 fairways were aerified, which is a normal part of our summer program. We do this 3 times each summer, and when we aerify fairways they are double aerified. We run the machine up and down the fairway, and then run back and forth. This makes twice as many holes, and brings up twice the amount of thatch. Remember what I explained before - it is not the number of holes that determine healing time it is the size of the holes. Today we made medium sized holes which will heal quickly in the fast growing Celebration, but I digress.

The reason fairways were aerified today and not 2 weeks ago when we aerified greens is because of the timing of the Curfew treatment. All fairways were treated with Curfew on June eighth. A Curfew label restriction states that turf should not be aerified 1 week before and 1 week after treatment. This is because Curfew is a fumigant, and fresh aerification holes would allow the gas to escape before it had a chance to be effective on the nematodes and other pests we were targeting.
The fact that we aerified fairways 2 weeks after greens and tees aerification goes against one of my personal standards and philosophies. I have mentioned in the past that I like to do as many of the disruptive cultural practices during the 3 course closures we have scheduled. This does not draw out the agony of having the course in some state of renovation throughout the summer by concentrating these procedures during the closures. We have even brought in additional equipment in the past to accomplish this. Unfortunately the Curfew application made during our first course closure got in the way and wouldnt allow this, so we had to postpone the fairway aerification.
Before we leave tonight all fairways will have been aerified, dragged in, blown off, mowed, and fertilized. As I mentioned, the Celebration is a fast healer and we will be back in top shape soon. I appreciate your understanding as we work through our summer program. You will reap the benefits this winter!

Alan Bakos, CGCS
Director of Grounds

First Aerification

Our first aerification of the season is behind us, and it has been a busy week for the crew. While the aerification was scheduled to begin on Tuesday we got a head start Monday on the chipping and putting greens. We do this whenever we can, according to afternoon play and fortunately for us play was light. By getting this early start we are able to get the crew used to the steps of the procedure, plus work out any equipment glitches. As much prep work as is done by the equipment techs there is always a chance that there will be an issue with a piece of equipment. Monday was no exception but Wayne and Oscar made the necessary adjustments and repairs and got us up and running for Tuesday. While there are many other details that need to be done prior and during the procedure I will explain some of the major things that were done this week while the course was closed.

The fist step in the operation was to verticut the greens. Verticutting cuts into the turf vertically which cuts runners and removes thatch from the surface of the green.

This is an ants eye view of what the surface of the green looks like after verticutting. We get pretty aggressive with our greens. They were cut back and forth over the same pass, and then again in a different direction for a total of 4 passes.

After the greens were dragged the chaff was blown off the greens and picked up by the the clean up team.

Topdressing followed the clean up. Problem areas on the greens were treated with soil amendments. We have used 2 different kinds - one that prevents the soil from drying out in areas that tend to be dry, and another material where the greens tend to stay wet.

This machine spreads an even layer of sand over the green. An even application of sand is crucial so the green will recover without any heavy areas of sand.

A lot of the equipment that we have is only used for projects. This material hauler allows us to carry sand out to the field to reload the topdresser eliminating many time consuming trips back to the shop.

Finally it is time to aerate. For this aeration we used 2 machines, each set up with different tine configurations and sizes. This decision was based on soil tests and observations of how the greens have been performing relating to air and water movement in the top layer of the greens. Many holes were punched in the greens! Someone did a study a while back and discovered that if you run the second aeration pass at a slight angle to the first the likelihood of punching into another hole was reduced. You may think that the greens will take longer to heal because of the number of holes we punched, but that is not true. Recovery time is based on the hole size. A thousand holes in a green will heal just as fast as 10,000.

Much of the same process was performed on the tees. The big difference was the tine size used. On the tees we used a 11/4" tine which made a larger hole and also went deeper. Following the aeration process the course was fertilized from tee to green. A special blend was used on the greens which will promote root growth. Fairways, tees, and roughs were fertilized with a different blend based on soil test results. By Friday everything was cleaned up and we were ready for the last step of our spring renovation program - a Curfew application to fairways. Curfew is a fumigant used primarily to treat nematodes. An added benefit is that it also controls mole crickets, grubs, and ants. None of these insects are good for the turf. In addition, mole crickets and grubs are also armadillo food and they will dig up turf to get to them!

These machines slice the turf making way for a chisel that injects the material into the soil. A roller behind the chisels seals the soil, which is immediately watered in. The course will remain closed the day after this treatment and the property is marked with "do not enter" signs.

In addition to renovation week work we also have some other projects in the works. If you are still in town playing the course you will have noticed that we have an all out war going on with weeds. As a result there are brown spots all over where the weeds are dyeing. Since we are in our growing season these areas will quickly fill in.

This is a sign of a successful herbicide application. This looks like a patch of dead turf but it is not. This is where weeds have been sprayed out, have died, and the Bermudagrass is filling back in.

Another area we have been focusing on is the white tee on #15. Because of heavy shade during the winter this tee has been overseeded with ryegrass for the past two seasons. Because the ryegrass is a cool season grass it will not survive our summer weather. As a result it dies off during the spring. Because the base Bermudagrass is so weak we are treating it as a grow in.

We will continue to nurse this tee along to get it filled in again now that it is back in the sun. At the last Green Committee meeting this tee was discussed and we will be exploring our options for a long term solution.

While no one likes to play on a course that has just been aerified this is a great opportunity to get out and play one of the reciprocal courses. After a couple weeks of recovery the course will be back in shape, and you can be confidant that what was done to the course will pay dividends this winter. If we did not perform these aggressive practices it would only take a few years for organic matter levels to raise, thatch to build up, and the whole feel of the course to change. The staff has been busy working long days this week to insure that this doesn't happen!

Alan Bakos, CGCS
Director of Grounds

The Summer Fun has Begun!

The golf course maintenance crew has made a quick transition from maintenance mode to summer renovation mode. On Monday April 30th we had our last shotgun start of the season. On Tuesday morning, May 1st , we had already began our first round of many summer projects. While we do mostly the same things each year there is always something a little different about our program. It may be because we have new equipment available to use or it could be an adjustment to our normal practices because of turf conditions at that time. Following is a quick rundown of what we did on the first Tuesday of our renovation season.

This past winter we had a challenge keeping quality turf on several areas around the perimeters of some of the greens. The challenge seems to be water management where the greens mix meets the native soil. These areas dry out faster than the rest of the green so we are adding soil amendments to help hold the water. To do this the green is aerified first. This was a spot aerification and only the problem areas were targeted. Next a treated sand is poured onto the green and then worked into the holes. We will be doing this throughout the summer in an attempt to modify the soil composition in these areas to give them a better chance of holding onto the water.

Green #1 has a slightly different problem. The back of the green stays wet after the rest of the green has dried. To help this situation we use the same procedure but a different material is worked into the holes. This material is a porous ceramic granule with thousands of micro pores. These granular particles will hold the correct ratio of water to air and allow the excess water to drain through the soil. We will treat this area like the areas around the perimeters throughout the summer with the expectation that they will perform better this winter.

The entire driving range, except for the tee, was aerified. The entire course was aerified 3 times last year. During aerification it was observed that we had got a lot of compaction during the 2010 GCIP and the tines were not getting full penetration, even with several hundred pounds of weight on the aerifier. One of the capital equipment purchase this year was a 72" tractor driven aerifier. This is a heavy duty unit designed to be used on fairways. This week the range was aerified with this unit using large diameter tines. We had great results and I am looking forward to using this unit on the rest of the fairways this season.

All tees were verticut in a single direction this week, and we are planning to verticut a second direction next week.

All of the roughs have bee dragged with this spring tine implement. This unit fluffs the turf and pulls up runners while it is dragged across the turf. It is a simple piece of equipment but it is a great grooming tool. The roughs were mowed immediately following dragging.

While we are performing these summer cultural practices we still remain sensitive to the fact that the course is still open for play, and our members and guests like to have good playing conditions. The activities of this past week should have had little negative impact on play. In fact many of our practices provide better playing conditions, although the result is often brown turf as opposed to green. The inconvenience of these activities is temporary, and the work we are doing this summer will condition the turf for great playing conditions next winter.

On a final note, I'm sure everyone has noticed the pond water levels dropping. There are a few things I would like to point out when we are in these conditions. As the water level drops the nutrient concentration increases and the water temperature rises. These are ideal conditions for an algae bloom. Fortunately we have not had any major blooms like we saw last year following the golf course grow in. For the past year the Grounds Committee has included pond water quality as part of its long range strategic plan. I have learned more about managing these storm water run off ponds too and have changed the way I look at them. I have taken a new look at algae. While it is unsightly it is an indication of excessive nutrients in the water and does a good thing by removing nutrients from the water as it grows. When it is sprayed it dies and sinks to the bottom but the nutrients are still in the water. While not very practical and cost effective the best way to treat algae is to remove it, along with the nutrients is has sequestered. I have been working with our aquatic contractor to explore other options besides constantly spraying to kill algae. Pond colorant and beneficial microbes are 2 options. The long range plan also includes installing bottom aeration in all ponds. While there is no silver bullet or easy answers to some of the challenges to managing these shallow ponds we are on the cutting edge looking for solutions.

In the photo above, what looks like algae is actually aquatic plants growing from the bottom that have surfaced because the water level has dropped. While this is unsightly we would not spray them out since they perform an important function of filtering nutrients from the water. When the rains start again the water level will rise and these plants will once again be under water.


Alan Bakos, CGCS
Director of Grounds

End of Season Wrap-Up

The 2012 golfing season is winding to a close and what a season it has been. Rounds of golf were up again this year amounting to another record breaking season. The weather has been very mild this winter and the course has held up well to the tremendous amount of play we see from November through April. Comments have been positive and I feel we are finishing the season on a high note. The Stonebridge maintenance team is ready to switch from maintenance mode to summer renovation mode, and I suspect that my next blog will be explaining some procedure we are doing to get the course ready for next winter!
Because of the unseasonably warm weather we have been enjoying the grass has started growing again, and we have already done some aggressive work around the green perimeters. I mentioned this in the most recent addition of The Voice, but I can go into more detail in this blog

One of the routine procedures of greens maintenance involves running a stick edger around the perimeters of the greens. This is done where the TifEagle meets the Celebration Bermudagrass. The reason we do this is to slow the encroachment of the Celebration into the green. If left unchecked we would loose several inches to a foot of putting surface each year. This is a gradual process that goes unnoticed until a close survey reveals how much of the original surface has been lost. By edging the greens regularly we are slowing this process by clipping back the Celebration runners. As you can see in the picture above, some of the runners had already moved inches into the green and had to be dug out. That is what has caused the sand filled holes around the perimeter of the greens. With regular edging we are not preventing the encroachment, only slowing it. At some point 3 to5 years out we are going to have to reestablish the original shape and size of the greens. There is a wire buried around the perimeter of each green that we can send a tone to get their original shape. Time will tell how effective our edging is and how many years we can go before taking on this project.

If you have been out to the pool lately you will have noticed an upgrade in the potted plantings around the pool deck. This project was started last year as a collaborative effort between the Grounds Committee and the Design Committee, and seen through to completion by the new committee.

Pavers were removed around the knee wall and the Royal Palms and beach pebbles have been installed. Glazed pots with colorful flowers have been strategically placed in the pebbles.

Three Pony Tail Palms have been added to the deck at the Magnolia Room windows.

The potted palms that used to stand by the doorway have been relocated.

Italian Cypress have been added at the doorway to the exercise room.

Confederate Jasmine is planted in 3 planter boxes around the building. The wood trellises will be removed and the vines will  grow around the wire frame installed on the building and trained into an espalier.

The finished product looks great and the staff received many compliments when doing the instillation. Nice work by the committees and Lee Dixon's Common Grounds crew!

As we reach the end of the season we are already seeing play slow on the course, and the roads around town may be getting a little less congested. If you are heading north, have a great summer and we will see you next season. If your staying here, we will see you around!

Alan Bakos, CGCS

Director of Grounds

Field Day

On March 22nd I attended the 25th annual South Florida Turfgrass Exposition and Field Day at the University of Florida/IFAS Research and Education Center in Davie Florida. I attend this event each year because it is a great opportunity to see the latest research and test plots up close, and hear the scientists speak about their studies. Topics this year included insect and Whitefly management, new flower trials, coated sand's influence on localized dry spots, disease control programs for turf, and a nematode control update. For the afternoon session we had keynote speakers on the topics of identification and management of south Florida turf diseases, and turf nematode treatment options for 2012. If you have kept up with my blog, or read previous updates and articles I have written, you will recognize that many of the challenges we face at Stonebridge are being researched at the university. It was a very informative day, the weather was perfect, and I look forward to attending again next year.

In addition to the test plots and speakers many event sponsors brought in equipment and products to display.  They also cooked us a great BBQ lunch under the tents!

As I mentioned above the University of Florida's Turfgrass Program has been researching new products and methods for eliminating localized dry spots. If you have been on the course this week you may have noticed that we have some. These spots form when a coating forms around the sand particles and the soil becomes hydrophobic, meaning it repells water. The brown spots that form are not a symptom of an inefficient irrigation system - our new system is working great. The spots are random, but tend to form in the same places. The remedy for these spots is to treat our irrigation water with a wetting agent, and do a lot of hand watering.

Jayme has a hose attached to an adaptor that plugs into a sprinkler body. This gives us the ability to spot water any area on the course with a hose. The hose end also has a canister built into it that holds a wetting agent tablet. Adding a wetting agent to the water helps to remove the coating on the sand that has made the soil hydrophobic. We go through these same conditions around the same time each year, and I suspect that you will be seeing more of Jayme and his hose setup around the course until we get into the rainy season!





Golf Industry Show

Last week I attended the GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show in Las Vegas, NV. My days started early with meetings and seminars, and I spent 2 days on the show floor looking at the latest in equipment and supplies. I spoke with vendors regarding upcoming projects and purchases ranging from lake aeration to green grooming tools. I attend the conference and show show each year and always come home a little smarter, and with information needed to insure we are getting the most out of our equipment and supply purchases. This year was no exception!

The trade show floor was packed with vendors exhibiting their latest equipment and products.

The keynote speaker at the shows General Session was David Feherty. His presentation was enlightening, inspirational, and of course very entertaining!

The 2012 GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show was another success, and I always look forward to the following year.

Earlier this week I was working in my office and got a call from Mark, our golf course superintendent, asking me to meet him on #9 green to look at something. These types of calls do not usually carry good news, so on my way there I'm trying to figure out what could be wrong. Because of the 2" of rain we received the previous week, plus the weather we were experiencing, I suspected it could be a turf disease issue. When I got to the green this is what I saw:

The green was covered with these cottony spots.

A closer look shows the cottony appearance. This is a text book example of the turf disease Pythium. This pathogen can cause a lot of damage in a short period of time if left untreated. I immediately took a sample back to my office for inspection under the microscope.

Inspection of the turf under the microscope confirmed the presence of Pythium. The pathogen was present on both leaf tissue and roots.

I am sharing this experience to illustrate a point. This type of event occurs at least a few times each year, and can happen on any day. This is why I call our spray rig the fire truck. Whether it is an insect outbreak that can decimate a large area in a day, or a disease outbreak that can do the same, we have to be able to react quickly. Sometimes it means that we have to do things that golfers don't always understand - like watering in material during play. In this particular incident we were able to coordiante with the golf shop to get on the course between morning and afternoon shotguns. The fire truck was out spraying the greens, and then the sprinklers were run to wash the product into the roots. This event most likely went unnoticed, but if we werent able to react quickly the turf would have suffered.

You can rest assured that the health and condition of the turf is being closley monitored, and the fire truck is fueled up and ready to go the next time we have one of these mini crisises!

Happy golfing,

Alan Bakos, CGCS

Director of Grounds





Greens Update

Today I am taking the opportunity to use my blog to explain something we have experienced on the greens over the past couple days. As I have mentioned in previous updates, we are on an aggressive program to resolve the issue we are having around the perimeters of some greens. Part of this process involves applying various products to these areas as many as 3 times per week. Last week one of the products we used to spot treat these areas gave us a tip burn. This is seen as small straw colored spots, and it is confined mostly to the perimeters. We also have a few areas where a hose was dragged across the green causing an accumulation of product and a concentrated tip burn.

This morning we sprayed a colorant around the effected perimeters. This will do 2 things: the first is aesthetic – it will make the tip burn less obvious. Second, and most importantly, it gives the surface a darker color which will help absorb heat and promote better recovery overall to these stressed out areas. As I mentioned, this is just a tip burn and the turf will quickly regain its color. I will be discussing this situation with my staff, and we will adjust our application rates and methods to prevent getting a tip burn again from this product in the future.

I realize that there is  genuine concern among our members over the lack of turf coverage, and loss of turf on some perimeters. I have looked at these areas with several industry consultants, and also former golf course superintendents that have switched professions and are now my suppliers. Following is some of the feedback and recommendations I have received.
Todd Lowe - USGA Regional Agronomist: This is common with new greens, which take several years to mature and form a protective mat layer. Todd recommended purchasing a soil meter to monitor moisture levels over the entire green. We purchased one of these, and I wrote about it in my blog last week. It has provided very useful data that we couldn't get before.
Mark Burrows - Tom & Mark Burrows Turfgrass Services: Water is wicking from green perimeters (USGA greens mix) to collars (native soil), and in towards the center of the greens. He recommended plugging the drainage vents to create a differential in surface tension required for the green to peculate properly. He spoke with Professor Robert Carrow of the University of Georgia, who has done research on USGA Spec greens construction, and he confirmed this. As a result of his recommendations the vents have been capped. (This was mentioned in a previous blog) Mark also recommended a weekly folliar spray program, which we have been following.
Nat Hubbard - Agronomic Consultant, the International Sports Turf Research Center: Nat felt that gasses were building up in the soil and recommended reinstalling the vents. He also recomended blowing air into the drain lines, which we are doing by modifying our tow behind blower. (Also mentioned in a previous blog)
Jim Glase - Owner, Glase Golf: Jim was our contractor for the 2010 GCIP and built our greens. Jim came back out to look at the greens, but had no idea why we were having problems on some perimiters.
I also have several former superintendents that are now chemical and fertilizer suppliers. I have hauled these guys out to look at greens and listened to their thoughts. Of course each one has a product that they sell to recomend. I have also talked with other local superintendents about how they handle similar situations.
As you can see there are many different theories as to why we are having such a challenge on these areas, but nothing points to a singular cause. I have listened to all input from all of these experts and applied many useful ideas and suggestions.  Am I satisfied with the condition of these areas? No. Are we going to loose any greens? Absolutly not! Is the situation getting better? Yes, and we can expect this to continue. Today's rain will help flush salts and bicarbonates through the rootzone, which will have a very benefical effect on the greens. Even more rain is forecast for the rest of the week which will hopefully bring up the water table level. Enjoy your time out on the course, and know that we will continue to fight the fight!