Weekly Schedule for July 4-10, 2011

Weather and unforeseen conditions can/will change the schedule.

-Venting of the greens takes place on Tuesday. Little to no disruption of the greens.
-Aerifying and topdressing of dry spots in fairways.

Wetting Fork

As the weather warms up dry spots appear throughout the golf course. These areas are called Localized Dry Spots (LDS) and are hydrophobic. This means the soil repels water. So applying the normal amount of irrigation to these areas is not sufficient. We use several different tools to help with this. Wetting agents help make the irrigation water "wetter" so that the soil is attracted to the water instead of repelling it.

Now we have another option. A wetting fork. This is inserted into the soil and is connected to a hose with a valve and looks like this:

The water is injected in different directions underneath the turf to get the soil wet. Here our intern from Delaware Valley College, David Smith, demonstrates on #13 forward tee how it inserts into the soil:

Then the valve is opened and the water comes out:



Quiet Week

I was just commenting to our General Manager, Mike Sander, that this has been a fairly quiet week for us on the Fieldstone Agronomy Team. The lake is almost filled and the weather has provided us a nice break with moderate temperatures and some rain showers.

Looks like we are getting some good germination on the driving range tee as can be seen from these photos:

We had aerified and slit seeded the lower driving range tee this past week as well to help it recover.

This past week also saw the seeding of the small green next to the putting green that is used for practice bunker shots. Hitting golf balls to this area is fine. We just ask that you do not walk on the newly seeded surface.

Weekly Schedule for June 20-26, 2011

Weather and unforeseen conditions can/will change the schedule.

On Wednesday morning we will be aerifying and slit-seeding the lower tee on the driving range.
We will continue to aerify and slit seed any areas on fairways that need it. Focusing on fairways #1 and #2.

Bunker Faces

Our pre-emergent herbicide program for crabgrass on bunker faces has been a success. While nothing is 100% we are very happy with the results we've seen. This week we will be applying a post-emergent herbicide to a weed called nutsedge on bunker faces which can be seen in this photo.

This past week we applied nitrogen and a plant growth regulator called Primo MAXX to all bunker faces. On the areas that are straight kentucky bluegrass with no ryegrass or fescue blended in the Primo Maxx has given it an off-color. This is normal and will quickly grow out of it.

While not a panacea, Primo MAXX has many good benefits as shown in this pdf file: Primo MAXX Benefits

Bunker Seeding on #8 and Fairway Seeding on #2

The drip irrigation has been installed on the bunker faces on #8. These areas have been seeded with fescue. In order for the seed to stay on the steep slopes we have added some matting which will break down over time.

We are doing some aerifying, seeding and topdressing on fairway #2. In order to promote germination of the seed we will be cart path only on this hole. As soon as we are able to carts will be allowed onto the fairway of this hole.

Weekly Schedule for June 13-19, 2011

Weather and unforeseen conditions can/will change the schedule.

On Monday we applied additional fertilizer on the fairways to bolster recovery in the stressed areas.
The drip irrigation on the back right bunker on #8 will be completed this week and seed will be planted.
Connection of additional well on #4 to the irrigation system.