Fall Aerification

I was a bit apprehensive Saturday starting aerification after looking at the weather forecasts and seeing mid 90's for Monday - Wednesday. I thought this could be disastrous but with little to no room on the
schedule to make it up we decided to push forward.
The crew agreed to come in early with morning temps looking favorable to get started. As the guys began to arrive at 4:30am we were excited to get moving. By 5:00 the first tee was punched and clean up began.

There was a ton of work ahead with deep tining approaches as well as punching greens but the men kept after it. By 10:00 all of the tees were punched followed by the clean up crew.

As the heat soared Josh and I were racing around the course throwing on heads to keep the grass cooled off.

After a short break for lunch, the guys were surprised to find that Tom Currie, one of my sales reps offered to buy pizzas! This was just the ticket to keep them motivated. They worked feverishly and by 5:00pm they had cleaned up the tees through 15. The greens were also completed and the approaches punched through 14.
Tuesday morning the rest of the tees were cleaned up and we began to fertilize. After each tee was completed we threw down a healthy dose of irrigation to wash in the fert and give them a much needed drink.
My assistant Dave, meanwhile, was fertilizing the greens and watering behind.

On Wednesday Mike Zellner and his crew from Dryject arrived and began the sand injection process. Everything went smoothly and they completed the greens just before a pop up shower arrived. Once the sand dried again went took our brush over the greens and rolled behind.
A perfectly timed rain came late Thursday night and gave the course a much needed break.

A bit stressful, but a fabulous effort from the crew to complete everything by Thursday morning before the golfers were back.

Saturday Morning

Monday Morning and already healing

Sodium induced wilt

This season has definitely been feast or famine. We have either gone long stretches with out rain or the faucets are stuck open.
After 45 days in June and July we received over 22" of rain. Too much rain for extended periods will cause the plants to shorten up their roots as moisture is plentiful. The good news is the roots of the plants on the tees and greens still look great. This is due to the sand make up of the profile. The water can penetrate more effectively through this zone and will dry out much faster. On the other hand, the plants on the fairways and rough are sitting on a layer of rock and clay. The pore spaces that allow water to flow are much tighter and the top1-2" will stay overly wet.
The issue that we are dealing with now in the heart of summer is the rain has all but stopped.
High temps during summer combined with a lower relative humidity dries out the plants even quicker. ET is known as evapo-transpiration and is a measurement of how much water is lost from the plant. ( for example; an acre of corn will lose 3-4000 gallons of water per DAY and a 80ft oak tree will lose 40,000 gallons of water per year.) As the plants transpire or perspire more water is pulled from the roots to cool off the plant. On a 85 degree day with a relative humidity of 35%,  a whopping .33" of moisture is lost. To irrigate this amount back to the plant almost 700,000 gallons must taken from the pond. Our irrigation pond on holes 14,17 contains about 2.5 million gallons.
The other issue when solely relying on pond water is the make up of that water. Our irrigation water contains very high levels of sodium and carbonates.  When we consume a very salty meal we become dehydrated and must drink copious amounts of clean water to feel good again. If you put a teaspoon of salt in your water you would still feel dehydrated. This is actually what is happening on the fairways and rough. The term is known as sodium induced wilt. The more water we put down to keep up with the ET rates, the more sodium is introduced and the faster the plant dries out. When we finally get a good soaking rain the sodium will be washed away and we start over.
As you know, our style over the past 6 seasons has been to keep the course on the dry side when mother nature allows. This not only makes for a healthier plant, it also produces better playability with increased firmness and roll. When you run on the edge to keep those conditions some browning out may occur.