Fescue, Fescue

After research, speaking with numerous supers, and trial and error, three weeks ago I sprayed the our fescue areas with a three herbicide combination. The herbicides will attack annual broadleaves, grassy weeds, as well as a preemergent to stunt or eliminate future broadleaf weeds. The pre-emergent I will spray again in the fall to combat winter annuals before the start of next season.
I was a bit disappointed at two weeks as the main target grassy weeds looked to be doing fine and thought to myself here we go again. The typical weeds...dandelion, groundsel, thistle/bull thistle, and chickweed were curling up nicely though. What in God's creation did they seed into these mounds during construction?? Then it started...purpling, browning of the tips, very slow growth for this point in the season, then the result I was praying for. The slow death.
While you play around the course you will notice browning areas throughout the fescue. The herbicide has a long list of grasses it will attack but the fines will be relatively unharmed.
I will spray again before the summer heat to target some of the more difficult to remove grasses like K31(course tall fescue).  This product can ding up the fescue under stress and high heat. Another app will be applied in the fall.
Due to the extreme slopes and hazards on some of our mounds we will have to hand spray as I was unable to safely drive the sprayer over them. If the results continue to impress we will get out there very soon and begin to hand spray.
In the second pic you can see how effective this spray was. It was an accident, but great results. Those passes continued all the way down the right side of 7 and 8. The fine fescue untouched.

I was able to spray the entire mound along six and the fine fescue is doing great. The targeted grassy weed ...not so much.

This was a slip up. I accidently bumped the boom off with my elbow. Remarkable difference!

Very Clean! Now I can let it grow nice and long and will look fabulous all brown. JUST KIDDING you SLICERS

Aerification

Greens aerifcation was finished this week. Due to starting later than normal in the year, the busy golfing schedule became an obstacle and we needed three days to complete the process. The crew hustled and knocked off the last 5 greens before 9:00 on Wednesday morning.

Everything went smoothly after a little hiccup first thing Monday. The drive belt decided to let loose on the first green slowing our start but after that was fixed it was off to the races.

The great thing about the graden machine is the amount of material removed from the green and the sand immediately filling the slits which keeps the greens dramatically firmer than hollow tine treatments. This eliminates having to drive heavy topdressing machines over open holes, creating ruts and closing many of holes before they are filled.  Compared to typical hollow tine aerification the Graden pulls about 30 tons of sand and thatch from the green to 10 tons.

Bentgrass is a prolific thatch producer and if not properly managed can lead to many issues including puffy soft greens, weak shortened roots, waterlogged greens which can lead to scalping, disease, and black algae.

Aerification is a NECESSARY evil.

With the weather cooperating, the later start may have a positive result towards healing. Compared to last years cold start, the soil 2" under the greens is already at 65 degrees. This was taken Friday with a pogo monitor on 4 different greens. Enormous change from last year when I had low 50's temps the week before Memorial Day.

Even Tim was giving us a helping hand to finish quickly! Thanks Tim

Long lines of thatch and sand - buckets of dry sand to fill the machine

OOPS

From time to time the material can get caught up under the machine and rip out a 2-3 row section. This has happened every year we have used the Graden. With all the material piling up behind the machine it usually takes a few feet before noticing. To fix this damage, we used strips from the practice greens to replace the  missing pieces. Just like a small piece of sod, in a few weeks it will be rooting and heal right up.

The Graden uses 2mm wide star shaped blades to slice through the thatch. Kiln dried sand is loaded in the machine and drops down into v-shaped tubes that fill the slit.

Happy Easter

Aerification

With impending rain this week we will be scheduling greens aerification for Monday April 10th. The graden process will be used. The sand we use is kiln dried to work through the machine. If any moisture gets onto the sand it will clog up the tubes, bringing our work to a complete halt until we clean and blow out the lines and start again.
We will be punching the fairways over the next couple of weeks with solid tines.  This will have no impact on play or starting times.
The tees will be punched in early May as the holes are still open from the late fall aerification.

Once we start I will post pics and videos of the Graden and aerification processes.