Summer, No It Is Spring Again Update

March and summer roared in like a lion this month. Constellations Leo and Aries may have acted according to their eons old schedules, but not much else has followed normal timeframes during March. Temperatures have been more May-like than March. Rainfall has been low all month and just like that, our golf season is in full swing. No one is complaining, especially your golf course staff.

We have been working hard to clean the golf course from winter winds, and also from winter tree work. As of this writing, I am amazed at how much we have accomplished in three weeks, but like you, also see much work ahead for the next month and beyond.

Turfgrass came out of winter in wonderful shape. Greens are well ahead of schedule. Height of cut will be lowered this week. Edges that were weakened by last year’s summer heat will continue to improve with more sod, hand watering and some new maintenance practices for 2012.

With this onslaught of unexpected early heat, a potential problem looms on the summer horizon. There are millions of viable crabgrass seeds present on all 100 acres of Potowomut property. They are all located within the top inch of soil just waiting for the opportunity to germinate. What is opportunity for a lowly crabgrass seed? For our purposes here, the answer is as simple as soil temperature. Crabgrass seed will germinate when soil temperature reaches 55 degrees for two or three days.

To prevent these ugly, no good seeds from germinating, annually we apply herbicide that coats the top surface of soil. The pre-emergent herbicide prevents seeds from beginning the process that ends with unsightly laptop sized grassy weeds in July and August.

We completed applying herbicide products Barricade and Dimension to 100 acres of roughs and fairways last week. However, upon completion, soil temperatures were closer to 60 degrees, at least five degrees higher than seeds need to germinate. Also, since these herbicides need to be thoroughly watered in, areas not covered by the irrigation system could see some crabgrass later in the season.
In previous years, we haven’t failed to get materials down before seed germination because most springs, soils warm slowly. Last year, this herbicide application was completed forty days later on May 2nd, and in 2010, on May 6th. The good news is that chemical manufacturers have recently introduced post emergent chemicals that eliminate crabgrass plants. The control these chemicals provide is somewhat unreliable, but they will be used if our crabgrass crop is bountiful.

EQUIPMENT

New equipment has been arriving for the last few weeks. Needless to say, we are very excited to be able to provide better service for 2012. Here is a brief description about each piece we purchased in our new lease.

2012 Jacobsen AR-5 Rough Mower
The rough mower will be the primary unit we mow rough with. You will recognize it by its bright orange color. Based on current growth patterns, we believe we will begin mowing rough on or about April 2nd. This mower comes with a two year warranty, and is of a superior design and build quality compared with the old John Deere mower. Speaking of the old mower, we did not trade this unit in. It will be used as a backup second rough mower, especially during April and May when we struggle to keep up with extreme and thick rough.

Articulator deck
The smaller 60” wide rough mower is used to mow tighter areas than the large area mower is capable of mowing. The John Deere tractor unit was in great shape, so we only replaced the cutting deck. The old deck needed at least $ 4,000 in repairs after last season, so buying a new deck was funds well spent.

Redexim Speedseed
This machine is capable of planting fine bentgrass seed to both greens and fairways. Before owning this machine, we had no way to seed these areas ourselves; expensive contractors were hired. We plan on introducing bentgrass seed because bentgrass plants provide higher quality and more reliable turfgrass for these areas as compared to disease and heat problem prone Poa annua (annual bluegrass.)

Turfco Topdresser

The topdresser will be used to apply sand topdressing to greens. Prior to 2012, we borrowed other club’s machines to get our greens topdressed. Owning our own machine will enable us to topdress greens more frequently, providing smoother and faster green speeds.

Second Salsco Greens Roller
As you may recall, generous members donated a greens roller to our equipment fleet last year. Our roller was previously used for tournament preparation at Wisconsin course Whistling Straits during the 2010 PGA Championship won by Germany’s Martin Kaymer, but remembered by Dustin Johnson’s final round when he grounded his club in an area that didn’t look like a sand bunker, but was. The second roller is actually the first roller’s brother, also from Whistling Straits. Both these rollers (with only 40 operating hours when purchased) were available at a 50% discount because the dealer who was selling them no longer sold golf turf equipment. They were both lost in the shuffle of turf equipment business, but we found them!

Utility Carts
The new lease also provides us with four utility carts for staff transportation and hauling needs, replacing four older carts in very rough shape.

Sand Mower
Over the winter, we purchased a used and inexpensive Jacobsen triplex mower that will be used to mow greens after aeration and topdressing events. Mowing when the heavy sand accumulation is present on the greens helps to ruin our everyday mower’s reels and bedknives. This machine will “save” our good mowers from unnecessary wear and tear.

Jacobsen 548 Seeder
This seeder replaces an identical machine we owned that failed while seeding damaged roughs last fall. The new one is thirty years newer than the old one. The new machine, found on EBay at a fifth of its original cost, was used once by a golf course in Pennsylvania and then stored in a barn. This machine looks brand new and will enable us to get out quickly to plant turf seeds in rough areas. With both new seeders, we now have the ability to seed any area of the golf course, a task we could not accomplish last year.

New Pond Aerator
The new pond aerator was installed last week. The Otterbine aerator adds to the beauty of the pond on 18, but it is also important for the health of the pond and the koi fish that keep the ponds clean by oxygenating the water.

MISCELLANEOUS

Within the next week or two, we will complete the bunker edge project we began last fall. Also, fairway bunkers on 11 and 13 will get new sand.

We are significantly upgrading our insecticide programs for 2012. New England’s most damaging golf course insect pest was present at Potowomut last year. These hyperoides weevils, also known as annual bluegrass weevils can destroy greens, tees and fairway turf. Last June they damaged 11 fairway, and during 2010 they damaged the 18th approach. This year, we are addressing these small, yet voracious little buggers with a well designed control strategy.

This year the intermediate rough’s maintenance will be upgraded. In the past, this turf area has been treated as rough, from a maintenance standpoint. Beginning in 2012, however, this “first cut” of rough will get all the fertilizer, insecticide and fertilizer applications fairways receive. We also plan on lowering the height of cut slightly, later in the season.

Last week, we applied the first of two applications of growth regulators to control Poa annua seed heads on greens.

We are thrilled to get an early start on the 2012 golf season and hope to see everyone out enjoying your golf course very soon.

Patrick Gertner, Golf Course Superintendent