Nice fall weather has allowed us to make significant progress these last few days.
GREENS
Greens have healed nicely after our mid September aeration. Height of cut has been lowered twice since their first mowing and are now within .005" (five thousandths of an inch) of the height they were mowed at all summer. They will be lowered one more time. With cooler weather of October, root systems will expand into the soil profile to prepare for next summer's stressful weather.
Sodding and plugging operations are nearly complete on greens. We worked on green collars this week and expect to complete them sometime next week. All sod used comes from our turf nursery by 2 tee. We will continually topdress sodded areas with sand to eliminate uneven surfaces caused by new sod.
Smaller areas not large enough to sod will be seeded to bentgrass.
TEES
Because we have focused on greens' improvement programs, tee aeration still remains but will be completed by October 15. Thin tees will be seeded.
FAIRWAYS
Fairways continue to improve and fill in. We have planted 1200 lbs of bentgrass seed to fairways and new plants are appearing. Plants are extremely small but can be seen in fairway bad spots. The goal is to add many new (GLS resistant) bentgrass plants to fairways through October 15 when the seeding operation will be halted. New plants will mature and fill in next spring giving us fairway turfgrass more resistant to GLS.
To push growth, fairways will be fertilized again tomorrow (Thursday)
Close up photo shows both small bentgrass plants after germinating as well as extremely small bentgrass seed that was broadcast today on 13 fairway. To initiate seed contact with soil, this turf area will be spiked in three directions Thursday to drive seed into soil. Aggressive establishment of GLS resistant turfgrass can only improve fairways over time.
Dr. Nathaniel Mitkowski, Turf Pathologist from the University of Rhode Island visited us last Wednesday to help us with out Grey Leaf Spot (GLS) issue. We will summarize points from his visit.
-He has seen plenty of GLS this year, even though he says its appearance in New England is rare. When GLS spores do arrive in New England, they usually arrive from the south with a specific hurricane. He said 2012's Hurricane Isaac did not bring GLS to New England because of its path to Rhode Island from the midwest. He did remind us of last year's Hurricane Irene with its southern path to Potowomut.
-Because of the warm winter of 2011-2012, he said spores from last year's GLS appearance at Potowomut (from Hurricane Irene) were never killed. He said it was likely that GLS became active at Potowomut during our very first hot weather in June. In other words, without a specific fungicide treatment to prevent GLS way back in late May or early June, our fairways were poised to be attacked by GLS again in 2012. GLS is a rare disease, its surviving through the winter to cause damage the next year even rarer still.
-At least two summer fungicide applications to prevent GLS are recommended (and are planned for 2013 and beyond.) He agreed with our aggressive seeding of bentgrass seed as the best long term course of action combined with chemical prevention. He also suggested a more aggressive fairway aeration program which is being pursued.
ROUGHS
Over 500 lbs of seed has been planted re-establish roughs afflicted by GLS. We will continue on this project until mid October. GLS prone ryegrass will no longer be planted in the rough as we will be using fine leaf fescues, tall fescues and Kentucky bluegrass. Ryegrass is a bad word around these parts from this point forward!
To push recovery and force growth, roughs will be fertilized in early October, six weeks early. This process will be repeated again in December or in spring 2013 if thin roughs remain.
ROUGH FIRST CUT
The first cut of rough's bad spots will be seeded before October 15 using the same rough seed mixture noted above.
Thanks as always for everyone's patience and kind words.
Patrick Gertner CGCS
