Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Brown Patch and Stump Removal

Over that past few weeks we have noticed some cool season brown patch on our putting greens.  This disease is common when you have continuously wet leaf blades of at least 10 hours or so. Cloudy weather, humid nights and dew increase disease severity.  Brown patch is also particularly bad on areas the have been fertilized with excessive nitrogen.  This winter we have been fertilizing more than usual to try and keep the greens growing throughout the winter.  We sprayed a fungicide called Daconil Weather Stik at 4.9oz/m and by the end of the week we had control on the disease.  Attached are some pictures of brown patch that was on our putting green and our assistant superintendent   Craig Robinson spraying  fungicide last week.  We also had Terry Sisco with Sisco Turf Services come in and take care of some stumps we had on the course.  Terry ground down 27 stumps in about 8 hours and really cleaned up the course.  Attached are some pictures and also a video of Terry in action on #11.  Terry will be back on the property next month to deep tine our greens again during aerification.  


Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Cart Traffic

It's a new year and I thought I would start it off by talking about our cart traffic on the golf course.  You have probably noticed that we have put up some ropes and stakes again around the course.  We felt like we had to do something to stop the traffic around greens and tees or we would regret it come spring time. Please help the maintenance department  by staying on the cart path around all tees and greens.  We are cart path only on all par 3's.  Below is an article that I would like for you to take the time and read.  Thank you for your support in this matter.

The article is written by Bud White, Director of the USGA's Green Section's Mid-Continent Region is titled:

Buddy Up: Reduce single rider golf cart use to improve turf health and quality.

http://gsr.lib.msu.edu/article/white-buddy-11-30-12.pdf