Welcome to my blog!
It is my intention to give the readers a better understanding of what we do to maintain The Farms Country Club's 18 hole championship golf course and grounds.


Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Hottest June on Record! No Let Up In July!

We are on pace to have one of the hottest summers on record. Throw in the consistently excessive humidity and you have a recipe for intense turf stress. This coupled with a predominately Poa Annua golf course can make for a difficult growing season.
We have been doing great so far considering the circumstances. Our tees and greens have been outstanding but we are seeing the poa on our fairways exhibit normal mid-summer stress symptoms. I'll take the normal stress symptoms in this type of weather. Regardless of our execution of proper fertilizer and pesticide applications, Poa Annua just isn't built to withstand long periods of heat and humidity. While we have nothing to be alarmed about, I want our members to be aware that those small areas of discoloration are normal for the fairways even in a less stressful summer. Our goal is to continue to baby the turf through the rest of the season. The "Superintendents' Countdown to Labor Day" has begun. Only 48 days left until we turn the corner towards better weather. Both the turf and its caretakers will be able to expel a sigh of relief and enter the road to recovery.
Disease pressure has been intense in all areas but we have been on top of its control thus far. We have had to shorten intervals between pesticide applications to adjust to the unusual weather pattern. Not unexpected. Diseases like Pythium Blight, Brown Patch, Dollar Spot, Anthracnose and Summer Patch are all of concern to turf managers in mid summer. To the chagrin of all superintendents, this season is shaping up to be a banner year for university turf pathologists and pesticide salesmen (industry humor).
I will continue to keep everyone apprised of our status as the season progresses.

To my readers that would like to learn more about course conditions in the northeast, here are a couple of excellent websites to bookmark...

"Turf Diseases, Golf Course Disease Updates by University Proffessors"... Dr. John Kaminski from Penn State heads up the Northeast region updates on the blog... Click on the Northeast icon at top of site

http://turfdiseases.blogspot.com/

USGA Green Section Regional Updates... Click on Northeast region of map on their site

http://www.usga.org/Content.aspx?id=26223


Anthracnose
Dollar Spot
Pythium Blight

Brown Patch

Summer Patch