- Get greens in shape as soon as frost gone by cleaning, rolling then mowing and getting those pins in!
- Stop the rain and warm up those soil temperatures!
- Every time we get the slightest bit of rain, the ground is saturated and limits our ability to use larger equipment (mowers, rollers, sprayers, blowers, sweepers, etc.) which optimize our maintenance efficiency.
- Make our Poa Annua seed-head suppression applications.
- Many of you may not remember what it was like when we did not do this.
- I may skip a few small spots in fine turf areas to help remind you.
- Obliviously very small spots with limited impact
- Imperative we do at right timing or playing conditions and Poa Annua health will suffer!
- 1st application on greens slated for tomorrow.
- We will not mow the greens again until next week because we want to achieve maximum efficacy by letting product remain on leaf blade for maximum absorption. We will roll Friday in preparation for ABCD tournament on Saturday.
- If weather permits (expecting rain Friday night), we will whip dew off greens Saturday AM for the 9:00AM Shotgun.
- Tee and fairway applications will be completed early next week as weather allows.
- Pre-emergent Crabgrass applications on tees and fairways will begin as soon as the first mowing is complete. Estimated timing is next week in conjunction with seed-head prevention applications.
- There has been concern about crabgrass prevention applications being counterproductive to divot & seed mix germination program. This is untrue. Preventative crabgrass applications work by creating a barrier that juvenile crabgrass seedlings hit as they sprout. As they pass through the herbicide barrier the seedlings are killed.
- When a divot is taken by a player, the barrier is physically removed in the "chunk" of turf.
- We replace the divot with a soil medium that is sterile (no weed seed) and is designed to hold moisture so the expensive seed we use has the best chance of germination.
- All this said... remember that we do not over water tees and fairways during the season for the sake of seed germination in divots. Our primary goal is a fast firm playing surface. Replacement of divots at that time would be worse because they dry out and die and then the mower rolls it out of the hole. All that is left is a player facing a shot from an unfilled divot.
- We are aerifying greens beginning Monday April 14th!
- We are using the same size tines as always, one-half inch diameter
- We will proceed as quickly as possible to accomplish the process including overseeding and topdressing.
- How fast the greens heal is truly dependent on soil temperatures. The warmer the better! More seed will germinate and existing turf will fill in.
Lets get this season going!
