Welcome to our July blog.
The time is flying bye, we've been busy on various jobs throughout the month. As usual i'll touch on the weather, and we all know it was disappointing with cool temperatures and heavy periods of rain!!!!
We hope, August can give us some decent days.
We recently applied a top dressing to the greens, bringing our application amount up to 80 tonnes, our yearly target is 100 tonnes. We will reach our total over the next couple of months after deep aeration followed up with the applications.
In previous blogs i have explained the benefits of top dressing and how it enables the greens surface to firm up , break down layers of fibre in the upper profile of the root zone, and creates soil conditions that drain well and allow the desirable bent grasses to develop.
The picture below shows member of the green's team Jack Hosker using the Toro 3250 greens machine towing the sweep and fill brush which was demonstrated by Cheshire Turf Machinery.
The brush system was brilliant and really worked the dressing into the sward leaving the surface great to putt on after the top dressing application.
Sweep and fill Brush System.
Fairway work.
The Fairways have held up well this year.
The regular vertidraining and the early season application spray of soluble iron checked any moss, they were scarified with the wessex machine, with this work setting them up nicely for the season.
We constantly monitor areas of weed on the fairways surfaces, and try to produce a total grass sward to aid greater presentation.
The presentation of the fairways is so important, and this has been aided with the use of divot bags which are positioned at the 1st and 10th tees.
The bags contain compost and seed that enable the golfers to fill in their divots and any others they may come across. The sign above the frame allows us to target various fairways throughout the week.
Pictured below is our frame and divot bags at the 10th tee.
In August we hope to Vertidrain our greens and tees,top dress, apply our monthly applications of plant growth regulator, conditioner and wetting agent. We aim to over seed our greens and continue with course presentation.
Terry Wharton Head Greenkeeper
