Welcome to our blog,the weather in October allowed us to solid tine the greens and complete our top dressing programme for the year.
We also applied a preventative fungicide spray to control a potential onset of Fusarium Patch.
Fusarium is a turf disease that can be damaging to the greens killing the plant, creating patches on the surfaces which affects the smoothness and aesthetics of the greens.
The weather conditions throughout October were ideal for its development with the warm,humid weather favoring an outbreak.
The 7th gents tee was levelled and turfed, and the back tee at the 8th was levelled and over seeded, similar to the work we completed on the 4th tee last year.
The picture shows our sweep and fill brush working the top dressing in to the canopy of the greens turf.
The brush is very effective and after a couple of passes the dressing is worked in to the tine holes.
This action allows the dressing to fill the tine holes and enables good ball roll to be achieved with minimal surface disturbance.
Drainage work at the 15th green
Early October we started draining the 15th green. Overall the green performs well throughout most of the year.
However in periods of heavy rain the drainage qualities were slow in removing the water,
It was decided to put a complete new drainage system into the green and surround.
We used an AFT trencher to dig out the drainage channels.
The machine gave us a neat finish allowing for minimal disturbance to the playing surface.
The picture on the right shows the main drain cut out with the laterals in position.
Levels are checked throughout the work, and the pipe work and joints are positioned in the trenches.
To reduce any sinkage in the trenches the stone and rootzone are firmed down before the turf is put back in place.
We will then use the Toro turf iron to roll the turf to aid settlement .
This work will be carried out over the next couple of months to achieve smoothness on the surface
Removing leaves off the course.
Over the next couple of months we will
The tractor mounted blower does a great job,especially when the wind is in a favorable direction.
With the blower positioned on the three point linkage of the tractor it allows us to remove the leaves with minimal marking to the turf.
We also use the blower in the growing season to blow the cut grass in the rough,giving us better presentation in the cut areas.
November work programme.
We hope to start work on bunker management in November alongside levelling up the 9th gents tee.
The course preparation will continue if the weather stays mild with cutting raking, aeration,and leaf blowing keeping us busy. ( Weather Permitting!!!!!)
Terry Wharton Head Greenkeeper
