Monday, March 22, 2010

Why Greens have to be renovated.

Why Greens have to be renovated!


Renovations Love it or Hate it ……. actually I haven’t found anyone in my 27 years green-keeping who love it but each year, on or around the third Monday in February and on the first Monday in October, the greens are renovated. This happens each year and the dates are always in the fixture book. No doubt members think that this happens every year just when the greens are at their best. The reason that they are at their best is because they were renovated the previous year.

Greens face two major problems, one compaction and the other thatch. Compaction is caused by foot traffic, machinery, irrigation and rainfall. Thatch is a layer of organic matter between the top of the grass and the soil, it is naturally occurring in that the older leaves lay over and die as new leaves grow up through the turf surface.

Compacted greens do not allow water to get down to the roots. This will result in greens drying out and eventually dying back. If die back occurs greens may never recover or at best take many years to recover. To stop die back occurring it is necessary to core the greens. This involves the use of a machine, which takes out a large number of pencil shaped pieces of the green. These holes, so created, allow the oxygen, nutrients and water to get down to the root zone. As we do not have our own renovation equipment we have to employ outside expertise.

Thatch is removed during the October renovation, by a special machine, operated also by an outside expert who is booked from year to year by a number of courses. The material that the machine removes is actually large amounts of thatch. Thatch that is not controlled can cause the greens to become soft and spongy, roll inconsistently and be much more likely susceptible to disease spreading through them.

Unless renovations are carried out the greens can become diseased, play inconsistently or even die back which then to make right becomes costly and time consuming Thus it is important these renovations are carried out at the optimum time for turf recovery so that for most months of the year we have greens that run true and are in good health..
to next time keep swinging....pete

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