week 21 update

Week 21 hasn't been to bad, the mornings are fairly mild, and with the grass slowing down a bit we save some man-hours to do other jobs an example of just one area on the course is the mowing of the rough with the tractor and stealth mower, for the average week it takes about 33 man-hours so during the growing season we have one guy (usually Adrian ) tied up on the stealth mowing the rough, so this week,with the rough not growing much we decided not to put the stealth out. This enabled some free man-hours to do other things, like cut down the 4 dead trees on the left hand side of the 14th, trim some trees on 18th 2nd, do a path run , fix the ruts near the 11th tee, reface all the bunkers , wiper-snip the creek along the 6th and plant some more plants in the garden area,do a couple of jobs for the garden ladies and also to clean up after the rain last weekend.
We also got the greens sprayed this week, as it is important we get some potassium into the plant before that first frost comes along.This will strengthen the plant leaf and the cell walls in the plant, helping protect it against wear and stress and damage which is a important part of our management to keep the greens out of dormancy.
On the tees you will notice where we have been incorporating seed with our topdressing of divots, the seed is growing well, hopefully we won't have totally chopped up tees come July as we usually have, but so far with our plan of more regular fertilizing with less actual product(because if the fertilizer is too strong it will kill the young shoots of grass just germinating) and the addition of seed in the sand used for divots is going ok.
well thats about it for this week a special thanks to the garden ladies who have been very busy in the last few weeks, obviously been getting stuck into the weeding, as we took away six big trailer loads full of weeds well done the clubhouse and gardens are looking great.
well to next time keep swinging pete

week 21 update

Well you can tell then the winter is nearly upon us the boys are rugged up in the mornings as can be seen here Trev and Phil with there jackets on.
This is a interesting time for us as the grass growth rate slows down it is important that we keep the turf as healthy as possible and try to reduce the amount of stress placed upon it as much as we can, all whilst keeping the putting surface smooth and at a fair pace.
The big concern for us is if the greens go into dormancy there is no getting them back out of dormancy until spring.
so with the pennants over and with the leaf laying over as there isn't as much sun to stand it upright we will mow the greens less often , we will still dew off for comps , and we have lifted the height by 1mm this will strengthen the plant up while maintaining a good roll
a good example of a green in dormancy is if you look at the back of the first green it has just started to head towards dormancy if let keep going the plant will retract and leaf will disappear then all that is left is the thatch layer , which in our greens there isn't much of.
Well around the course you will notice the right hand side of the 14th has been tidied up at this stage we will let this grow over and now it has been shaped we will be able to mow it
we have also started to plant out the garden on the 4th i'm still waiting to receive my main plants from our nursery
well to next time keep swinging pete

week 19 update

This week was mostly taken up with fixing water main pipes that have broken, the major ones were on the 1st,11th and 18th with the colder weather the ground contracts more putting pressure on the old pipe system thus in some cases where there was a small crack it breaks, we usually try to do several at a time as the cost of getting in the excavator and hire of it is very costly so if a leak is not too bad and out of the way of play we will often let it go until we have three such areas to fix
On the new automatic side we have gone through the system and fixed all the faults in the decoders so it is operating properly and we have just got three leaks on that side one on the 5th one on the 6th and the one on the 8th we have got the parts on the way to attend those problems so all should be good in a week or two....for a while anyway
till next time keep swinging pete

week 18 update

well another short week and our two apprentices away at TAFE for two week giving us a shortfall of 132 manhours thus only the core jobs got done this week, you will notice some areas of the rough are long these areas will have to wait to next week so keep on the mowed areas.
The areas on the 5th and 6th green where the phantom sprayer has struck, we have changed our plan of attack, originally we were going to sod cut and re-turf the area, but a big concern was getting it back into play and smooth by the 11th of Sept, we have opted to try using a type of grass (Poa trivialis) ,we will verti-cut around the collar and over the sprayed areas, then over-sow with the poa triv and this way we will keep the levels of the surface and have it back in play sooner.
Finally around a few greens you will see some pieces of black hose this is to keep the birds away from the greens and from digging holes in the turf so far is is working, so if you land near it just move it out of the way don't fling it into the rough as we need to keep around the surrounds area of the greens.
well that's all for this week till next time keep swinging pete

who is the phantom sprayer ?

WHO is the Sprayer ???

Unfortunantly some people trying to help out by spot spraying weeds have sprayed round up on the green surface on the 5th and 6th greens, unfortunantly this area will not recover until next summer which is a shame as the weeds sprayed would have disappeared as soon as we get a cold morning as they are a annual type of plant.
This area is now a major problem with some big tournaments comming up we are forced to sod cut the area, level it as best we can and turf out the area. But to get it back as part of the green it will take a complete growing season to topdress out. thus it will be this time next year before the area is back to normal
As a consequence, we are now enforcing that no spraying be done on the course proper unless you are on my spray persons list, these positions will only be available to those doing the mounds and some gardens.
The cost of turf alone to repair the 5th is just over $1000.00 then we have hire of sod cutters and for the 6th a excavator so possible costing of well over $6000.00 and time and labour of fixing this up so other jobs on the course will have to be droped to accommodate the time put into fixing the 5th and 6th greens
So if you see anyone spraying weeds please ask them to stop or report them to management or commitee we have to stop this before any more damage is done. thanks peter Daly