Fall disease pressure

As we progress into the winter months our old friend Fusarium has made its ugly appearance. We have been on a pretty aggressive fungicide application schedule this fall, which has me perplexed as to why we had such an outbreak. Generally, with a schedule of applying fungicides on a regular basis we can keep the disease in check.

Fusarium #5 green

Fusarium left unchecked can get pretty ugly and leave the putting surface bumpy. One of the problems in contracting the disease during this time of the year is that it is difficult to get the turf to recover due to the winter time slow down in turfgrass growth. We are doing everything we can to help protect what has not been infected. The picture below was taken after we applied a granular product. If you look closely you can see some recovery already taking place in the middle of the spot.

Fungicide application

Canterwood as you know is a very shaded golf course during the winter months. This is one reason why I think it has been difficult to keep the disease from staying away. Cool, overcast, wet and shady conditions all add up to perfect conditions for the disease to appear. The good news is that with continued applications it will recover over time.

Fall project

In an effort to help clean things up around the snack shack/restroom building, the maintenance crew has been clearing some small trees and removing the underbrush. This will enhance the look of the area and help keep tree debris from damaging the roof any further. This will also allow more light into the area which will help keep the moss from getting any worse. We are looking into assessing the condition of the roof and will be making plans to deal with its condition.

Snack Shack/Restroom Brush and Tree Clearing

View from behind looking towards 9 green

We've only just begun the work in this area. We intend to brush and clear small trees down to the waters edge on the number 9 lake. You can't see it very well in the photo above, but the protective netting fence is still in good shape and in position to protect against balls coming into the entrance of the restrooms from the number 9 tee.

Fall update

As we head into our first measurable rainfall expected Friday into next week, the maintenance crew has been busy getting in as many mowing frequencies as possible. The turfgrass is continuing to grow, but at a much slower pace.We know that when it rains it can pour here, which will then limit our ability to get some of  the mowers out onto the golf course. We are also looking at conducting some improvements to the irrigation system. You might ask why are they doing that now, it's going to rain. We want to target areas now that we know have issues and make the corrections before we turn off the sprinkler system due to freezing temperatures. We also have a better idea of where the specific areas are due to the discoloration in the turf from the summer stress. When spring rolls around we will be busy fixing any leaks and energizing the system, which leaves very little time for improvements. Once we have some of the irrigation done we will move onto drainage projects. We've targeted several areas around the golf course that have been giving us trouble and need fixing. 

As of  late you will have noticed the greens speeds have picked up. Some of this is due to the verticutting we've done and the fact that we've had cooler temperatures at night and now during the day. We've managed to keep our disease in check for the most part, but cold wet overcast days are a recipe for our friend fusarium to reappear.

Lets hope for some minimal rain and more sunny weather! 

Post aerification

As of today, September 19th, we have completed 90% of our aerification process. Both of our fairway aerators developed  mechanical problems, one will be fixed in the next several days. The other will require more time and probably won't be ready until next year. Because of the problems, we have decided to solid tine the back nine fairways to finish the process. Our final aerating will be in the roughs, which will be attempted next week. 

As part of the process, you will have noticed we have fertilized as well, pretty much wall to wall. The greens are progressing nicely with a very quick recovery. The current weather has been a big help for healing in the holes. Within another week green speeds will have totally recovered and you should see speeds up around 10 or 10 1/2 on the stimp meter. We are planning to verticut and lightly sand on next Monday the 24th. This process will help smooth out some of the bumpiness that can creep in after aerification.

In case your wondering why we waited to aerate the putting green, we simply wanted to provide as much practice area while we were closed during aerification week . It should be back in good condition as well within a couple of weeks.

In trying to push the sand down on the greens with our watering practices, you may experience some wet areas in the surrounds on some greens and tees. This is normal due to the inability of our sprinkler system to apply water to just the greens and specific areas on the tees. Please be patient as these will continue to get better as we back off the water.

A big thank you goes out to my crew who worked very hard to get all of the aeration processes done by Wednesday. They did an outstanding job.

As we prepare for the fall and winter months,  I'd like to thank our members for their patience during this process. I know things get a little messy out there during this time.

Fall Aerification

This Sunday at 3pm we will be starting our aerification process.  We will be following play after 3pm starting on hole #1. The golf course will be closed Monday through Wednesday. Greens and Fairway aerification will take place first and should be finished by the end of the day on Tuesday. We will be using a smaller 1/2" tine on the greens to help heal faster. The fairway tines will be a 3/4" split tine. This will help the plugs that are pulled out to break down faster, so there is minimal disruption on the surface. Once the greens are done we will proceed to the tees. If our weather cooperates and equipment holds together we should have most everything done by the end of the day on Friday.

Thank you in advance for your patience during this process. We're looking forward to great conditions going into the fall and winter months.

Maintenance Update and Audubon Certification

On Monday of this week we verticut and lightly sanded the greens. This agronomic process is necessary to help smooth out the greens and also help keep our thatch level in check. Initially the greens can actually speed up right after the topdressing, but once the mower has been used a couple of times they tend to slow down due to the dulling of the bedknife on the mower. The very fine sand dulls the mower very quickly. Once we feel the sand has worked down a bit into the green, we place our walking mowers out to get the speed back up again. This can take several days as the sand is still present and keeping the mowers from cutting as good as they can. We will sharpen them after a few days once we know the sand is not being picked up by the mower. The speeds should increase as we will roll them as well. Thanks for your patience during this time, we try and keep the greens as consistent as we can and this process helps in this area.

We are in the planning process of becoming a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. As one part of the process we are forming an Resource Advisory Group. The purpose of the group is to assist us in the planning and implementation of various projects and offer technical advice. Group members also help to disseminate information and help to publicize our efforts. Group members can also volunteer time or labor to help monitor enhancement efforts and help with developing an inventory of plants and animals on the property.

If you are interested in getting involved as a Advisory Group member or just want to volunteer for some of the projects, please send me an email at  john.hicks@ourclub.com. You can also call me on my cell phone at 805-433-4643 

Additionally, if you know of anybody locally outside of our membership who has some expertise in this area and would like to be involved please let me know, we could use the help.

Thank you

Recent agronomic actvity

If you've been to the golf course in the last couple of days you will have noticed we aerated the greens with our needle tines and aerated with bigger tines on the collars. The needle tine aerification helps to let air and water penetrate the surface making for better growing conditions. The aerification on the collars is an attempt to alleviate some dry compacted areas and to provide air and water movement into the soil. We will be conducting some additional aerification throughout the golf course where we are starting to see some dry areas forming.

Our irrigation system has flaws and we are actively making improvements and adjustment as we go through the summer months. You may experience some very wet areas out there, primarily around some tee complexes and in the roughs. We are trying very hard to clear these up the best we can. Because the system we have is not a single head control system, it requires a lot of turning on and off sprinklers manually in some areas. Sometimes we don't get it right and we have to make adjustments. There has been some concerns that the course is too wet and I agree, in some areas. Our philosophy is to try and keep the turfgrass in the best possible condition both in color and in turfgrass health. Drying the course out will only invite disease, kill grass, make the course look ugly, and make for recovery in the fall much harder. It will also make it much more difficult for any kind of good playing conditions to exist in the winter months. Also note, that we try and keep the course just a little bit on the wet side going into a predicted heat spell as well. All in all it's a difficult balancing act between too wet and too dry, we strive for something in the middle as best we can.

Please feel free to contact me if there are areas that you have concerns with and we'll do the best we can to solve the problem.