Greens Report
August Report
Greens Report August
August has been a very busy month with our maintenance week completed, but not without its complications. The planned drainage work was also completed during maintenance week which all went to plan apart from the irrigation being damaged on holes 7, 10, 12 and 15. The damage has now been repaired and the irrigation is now up and running.
Two weeks before maintenance week the greens were sprayed with T-Thatch which is a biostimulant that decomposes thatch within the profile of the greens and creates the decomposed thatch into available nutrients for the plant. It is important to apply this product 2 weeks before maintenance week to give the product time to work and this will aid the thatch removal process of scarifying and verticutting. Another biostimulant was added into the sprayer called Rocastem which acts as a liquid aerator. A few days later we applied a liquid feed and iron to strengthen the greens before maintenance week.
The first day of maintenance week all greens were cut before scarifying began. This gives a nice clean drier surface for the scaifyer to work on. The greens were then scarified by the local contractor we use with his tractor mounted scarifier to a depth of 12mm below the surface.
The reason we use a contractor for scarifying is because his tractor mounted machine can achieve a greater working depth and remove more thatch than we would be able to with our scarifying units.
The next process was to verticut greens to a depth of 4mm, verticutting also removes some thatch and closes the grooves made by the scarifier.
When verticutting was completed, greens were then microcored with our dynacorer units, the cores were then all cleared and collected. We take all the cores and store them at the sheds, we can then use these to repair damage or worn areas. All greens were then overseeded with 80kg of Bent Seed and topdressed with 16 tonnes of sand which was then brushed into the core holes and scarifiying grooves. A granular fertilizer was then applied to aid recovery after the works.
Around 10 days after seeding we began to see the seed germinating; however, greens did not recover as quickly as we’d have liked. This mainly due to very dry, windy weather before and after maintenance week and due to the damage to the irrigation we were without the use of our irrigation system for a couple of days. The greens are now starting to recover well.
All our planned drainage work was completed on time by contractors. As you may have noticed the drain runs are starting to recover nicely, some however have sunk slightly which was expected. Once the runs are grown in sufficiently, we will top up the runs where needed. The drains that have been installed will help dry out these areas and allow us to tap into these existing runs to drain other areas. It will also allow us to gravel band wet areas into the main drainage. After our last substantial amount of rain all new drainage outlets were checked, and all seem to be working well. There was approximately 1,630 metres of drainage installed on holes 7, 9, 10, 12, 14 and 15. The 100mm pipe was trenched in at 450mm deep, backfilled with 325mm of 2-6mm gravel and then topped off with 80:20 rootzone mix. It was then finished off with seeding the runs with a Rye/Fescue mix of seed. As mentioned earlier the only problem we encountered was the contractors trenching through the main irrigation pipe on the 10th hole which was quickly repaired by Boden’s Plumbers who we would like to thank for their prompt service.
The irrigation electrics were also damaged in a few different places, but Ian McKaig was quickly onsite to repair the damaged electrics. We would like to thank Ian for his work and prompt response.
As you will have noticed the new ditches on the right-hand side of the 4th hole and left side of the 13th hole were also completed by a local contractor, along with dredging the pond on the 1st hole. We are hoping the ditch on the left of the 4th will catch water that runs off the field adjacent to the 4th hole. The ditch on the 13th should also catch a lot of water during the winter months, it also gives us the option to drain into this ditch and gravel band into it. The pond and ditch of the right of the 7th fairway has also been cleared out to allow water to move more freely into the pond which will aid the new drainage.
We would like to thank Dave Bradshaw for cutting the hedge along the right of the 4th hole and for flail mowing the new track to the left of the 12th hole and the ditch on the right of the 7th hole. Thanks to John Hill for watering the seed on the new drain runs. Thanks also to Robin Conner for his continued work cutting the grassed area in the car park and maintaining the hedges. And finally, thanks to Paul Harris for his help installing the new simulator.
Thanks Greens Team
August has been a very busy month with our maintenance week completed, but not without its complications. The planned drainage work was also completed during maintenance week which all went to plan apart from the irrigation being damaged on holes 7, 10, 12 and 15. The damage has now been repaired and the irrigation is now up and running.
Two weeks before maintenance week the greens were sprayed with T-Thatch which is a biostimulant that decomposes thatch within the profile of the greens and creates the decomposed thatch into available nutrients for the plant. It is important to apply this product 2 weeks before maintenance week to give the product time to work and this will aid the thatch removal process of scarifying and verticutting. Another biostimulant was added into the sprayer called Rocastem which acts as a liquid aerator. A few days later we applied a liquid feed and iron to strengthen the greens before maintenance week.
The first day of maintenance week all greens were cut before scarifying began. This gives a nice clean drier surface for the scaifyer to work on. The greens were then scarified by the local contractor we use with his tractor mounted scarifier to a depth of 12mm below the surface.
The reason we use a contractor for scarifying is because his tractor mounted machine can achieve a greater working depth and remove more thatch than we would be able to with our scarifying units.
The next process was to verticut greens to a depth of 4mm, verticutting also removes some thatch and closes the grooves made by the scarifier.
When verticutting was completed, greens were then microcored with our dynacorer units, the cores were then all cleared and collected. We take all the cores and store them at the sheds, we can then use these to repair damage or worn areas. All greens were then overseeded with 80kg of Bent Seed and topdressed with 16 tonnes of sand which was then brushed into the core holes and scarifiying grooves. A granular fertilizer was then applied to aid recovery after the works.
Around 10 days after seeding we began to see the seed germinating; however, greens did not recover as quickly as we’d have liked. This mainly due to very dry, windy weather before and after maintenance week and due to the damage to the irrigation we were without the use of our irrigation system for a couple of days. The greens are now starting to recover well.
All our planned drainage work was completed on time by contractors. As you may have noticed the drain runs are starting to recover nicely, some however have sunk slightly which was expected. Once the runs are grown in sufficiently, we will top up the runs where needed. The drains that have been installed will help dry out these areas and allow us to tap into these existing runs to drain other areas. It will also allow us to gravel band wet areas into the main drainage. After our last substantial amount of rain all new drainage outlets were checked, and all seem to be working well. There was approximately 1,630 metres of drainage installed on holes 7, 9, 10, 12, 14 and 15. The 100mm pipe was trenched in at 450mm deep, backfilled with 325mm of 2-6mm gravel and then topped off with 80:20 rootzone mix. It was then finished off with seeding the runs with a Rye/Fescue mix of seed. As mentioned earlier the only problem we encountered was the contractors trenching through the main irrigation pipe on the 10th hole which was quickly repaired by Boden’s Plumbers who we would like to thank for their prompt service.
The irrigation electrics were also damaged in a few different places, but Ian McKaig was quickly onsite to repair the damaged electrics. We would like to thank Ian for his work and prompt response.
As you will have noticed the new ditches on the right-hand side of the 4th hole and left side of the 13th hole were also completed by a local contractor, along with dredging the pond on the 1st hole. We are hoping the ditch on the left of the 4th will catch water that runs off the field adjacent to the 4th hole. The ditch on the 13th should also catch a lot of water during the winter months, it also gives us the option to drain into this ditch and gravel band into it. The pond and ditch of the right of the 7th fairway has also been cleared out to allow water to move more freely into the pond which will aid the new drainage.
We would like to thank Dave Bradshaw for cutting the hedge along the right of the 4th hole and for flail mowing the new track to the left of the 12th hole and the ditch on the right of the 7th hole. Thanks to John Hill for watering the seed on the new drain runs. Thanks also to Robin Conner for his continued work cutting the grassed area in the car park and maintaining the hedges. And finally, thanks to Paul Harris for his help installing the new simulator.
Thanks Greens Team