Fertiliser & Turf Nutrition

Hello everyone

I have been aiming to put out a blog post on the use of fertiliser for a while now - specifically to answer a range of questions and provide some (hopefully) informative content. This week, we have carried out this task too so it's perhaps a good time to explore this topic.

Obviously, any members reading this might reasonably ask "how does this affect me and my golf?" So with that, let's dive in.

Fertiliser is plant food, in basic parlance.

We apply it several times per year and always on the back of a soil test. For this blog, let's focus on greens as they are the most important area of the golf course.

The main reasons we apply fertiliser are as follows:

• Turfgrass growth
• Turfgrass recovery
• Turfgrass resilience
• Surface uniformity
• Correction of soil nutrient deficiencies

Before we look at each, let's clarify that fertiliser is only applied to golf greens because there is a genuine need for it. We don't apply it for any other reason eg a company sales rep is providing us with a cheap 'deal'.

Turfgrass growth

All grasses need fertiliser for growth so that we can meet the seasonal demand for mowing, irrigation, aeration, topdressing - and play of course ! The main source we are most concerned with is Nitrogen. It is the mineral most required for turf growth. 

Nitrogen is available in many forms; Urea, Ammonia, Nitrate are perhaps familiar to some of you. Each provides growth in different ways. Some release that Nitrogen quickly, others more slowly. Often, these Nitrogen sources are blended together to provide both immediate and longer term impact

In terms of growth itself, we are aiming to provide just enough to provide a putting surface but not too much whereby grass is being siloed off daily by the mowing machinery. We don't want yield. Moreover, it is density that is sought so that the surfaces are resilient

Turfgrass recovery

This is fairly self explanatory but we need recovery as the golf played on the greens can be quite intensive. Think of all the competition play and how full the BRS tee sheet can get. Hence the greens turf needs to be able to recover after a day's play. When we undertake processes such as verticutting or mowing or topdressing, these can all impact the surface and that's also why greens turf needs nutrition

Turfgrass resilience

Related to the above points, different forms of nutrition affect the turf in different ways. Potassium is useful for stress, Phosphorus for rooting and seed development, Iron for colour and hardiness. 

In particular, the different seasons and varying weather patterns all affect turf resilience. It might be a drought period where little rain has fallen but golf is still being played regularly. It could be intensive periods of heavy rain where the surface is being endlessly saturated. Or it could be very short days in Winter when there's little sun and lots of darkness. 

In all instances, there's generally a second order effect on the turf. This might manifest in turf disease or turf thinning or turf discolouration. Hence the need for appropriate nutrition to support the grass.

Surface uniformity

How do we get a smooth surface for putting on? We fertilise for growth, ensure the mower is set up to provide an even cut, cut or roll according to growth and seasonal demand, apply irrigation (in the event of no rain) and topdress to smooth out the surface depressions or irregularities

But essentially, fertiliser provides the means for the other tasks to be carried out effectively

Correction of soil nutrient deficiences

Generally, these are determined by a soil test. Then a suitable fertiliser is applied to address any identified issues. It's a bit like taking a multi vitamin. The food you consume might not quite be enough for you and the needs of your body. The same principle applies with grass

So, we've identified different needs. Now let's look quickly at their application and how these can impact golf.

Generally, there are 3 types of fertiliser; granular, liquid and soluble. Granular is generally a pelleted/prilled form, liquid is diluted with water for spray applications and soluble is in a pelleted/prilled or powder form that is dissolved in water and for spray applications. 

Granular fertilisers have more longevity. Liquid fertilisers are very short lived. Soluble is a mid-point of the two, generally. Application of granular fertilisers generally entails less frequency/labour time whereas liquid applications demand frequent labour time. Granular applications take time to break down, liquid applications have no interruption to golf. 

Fine granular fertiliser (above)

Which is better? Personally, I prefer granualar fertilisers as we're feeding the soil. Our USGA (sand based) greens can also leach nutrients as sand generally doesn't hold onto nutrient like a clay based soil does. Hence the nutritional demands for sand based soils are higher. 

The downside, and it may be observed by golfers, is that granulars can take up to a week to fully break down. The implications can be quite testing for golfers and greenkeepers alike. We apply the product and need moisture (rain or irrigation) to break down the granules. But that affects our ability to mow as we don't want to collect the product on the mower rollers or blades. A morning dew can often hinder plans to mow as dew is very sticky and mowing with a surface dew is a sure fire way of picking up that freshly applied fertiliser.

Using mower with no grass boxes to return clippings/fertiliser (above)

So what we do is try to perform late morning/afternoon mowing. The sun is likely to be up by then and maybe some wind will help dry that surface. Once we get weather cooperation, we mow without the grass boxes. In this way, we ensure the product stays on the surface and it's being slowly crushed before it disappears completely. 

Double cut green with better turf density (above)

This week has been one such instance. The greens might have appeared (and putted) wooly/slow. That is the fertiliser breaking down, picking up growth but the unpredictable weather hasn't allowed daily mowing. Either rain or dew have created barriers. They are much further on today (Friday 27 September) than when the fertiliser was applied (Monday 23 September). By next week, it won't be visible.

Hopefully, you're a bit more informed now about fertiliser and turf nutrition!

Enjoy your golf

Ben Allen

Early Autumn report

Hello members (including more new ones - welcome!)

Well, it's been another strange sort of year. We've just finished the second week of September and all of us greens' staff have been wearing bobble hats 10th-13th September. Temperatures have cooled right down and we've had some cool winds too. That said, it's still better than this time last year when we'd had pretty miserable (wet) July, August and Septembers. So I guess we'll take it !

Last week was the planned greens renovation week and it's nice to say that it went very well. The results 7-10 days post work are excellent. 

To recap, this was the schedule of events:

• Monday 2nd September:

1. Isolated hollow coring on greens 1, 3, 7 and 9 to address low spots where rainfall can gather and where golfers generally walk on/off ie more compacted areas
2. Top dress holes with clean top dressing sand and dragmat into holes

• Tuesday 3rd September:

1. Greens cut with brush
2. Scarifying x1 direction to -10mm depth
3. Verticut x2 directions to -3mm depth
4. Blow off debris 
5. Overseed greens x3 directions with creeping bent/browntop bent seed
6. Topdress greens with light top dressing
7. Dragmat dressing 
8. Vibro roll greens to firm and smooth surfaces

• Wednesday 4th September:

1. Application of fertiliser to promote recovery and provide nutrition for early Autumn

By the weekend of 7th/8th September, it wasn't overly apparent to most golfers that this level of work had been carried out. This is the intention ! We now do a lot less work to these greens with each passing year because the greens are very stable and the soil profiles are very good. Hence recovery after such work is very quick. It's a Win/Win scenario

A couple of weeks ago at a weekend, there was a hydraulic oil leak on the 5th green. It is the first such instance that I can remember in 10 years and unfortunately, if you work in this industry for long enough, the odds dictate that this will happen at a certain point in time

We have contacted our regular turf supplier and whilst we can order the turf, the cost to deliver just a few rolls of turf is significant because the courier still has to deliver them on a pallet. So the delivery costs and costs for the turf elevate the actual unit cost per roll of turf exponentially

What I intend to do is go and collect the required rolls and repair this very small area within the next week or two. We've just had to get greens renovation week out of the way and next week's fairway verti-cutting also. Following that, we will have much more flexibility to execute this repair. Please bear with us until then

The summer drainage work has now consolidated and recovered very well. Granted, some of the trenches - particularly around the 5th green complex, are still marginally exposed. However, that is not the worst thing for that area of the course as it has traditionally been a wetter area. With that in mind, we will allow the grass surrounding these trenches to 'grow over'. In time, they will be less visible but still perform their role. It has gone well and the members that I've talked to about it have all commented on the clean, tidy finish and lack of impact on the course; no wheel marks, no damage and very little interruption to golf either

As we head into Autumn, leaves are starting to fall so we'll be busy with that over the next 8-12 weeks. Some have already fallen with the strong winds of the last 2-3 weeks

The golf course has been very popular again this year with plenty of new members and many visitors. It's great to see and the golf club has performed very well, financially, again. This all contributes to improving the facility with re-investment and ultimately, this is what we aim to do each year

There has been some excellent work carried out by volunteers this summer; Tom Frame, John Newns, John Mercer, Pete Bibby, George Ashurst and Alan Ritchie have all attended on Tuesdays or Thursdays. We've also had Mike Smith and Bob Sabberton clearing around the 9th pond. Many thanks fellas. We appreciate anything that is offered and understand that volunteering is not expected. But to have these chaps strimming, hedge cutting etc is always welcome

I hope the weather behaves itself heading into Autumn and that plenty of golf can be enjoyed

Enjoy your golf

Ben Allen

Summer report - 2024

Greetings from the day after another downpour!

Well, it's been one of those years again. Not many warm, sunny days to be thankful for. That said, there have been plenty of things going on out on the golf course.

Firstly, many thanks to the volunteers for strimming ditches, hedge cutting, dredging ponds, general tidying etc. It's much appreciated by everyone concerned at the golf club and for sure, there's much that gets done unseen by many (working) members.

Michael and Morgan are now settling into their respective positions. Well done to Morgan for recently graduating from Myerscough College with a Diploma in Golf Management. Michael is currently finishing his NVQ Level 3 in Greenkeeping and he should be finished with that by November.

You should all have seen the drainage works that have recently been completed on holes 2 and 5. After last night's heavy rain (approximately 1 inch/25mm), both areas have performed well. This water has been captured so that is very positive to see. We believe the timing of these works, despite it being summer, was excellent. Ground conditions were ideal, no residual damage to the course was made, the contractors worked speedily and without friction, and golfers weren't inconvenienced for more than 7 days out of the 10 days that we allocated.

The drainage channels have been seeded and that seed is now coming through. We have fertilised the entire carry of the 2nd as that sat wet for much of 2023 into Spring 2024. The fertiliser should recover these wear areas and boost the new seed too. We will also carry out similar fertilising to the 5th.

With 3 greens staff (as opposed to 2 previously), it's very beneficial to both us and the members now. The additional service/value derived is now noticeable to us. An example is yesterday (Monday) when we managed to get greens, tees, fairways, approaches and surrounds cut. Pluzs the tees were seeded, topdressed, dragmat in sand as well as raking bunkers. The opportunity to get all closely mown areas cut in 1 day is now realisable. That consistency helps to elevate the standards and continue to raise the bar. 

The green fees in June alone indicate that the golf club continues to do well as a business and it's great to see so many new faces out on the golf course.

One of the challenges with so much play is the amount of wear (divots) from tees. Some have taken a bit of a hiding. Rest assured that they are being regularly seeded and divoted alongside planned fertiliser applications. It would be great if new seed would grow instantly but that's not realistic. Hence the wear vs re-growth will always be weighted towards the wear (divots). We have already discussed increasing the size of some tees (mainly some of the par 3s) so that we can accommodate more play with some contingency.

I think (hope!) that we seemed to have found something of a compromise in our fairway mowing height. For years, we've been working to refine the fairways. The problem has been, and still is on a few, agricultural quality ryegrass that remains from when the land was used purely for farmland. There's a lot of work to discourage this ryegrass because it is so resilient and difficult to eradicate. So the endless harrowing, scarifying, low mowing, grass clipping removal and subsequent fertiliser application has helped to improve them. It's definitely a process and not yet fully complete but they are certainly much improved.

With that in mind, we continue to mow the 4th and 7th fairways as one. What used to be divided by some 50 poplar trees is now a much more aesthetically pleasing and playable 2 holes. We also have another mitigation measure in place to counter wayward tee shots off the 4th/13th tees. By growing the rough in on the left hand side and joining the fairways, we now have a genuine bail-out to the right on the 4th hole.

Yesterday, we took the opportunity to start widening the fairway on the right side of the 8th hole. This is obviously where some members drive to on the 8th so we will continue to improve this area. It will take some tweaking to get the shape aesthetically right but in time (like with the 4th/7th), these areas will grow in as required.

The fresh clean sand in the bunkers on 1 and 2 now seems to have consolidated, providing better playability and better consistency. I think that looking back, the collateral damage from the Summer/Autumn/Winter of 2023-24 has been silt contamination of bunker sand. There is no way that most golf clubs didn't suffer in one way or another from all that rain. In our case, the course generally came out of last year largely quite well. But it is noticeable that some bunkers have a dirtier sand colour and that is silt contamination washed out of the soil.

We are looking to install, over several years, a newer generation bunker liner into all the bunkers. The idea is that the liner will prevent most of that 'wash down', thus leaving the sand cleaner for longer. I'm currently gathering prices and availability for this work. It's not decided yet but it is a serious consideration now. Other golf clubs have already started down this route for exactly the same reasons and the results are very good - certainly from those golf clubs I've visited to see this installation.

Greens-wise, they are continuing to perform well. We would ideally have liked to do more verti-cutting and light topdressing this Spring but several incidences have disrupted our plans. It's not that the greens are soft. Moreover, it's that with sand based/USGA greens, they will always produce seasonal organic matter (thatch) by virtue of being a sandy soil. Hence the need to control this excess accumulation with verti cutting and sand top dressing to dilute it. A recent soil test & report has demonstrated further improvement over the last 12 months, even with all of that rain. This shows that our management programme is working very well.

As we head into late Summer, we have a few little projects to be doing which should address a few other areas on the golf course. Things like path spraying, occasional tree removal and then the rotten sleepers to remove on the 7th yellow/red tee.

Enjoy your golf and let's hope for a nice warm spell soon

Ben Allen

Early season greens renovations

Hello (patient) members

Well, turn of the new year, we greenkeepers were hoping that the weather would turn a corner and provide some much needed respite. Clearly, that didn't happen and we've had to continue to take a humbling from the elements.

Unfortunately, the trolley bans have continued to be enforced, albeit begrudgingly. But, I think that most members (and golfers in general) have realised that ground conditions have been exceptional. It's never nice to have to resort to these measures but getting the course open has in itself been very challenging this winter.

I hope we are out of it. Certainly, the longer daylight hours offer increased potential for any sun to start evaporating surface water or stored soil water. Plus the March/April easterly winds will also assist in drying out the course.

As has been the case in recent years, we have again decided to carry out an early season greens renovation. When we think about the word renovation, the thought in our heads might turn to a new extension to a house or overhauling the garden with decking, summer house etc. So it's something of a misnomer. 

In reality, we have passed a scarifier through the greens in 2 directions, removing some unwanted, fibrous material at -8mm depth. Certainly what came out was some of what wasn't pulled out last Autumn. Remember, any scarifying work will only remove a low percentage of sub surface material. It's not possible to remove 100%, 80%, 50%, even 25% of material in one go. There wouldn't be a surface left if that was the objective. We still need to have a surface left for putting on. Hence, why these operations are often Spring and Autumn. We continue to chip away at a diminishing percentage of unwanted organic matter until we are where we want to be.

Now, last year, we closed up the scarifying grooves with a verticut pass, thereby removing shallower organic matter (referred to as seasonally produced material) and then a light top dressing of sand to restore the surface levels. Frustratingly, we did this work - successfully, and then got hit with some fusarium afterwards.

Fusarium can often hit greens after topdressing because the sand is generally a high pH material. Allied with morning dews and slower growth, disease can attack and start to scar the surface if conditions are conducive. With March and April generally getting colder in recent years, we don't want any disease to hit and then for the weather to go cold because that would then delay any growth and recovery.

So we have just passed over the scarifying grooves with a verti drain, as the photos show. The two rollers on the verti drain have nicely closed up those grooves and the surface will restore much more quickly. Now, we are in a good position for the greens as we approach Spring. There is now no urgency to get the first verticut and top dressing done. That can wait, if necessary, until the end of April/start of May. The greens are now in a very good position.

We've had to resort to some extreme methods to continue with our productivity. This week, myself and Ali took a strimmer each and hit a load of areas (trees, tee signs, ditches etc) as a way of getting something done. It has just been far too wet to get a rough mower out or get any meaningful work done mowing fairways. The downsides (black wheel marks, rutting) would outweigh the upsides (cut grass, definition) in the short term. As it stands, the course is not too bad. It looks green, there are very few black wheel marks and we've weathered (no pun intended!) the winter fairly well.

All the tee markers are prepped for the new season. Ali has done a fine job with them and they look good for another year.

Some approaches have been cut just to get some grass cut but the timing has had to be be good. We will get the surrounds cut once some of these slopes have dried out for a mower to get on them.

We've got a few path ends complete; at the bridge on the 5th and also by the bridge near the 7th green. They were both in need of attention and the turf is coming through nicely following a small scattering of fertiliser on these areas. Next week, we will dress out the cells in the matting with sand and open them up again.

Just an update on the planned drainage work - we have appointed a contractor and now we are waiting to get that work done. The 2nd hole is likely the first phase of that work with the fairway and carry being drained. The contractor has indicated that the ground needs to be free of standing water before work can proceed. That has not been common recently! Hence, it will be done, along with the 5th green area but it's simply a waiting game.

Before I sign off, we are saying goodbye to Ali Mackintosh this week. Ali has been with us since 2019 and he has been a very good servant to the greens team and golf club in that time. He has developed many additional skills but has also brought experience and prudence to the role - both of which are essential to getting good work done. He is returning to Birchwood Golf Club with a view to getting a supervisory role there in the near future. We wish him the very best for the future and thank him for his excellent contribution to the golf club.

All the best

Ben 

"There's not a lot you can do when the weather is like this, is there ?"

Happy New Year everyone from a winter wonderland

A familiar comment we hear is that of the blog title; "there's not much you can do when it's like this, is there?". To which the reply is "true, however, we are doing X, Y and Z".

So what are those things? Let's look at a few projects and tasks that we have been doing recently.

Firstly, debris (branches, twigs etc) has obviously fallen a lot recently and so these areas are being tidied up. John Mercer and Tom Frame put in a shift on Tuesday morning, assisting with clearing up the area under the Willow trees, left of 5th fairway. Then they set to work with a fire, burning the brash from said work.

Related to this, we took the pole saw out on Monday and carried out some light pruning of branches on the large Oak tree directly behind the 8th green. As the photos attest, this tree creates a fair bit of shade in the middle to back of this green. This can contribute to poorer growth because with shade comes colder conditions, less sunlight, less density of growth and a weaker surface. 

So the object of this exercise was merely to create more gaps for sunlight to pass through to the green, breaking up those shadows. Remember this - once that Oak tree is in full leaf, those gaps of sunlight are reduced markedly, hence the need to act now. Often, greenkeepers will do jobs like this not because they dislike trees per se but more that small 'wins' like this can often contribute to better playing surfaces.

Also going on at the moment is refreshing the tee markers. These have been brought in, dried out in a warm office, sanded down and then repainted. It's nice to get a smooth finish and take time to get the detail right in the painting. They are now looking sharp and ready to go back out in Spring.

Machinery maintenance, often an overlooked part of our work, is given more attention in the winter months because it coincides with less daylight hours and more inclement weather. Dark mornings or days of heavy rain often enable this work to be done with suitable justification. 

We recently cut the entire golf course in the second full week of January. This presented the course better and restored some much needed definition for members. It actually looked more like a golf course at the end of that week. The downside was mowers (in particular the fairway mower) cutting grass but with worm casts visible. The effects of this lead to a dulling of the cutting cylinders. Having our own grinding equipment is a superb asset at this time of year. 

We power wash the units, strip them down and then mount them on the grinders to restore the sharp edges of the blades. This then enables us to get back out with those mowers and actually cut grass again rather than trying to cut grass with dull blades.

Another part of our machinery maintenance is parts replacement. As you can see from the photos below, these tees mower units have had new parts fitted that form part of the rear roller brushes. These brushes clean the rear rollers following mowing of tees, surrounds etc and help to keep those rollers collecting worm cast debris, grass etc which can then lead to roller bearing degradation. So we have replaced pulleys, belts, bearings, brush shafts etc in a quieter period to enable us to be ready when growth resumes in Spring.

I've also been in touch with an external contractor, organising quotes for drainage project work and a few other course improvements in the pipeline. The anticipation is that more settled weather and ground conditions will enable us to finally execute some of these planned improvements.

We'll get a winter fertiliser out on the greens once the snow and thaw occurs. This is more of a nutrient support product rather than a fertiliser designed to specifically push growth. We're replenishing the soil nutrient pool - often something that affects USGA greens in winter because the sandy soils leach nutrient more quickly than soil or clay based soils.

Granted, whilst it may appear that "there's not much we can do when it's like this" there are in fact tasks that are specifically planned or targeted around weather like this. 

Hopefully, that's a bit of insight into the perhaps unseen part of our work as we understand that not all golfers can be aware of every last thing we do.

All the best

Ben

2023 in review

Happy New Year members

I write this blog as we've just passed through a miserable 6 months from July to December. It's been as demoralising for greenkeepers as it has for golfers. 

The disruption from the incessant rain has impacted the club's plans to carry out, ironically, much needed drainage work around the 5th green. This project has been planned for many months but the fact that this project work is at the farthest end of the golf course is even more frustrating. 

Even small breaks in the weather don't particularly help because getting all that way with any sort of digging or trenching equipment as well as with tractors and trailers.

For context, the rainfall data, which is recorded daily, is provided below:

Month                                Rainfall (mm)           Number of rain days 

Jan                                           107                                    16

Feb                                              7                                      4

Mar                                         107                                     19

Apr                                           46                                       8

May                                          25                                       5

Jun                                            40                                       7

July                                         179                                     20

Aug                                           88                                       9

Sep                                            78                                     10

Oct                                           144                                    16    

Nov                                          138                                    17

Dec                                           152                                    24

TOTAL                                   1111                                   155

It's been a bit disappointing to be honest and that's an understatement. Granted, there have been periods of dry weather in February, April, May and June so it's not been a complete washout. 

If you scroll back to my earlier blogs, you'll see a really wet July in 2016, similar to July 2023. I realise it's no consolation but these weather cycles do occur.

That said, if we look back over previous winters, as the photos below attest, we've had this type of weather before:

2021 (above)

2019 (above)

2017 (above)

I remember distinctly a few horrendous winters in 2006, 2009, 2010 when I worked in Nottinghamshire. Terribly wet but typically British too. Conversely, the summer of 1976 when I was born was a proper heatwave summer. Cycles of weather come and go.

Hopefully, as I write, the forecast shows a dry 2 weeks ahead of us so let's look forward to better days.

Autumn provided the annual leaf drop and it wrung itself out until the end of December.

Greens have held up well despite the wet weather. We've had to spike (verti drain), sarel roll (shallow surface spike) and apply a product called Rocastem, which opens up the pore spaces in the soil, to keep the greens as playable as possible for members. They've done very well and it's very satisfying to see how they have developed.

It's critical to keep overseeding with bentgrasses to ensure the greens are more resilient and more disease resistant. We wanted to head into 2024 with good grass coverage, density and minimal disease scarring and I think we've achieved that. Granted, 2 fungicides have been sprayed; in late September and then also at the start of November. The saving grace, if you could call it that, is that disease has struggled to proliferate is because of the consistent rain, ironically.

Fusarium is prevalent in high humidity, mild weather and with heavy morning dew. Disease spores spread over the dew so rainfall has been a buffer to that disease spread.

Tees were all fertilised, verti drained, divoted and cut prior to closing them for the winter. They are looking well so please refrain from playing off them until Spring.

Tee markers have been sanded and repainted.

Our machinery servicing is up to date. Oil & filter changes, done twice per year, have been done. All mower cylinders that needed re-grinding (sharpening) have all been completed. We continue to ensure that any worn parts are replaced. Currently, we are just finishing replacing bearings, belts and pulleys that drive the rear roller brush assemblies on our Tees 3250 mower.

It is pleasing that we continue to keep the machinery in good working order. Perhaps it is an area of our work that goes unnoticed by 95% of members but it is done mainly by us and it is important that the machinery is looked after. 25% of the greens' budget is allocated to machinery repair, servicing and parts replacement.

We managed, eventually, to restore some definition to the golf course by cutting tees, fairways and most rough in the week leading up to Christmas. It was long overdue but the ground conditions prior had prevented us from getting heavy machinery such as the Fairway and Rough mowers out. The weather since has been so mild and wet that growth continues. We'll hopefully get some more mowing done in the next few weeks with a nicer forecast.

The Putting Green (above), has had much work done to it over the years. We continue to integrate sandy soil into this green whenever we change the holes. I estimate that several hundred old hole positions have been filled up with sandy soil over the years. Now, that work is paying dividends. Rarely do we see standing water on this green anymore. 

Whilst it will never play like the golf course greens (due to being a clay push up green vs USGA greens on the gof course), we're still keen to get it as playable as possible during adverse weather. Hence, you will see regular instances like this where the plugs are ameliorated with the sandy soil. A couple of weeks later, they tend to settle in. The compromise in the short term is worth it for better long term results.

The directors are committed to drainage work to improve wet areas of the golf course. It will be carried out but when exactly that is, we just don't know. I know many golf clubs have had to postpone course project work in late 2023 as the weather has been just too much to get heavy plant equipment out.

In the meantime, best wishes for 2024.

Ben Allen

Autumn Report 2023

Hello all

It's October 6th and we are forecast several days of 20 something degrees, sunshine and no rain, at least until the middle to back end of next week. Let's look forward to that as the previous 3 months have been wet. July posted the same amount of rainfall than January, February, May and June combined. August and September didn't exactly crack the flags. Not good.

We've now got Ali back after his operation so we can hopefully start to pick things up again and get some  more consistent productivity. With leaves falling and growth still good, we need to deal with multiple challenges as best as we can.

Greens maintenance week was still carried out. Thanks to Terry for providing some assistance clearing cores, matting topdressing sand in and a few other small tasks. 

Often, this work is carried out following our annual soil tests. The most problematic green is the 5th. In all honesty, the root zone is poor. Although it is sandy, it has a high percentage of fine sand particles. These are not conducive to good drainage. Hence the green is slow to dry down after rain and can hold excess moisture in the top part of the soil profile. So, we hollow cored this green to a 50mm depth and backfilled with our dressing sand - a coarse/medium mix. This should help to draw rain through a bit quicker. Following this, we also scarified it to pull a bit more thatchy material out. The soil test for this particular green showed no real organic matter issues; 2.2% is not an excess. It is simply the poor root zone.

The other greens all received a double scarify, double verticut, were overseeded and fertilised. We just need to remove the seasonally accumulated organic matter and this is always in the top 12mm (0.5 inches) as that is where the majority of growth and excess plant material is based. Overseeding is purely to keep pushing browntop and creeping bentgrass into the sward for a better quality surface. The lack of overly invasive work now means that the recovery from this work is fairly quick. 7-10 days and there is little evidence of any work being done.

The fairway scarifying was carried out, albeit in a mixed weather week. The rain did not help in the slightest. We removed a lot of dry, dead, matted material accumulated in the drought spell. Doing this annually has certainly helped with fairway drainage. If the soil has less thatch in the surface, less water will be held in the surface and so surface puddling in the wetter months will be less of an issue. Do the work, reap the benefits.

We have had a few issues, greens-wise and the first has been a bit of a pain since early July. This, as is visible in the photos, is a black algae-like growth in the surface. It is literally a millimetre thick and is a result of continuous rainfall, heavy morning dew, high humidity and very inconsistent sunlight/drying days. So the effect of greens surfaces sitting damp for long periods encourages the proliferation of it. It generally disappears with sun, warmth and wind. As there has been little of either to celebrate, here we are and because it is not a turf disease, a fungicide will not eradicate it. 

So in season, verticutting and light sand dressing help to overcome this because it is has this drying effect. Now, we cannot utilise these practices because we are beyond the period of recovery for such practices - the mornings are darker for longer, daylight hours are less and soil temperatures are cooling. Therefore aeration and a higher mowing height are more suitable.

Secondly, we've had Take All patch disease (above). It's a soil borne disease and mainly associated with high sand content root zones. So our greens tick that box. Often, the prompt for this disease is a reversion from one extremes of weather to the other ie dry to wet. So we had that between June and July onwards. Tick that box. It affects poa and bentgrass. Tick that box. It doesn't affect fescue. So we have recently spot seeded the affected areas with fescue in an attempt to mitigate this disease moving forward.

The other issue - and this is confined at the moment to the 5th green, is Fusarium (above). A disease that is an airborne spreading disease, it spreads on the morning dew and is extremely detrimental because it is so destructive to the surface, attacking in heavy dews, humid conditions and often greens lacking in wind circulation & sunlight. 

So we have the 5th green here in the photo. Notice the shaded area at the back of the green? Yep, that's where the Fusarium is most prominent. The correlation is obvious. Very little sunlight to evaporate the dew, a very humid and wind-free environment. Trees are nice to a degree but they are not helping here at all. This is where we are at with this green. Multiple issues and the associated problems with the soil and location. Unfortunately, the current range of fungicides is a lot less effective than what was previously available. So without any modicum of tree management in this area, disease will always be an issue on this green between September and April.

I believe the joining up of the 4th and 7th fairways has helped somewhat with the issues on the 4th hole. Balls exiting the golf course into the neighbouring houses was a huge problem. Now that we have grown the rough in down the left hand side of this hole and connected the 4th and 7th fairways, effectively losing the dividing rough, has done well.

Enjoy the autumn, we'll endeavour to keep on top of falling leaves as best we can!

Ben