I see the light

Well finally! After a tough start to our season it was a really positive week in the fact that the rest of the greens were uncovered and are in excellent condition. Also you can really see the forward progress with the overall condition of the golf course. It has finally started to dry out these last two days from the suns warming rays and great breeze these. All the necessary cultural practices and seeding was completed to the greens that are suffering from ice damage. There has been some recovery, however temperatures have only most recently reached what is required for germination and shoot growth. I'm going to use May the 6th as a deadline date to decide what will require sodding if the seeding process is not at a level that I feel it should be. Once again, I will get them back asap.

All the greens received their first mowing of the season at a height of .200". That would produce a green speed of about 6 feet on the stimp meter (slow). Over the next couple of weeks we will be gradually lowering the height in preparation for opening day. Today we also began mowing the fairways for the first time. They looked great! "I love the smell of fresh cut grass in the morning". The back nine loop of the irrigation system was pressurized today and the new pumping station performed brilliantly. We only came across one leak and unfortunately needed to order the part. Actually shocking because we keep quite the inventory of repair parts out of necessity.

All in all we had a really positive week and got a lot accomplished. It kills me to see the damage to the greens but this week reminded me that there is light at the end of the tunnel. The seasonal staff is starting this week and the clean up of debris from winter will begin as we work hard to be ready for May the 10th.

If the weather doesn't drastically affect the condition of the driving range we are hoping that it will be ready for use by May 3rd. Forecasting the weather is a tough business so lets hope they have the 5 day wrong for this week. We will confirm and communicate as soon as we know.

Jay Sisko
Golf Course Superintendent

April 28, 2013 Hole ?

Is it official?

Even though it officially kicked off on March the 20th I don't think we could really say it had arrived yet in Northern Ontario, but today I'm making it official, spring 2013 is here! I would think it's fair to say that old man winter proved to us all that even though forgotten for the past couple of seasons he is alive, well and kicking.

Last Friday here at the course we saw easily 8" of the white stuff once again halting our forward progress on getting this place ready for the golf season. With that being said, we did take some good strides in the right direction this week but that also didn't come without disappointment. It is with great disappointment that I inform you of some ice damage to greens 1, 10, 12, and 14. It's difficult to say at this time which green suffered the most damage but it is safe to say it's between 1 and 14. Just the fact that the impermeable tarps have been remove and replaced with perforated ones means we have begun the recovery process. When ice damage occurs under an impermeable cover, noxious gases build up due to the anaerobic conditions produced by a lack of oxygen in turn creating an environment that is not conducive to recovery. Now with permeable tarps in place a free exchange of oxygen, carbon monoxide and other metabolic gases can take place to encourage recovery.

When moving forward with the recovery of putting greens due to winter kill, there is always the question of what method should be used to do so, seeding or sodding? Over the past 9 years being a turf manager in Central and Northern Ontario I have been presented with the challenges of regenerating putting greens damaged from winter kill. During this time I have always been a believer in seeding appose to sodding. The success I've had in seeding is definitely one of the reasons why I'm a believer along with some logical thought process that I will discuss further.

Availability of the amount of sod that sometimes is required when significant amounts of damage has taken place can prove to be difficult to attain (unless on site). Even if available, matching compatible root zones is next to impossible and can in turn create patches that need to be managed differently than the rest of the green. This is particularly evident during periods of stress. When sodding areas of localized damage you can almost never blend the sod to the existing turf and contours leaving visible differences as well creating playability differences. Finally I truly believe by the time you sod there is no significant difference in time that the green would recover to the condition that would deem it playable. If reestablishment is successful from seeding in my mind the eventual quality and uniformity of the putting surface far out weighs the possibility that the green may be playable sooner.

Our plan of attack to resurrect the damaged areas on our greens is to aerate the areas twice with a 3/8" tine and special tine mount to produce approximately 260 holes/square foot. Once that process is complete two types of bentgrass will be applied using a drop seeder. One of the bentgrass species has adapted to germinate at temperatures 10 degrees lower than the desired bentgrass. The purpose of this is to produce a "nurse" plant that in turn will aid in the germination of our desired species. The next step will be to use our slit seeder in two directions thus increasing the areas where seed germination will occur. Black sand topdressing will be applied to the area which will aid in accelerating the increase in soil temperatures as it absorbs light energy. Finally we will reapply the appropriate green covers (to generate heat) and water the areas constantly throughout the days. Once the desired bentgrass has established the "nurse" bentgrass will die off when mowing heights decrease as it can only withstand mowing heights of 1/4" or more. Fear not I guarantee in time you will be putting on the surface you have become accustom to.

So enough with the somewhat disappointing news and on to when we think the golf course will be ready to open. I have always stated that once the snow has completely gone it takes a solid 14 days to get the golf course ready for play. With that being said I feel May 10th is a realistic opening day for the golf course. Now, if we can get some cooperation from mother nature that could possibly be sooner with out a doubt. Rest easy knowing we are ready for the challenges handed to us and are confident we will come out on top! Thank you in advance for your patience.

Initially I had some reservations showing these pictures but realistically there is no hiding it and things can only improve from here. Stay tuned to see the forward progress.

Jay Sisko
Golf Course Superintendent

1 Green (has drainage)



 

14 Green (no drainage)

9 Green (it's not all bad)



New Beginings

I would like to welcome all readers to the Idylwylde Turf Management Departments inaugural blog post. This is something that I have wanted to do for some time and has finally come to fruition. My intentions are to use this forum to communicate information regarding golf course maintenance practises that may or may not impact your upcoming round of golf. Things such as routine cultural practises will be in the attached calendar so you know what to expect for course conditions on that specific day. Upcoming projects will be highlighted and when they are underway you will know exactly how they will affect your round. I'm also looking forward to giving more insight into the multifaceted world that is Turf Management. Not only will this be a great avenue to communicate information regarding the above mentioned but hopefully will serve as an educational tool as well. Throughout the golfing season it is my intention to post weekly either on Fridays or Saturdays as a minimum, however I will not limit postings to that if there is other prudent information to share.With that being said lets get to what I'm sure everyone would wants to hear about!

As the snow recedes and temperatures begin to rise it marks a beginning of a season that we all have been waiting what feels so long for, golf season! It's well known that people use the weather as a conversation starter and in this business there is no doubt that mother nature rules so why don't we start there. As of a few days ago our greens had been under snow cover for 118 days with some still covered. If you count the days the tarps have been on as well (28) you can bet that the greens are in desperate need of some oxygen.

"What a difference a year makes" is something I've been hearing a lot of lately but for me I can confidently say that this is the first true Sudbury winter that I have experienced and it was a tough one when it comes to turf management. All was fine by me (and out of my control of course) except the 5 inches of rain that fell over the winter. Rain which of course turns into ice in the winter is a proven killer of turf and especially Poa annua - Annual Bluegrass which predominately our greens are comprised of.

Constant monitoring and counting days of ice cover is something that is done to help decide if and what course of action should be taken to increase the chance of turf survival. In my experience Poa can tolerate a maximum of 45 days of ice cover if your lucky, but its more like 30. All of our greens had experienced some form of ice cover, from extreme to lets say significant. Greens 6, 9, 10, 17 had severe ice cover for a minimum of 30 days and because of there susceptibility to damage snow was removed, black sand applied to facilitate ice melt. Once the ice was soft enough it was removed. Unfortunately there was some turf loss with ten seeing the most significant amount.

With still so much snow being on the course and tarps on the greens its difficult at this time to asses conditions and how things overwintered. If the weather forecast holds true for next week I anticipate having all the tarps removed by Sunday and the recovery process started. Now for the moment I'm sure everyone has been waiting for, when will the golf course open? If we continue moving forward at this rate, I would anticipate 3 weeks from today with the goal always being not to open later than May 1st. With some cooperation from mother nature I truly believe its attainable and we will do everything in our power to make it happen.

As I have any updates I will be doing so through this blog so check it out periodically. You can also check out our facebook page to see what we have been up to and golf course course condition pictures.

Jay Sisko
Golf Course Superintendent

Hole #10 - March 21, 2012

Hole 10 - April 11, 2013