Wet Conditions

With almost two inches of rainfall over the last three days equals damp conditions at the golf course. The weather is looking great and fortunately things will clear up shortly. The next blog will focus on the flood clean up. This blog will discuss the funky stuff you may notice on some of the greens.

After almost 5 years of maintaining these greens and having numerous superintendents, consultants and plant pathologists view them we have come to the conclusion that they can resemble disease stricken after a rainy stretch.

Well, we have determined that it is not a disease at all, they just become anaerobic and the turf begins to wilt. The only practice we have determined that can fix these spots are opening the soil profile with a spike or an aerification hole. Creating a dry environment will allow the plants to breathe properly and bounce back quickly.

This usually happens once a year around this time when we get a stretch of wet weather over a period of a few days.

Today we spiked the greens with a new piece of equipment called the greens slicer. We can penetrate up to 2 inches and achieve good gas exchange in the soil profile. The surface can get a little bumpy, but we will follow this with sand and a roller to smooth out any imperfections.