Maintenance week Autumn 2017

Our Autumn maintenance week concluded 22/09/2017 and we were blessed with fine conditions, all scheduled  operations to greens and approaches have been successfully carried out by our dedicated green staff.

 A chemical application was made to greens two weeks prior to maintenance week. This application will kill the Rye grass, Yorkshire fog and weaken the coarse Bent grasses within our greens. The surface of the greens will yellow and patches of grass will die off, this is a normal reaction to the graminicide that has been applied.

Discolouring of coarse grasses

The greens are scarified in two directions at least 5mm below the surface using vertical cutting blades with tungsten tips. This will remove a proportion of organic matter from the thatch layer and rake through the dying coarse grasses.

Scarifying

Material removed through scarifying

Greens surface after scarification

This year we used two separate solid tine operations to aerate the greens. 8mm x 200mm tines and 6mm x 100mm tines punched small diameter holes into the soil profile at different depths. Aeration plays an important part in helping air and water move through the soil, air spaces between the soil particles will create gas exchanges to help break down thatch and provide space for root development.

200mm Verti-drain aeration

100mm Procore aeration

Again two different methods and seed were used to over-seed our greens. Shallow holes were made by a sorel roller in which 5Kg of  brown top bent seed was distributed per green. Fescue seed was inter-seeded behind the bent at 20g/m2. Persisting with this blend of grass species will provide us with the optimum putting surfaces year round.

Sorel rolling with bent seed

Inter-seeding with fescue seed

Greens, surrounds and approaches have all been sand-dressed and worked into the surface. In all around 60 tons of straight sand has been applied to the greens complex's to restore levels following the invasive work already carried out. Dressing not only aids us in the reinstatement of the surface but also dilutes thatch, improves water infiltration, firmness and trueness. Further light dressings will be applied as necessary.

Straight sand dressing

Working in dressings

All through these processes the greens complex's were cleared of debris, cut and ironed to ensure we could provide the best surfaces possible following the invasive procedures. The use of hole stabilizing rings will be used temporarily to aid the initial instability around the hole, these will not be used in qualifying competitions and will be removed completely following re-establishment of the surface. 

Ironing

Hole stabilization

In addition to our normal routine maintenance work the surrounds and approaches of 10, 11 and 12 needed extra attention this year. Thatch and Rye grass infestation has become problematic leading to poor surfaces. The Rye grass had been sprayed prior to maintenance week then we set about removing as much thatch as possible by taking cores from the soil profile using a hollow tine. These cores were left to dry before being broken up with the scarifier, the thatch material removed through this process was blown to the sides and picked up. Straight fescue was inter-seeded and cyclone spread over the tine holes with 12 tons of sand dressing applied and further sand dressing scheduled to reinstate the surfaces.

Hollow tine

Cores on surface

Breaking up cores

Thatch material removed

Autumn Maintenance Week 2015

Having just completed this years Autumn maintenance work we would like to provide you with an update on the works completed and what we hope to achieve from these essential tasks. Given that it is becoming quite late in the year we have been very lucky with weather conditions this week. Soil temperatures have remained high enough to encourage germination and light winds have enabled the greens to dry quickly so that we could complete the tasks effectively. We hope that temperatures will remain stable in the next few weeks to give the seed its best chance to survive and germinate.

Pre Maintenance Work

Two weeks prior to maintenance week a graminicide was applied to the greens which targets the undesirable, coarse species of Ryegrass and Yorkshire Fog in the sward. This was completed using a pedestrian sprayer which was more time consuming but gave us greater accuracy of application. After ten days the greens were showing clear signs of the chemical taking effect. This may have caused some concern to members as the greens had turned a shade of brown! However this is normal as the chemical kills the coarse species but also causes temporary stress to the finer Bentgrasses in the sward. We were pleased to see that the Fescues remained healthy and noted the high percentage of this fine grass that was present in all the greens.

Maintenance Week

Greens

We began early on Monday morning by brushing the greens to disintegrate as much of the dead Ryegrass as possible before we began our main tasks. We then scarified the greens to a depth of 5mm to get into the thatch layer and remove organic material, making sure we carried the work on into the surrounds as much as possible.




Scarifying the 17th green.



A light top dressing was then applied and dragged into the slices cut by the scarifier. This is a major part of our on-going thatch dilution program which aims to improve water infiltration, surface firmness and ultimately greens performance.

Drag matting 17th green.

We next began overseeding the greens with fine fescue seed using the Vredo disc seeder. We did two passes on all greens and followed with a heavy top dressing to provide the seeds with soil contact which will protect the seed and aid germination rates. A total of 200kg of seed has been applied to the greens this week and we hope to see germination in the coming weeks. This increase in Fescue will improve our species composition leading to smoother, firmer and more sustainable greens. We hope the golfers will see the benefits in 2016.


The greens were top dressed again later in the week to fill in any remaining slots from the seeder and improve surface levels. A total of 40 tonnes of sand has been applied to the greens in just a week which brings us closer to achieving our target of 150 tonnes applied for the year.

8th green after renovations completed.

Approaches

After the work to the greens was completed we began some maintenance on the approaches. This included a double pass with the scarifier which removed a massive amount of thatch! (see picture) Followed by a single pass with the overseeder and a double pass with the top dresser. 40kg of seed and 9 tonnes of sand was applied.


Thatch removed from approaches.

Another pass with the overseeder and top dresser will be performed in the following week in another direction to improve species composition and firmness.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to post below. We also now have a Facebook page which contains small updates and pictures of our work and can be used to ask any questions, so please 'like' the page if you are interested, see link below.
 La Moye GC Greens


Maintenance Week Update - 2

In addition to the work done on greens and collars we have been able to complete important work on other areas of the golf course.

Hole 7 drainage.

One problem area each winter is the start of the 7th fairway. This area tends to become waterlogged in the winter so to solve this problem we have installed a simple drainage system. This involved removing the fairway turf, excavating soil, installing the drain and refilling with material before placing the turf back on top. Until the turf grows in properly the are will be marked as Ground Under Repair.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aerating approaches.

Selected green approaches have had solid tine aeration carried out. This operation is done for the same reasons as described in the last post. As on greens, sanding is carried out to smooth the surface behind the aerator.

Inter-seeding fairways.

To begin the long process of improving the species composition of our fairways we have carried out a single pass with the seeder across the whole of the 11th fairway. The grasses  sown will provide a superior playing surface. Crucially, they need less water to remain healthy than the existing grass species meaning less demand will be put on the irrigation system during the summer months.

Maintenance Week Update - 1

Our Autumn Maintenance week work has now been completed and all of the major operations planned have gone well. Excellent weather conditions have ensured the dedicated efforts of the green staff have been rewarded with a good result. This post will outline the tasks undertaken during this important week in the greenkeeping calendar.

Micro solid tining of greens and collars.

Each of these small holes measure only 9mm across but go down 70mm into the soil. The channels created are critical in helping to improve the movement of air and water into and through the rootzone. Even once healed over on the surface the channels will continue to provide superior moisture and gas exchanges while also providing space for new root growth.

Inter-seeding greens and collars

Seeding is carried out to increase the proportion of appropriate grasses in the sward. The graminicide application we carried out a few weeks ago has been successful in selectively removing unwanted ryegrass in the greens and inter-seeding ensures the spaces left behind are filled with high quality fescue grass seed. Our seeding unit uses discs to cut a channel through the turf before dropping the grass seed into the channel. The discs on our machine are spaced at 35mm intervals which allows a large amount of seed to be inserted into the turf at just the right depth to ensure a high germination rate. On this occasion we chose carry out a double pass on each green. A total of 160kg of seed has been used this week which will have a positive impact on the performance of the turf in 2015.

Sand dressing.

To restore levels following some fairly invasive operations sand was spread across the surface of each area before being worked into the base of the sward. On this occasion we used a little over 20 tonnes of material. Top dressing turf has many benefits not least improving surface smoothness and firmness. We will aim to apply more material in 7-10 days to improve smoothness further.

Controlling Broad Leaved Grasses in Greens

An application of the selective graminicide Rescue has been made to all greens to control the spread of Ryegrass and Yorkshire Fog grasses. These are wholly inappropriate putting green grass types that we have been treating now for a number of years. Thankfully we have far less of these grass species now so the effects of the spray application will be less noticeable than in previous years. We may for a period have some thin areas of turf but the greens will be seeded and top-dressed repeatedly over the next two months to ensure the broadleaved grasses are replaced with finer fescue grass.

Four interseeding operations are planned. The first will start after the Dolphin Trophy on Monday 25^th August. Sanding of greens will take place thereafter to ensure surface levels are returned as quickly as possible.