Dry Continues - Possible Moisture?
- Matthew Behl
- Sep 18, 2024
- 3 min read
On August 18th, .28 inches of rain fell on Ipswich. This was our last measurable rain event. 30 days have passed since that rain. This has put a good deal of stress on both the agronomy team and our water supply. All in all, we have been able to manage our water supply and keep greens, tees, and fairways in good shape. We are in the process of pumping over the pond on 6 into the irrigation pond to give our water supply a little boost. Hopefully we receive a little moisture this week and next and we can switch gears from the constant hand watering to more agronomic work. I would like to thank my watering team for the countless hours they have put in this summer and the past 30 days. Hopefully we receive a much needed break and can start to concentrate on aerations and fertility.
Nothing is ever easy, but another curveball has been thrown our way. The irrigation pond water is currently testing very high in NA - sodium and Cl - Chloride. The pond has always tested high for Sodium and we perform monthly flushes on greens. Currently, the sodium levels are very high and at a problematic level and it will take some additional flushes to get this out of the soil as well as the chlorides. This is something I will need to keep a close eye on and monitor moving forward. Hopefully mother nature will help us out with some rainfall to help my efforts in flushing the sodium out of the soil. In a nutshell, our water quality as far as irrigation water goes is very poor right now. Potassium and calcium both foliar applied and granular applications are of high importance as well as our routine flushing and aerations. This is nothing to be concerned with as far as course conditioning, it is just something additional the agronomy team will need to manage moving forward.
Regardless of rainfall/pond level we will be aerating approaches next week. We will be using a 1/2 inch coring tine on a 1.5 inch spacing. Once approaches are cored we will be picking up the aeration plugs and topdressing with sand to fill the holes.
After we finish the approaches we will be aerating collars and step cut around greens. We will use the same 1/2 inch coring tine on a 1.5 inch spacing in these areas. Aeration plugs will be picked up and the collars and step cut will be rolled with our heavy Salsco roller. This is done to lower the collars and help prevent collar dams. Collar dams slow or prevent the movement of water off the greens and can lead to saturated conditions in summer or ice in winter. This aeration process over time lowers the collars.
Once those aerations are done we will move on to tees and fairways. Our tees at Ipswich have a high water requirement and we will make sure soil moisture and pond levels are adequate even at this time of year before starting. The type of aeration to tees has not been determined yet and will really depend on when we are able to get started. Fairways will be solid tined with a 3/4 inch solid tine. This will be done in-house so it will be a time extensive process. We will also be over seeding some rough areas on the course. Some of this work has already started.
Greens will receive some cultural practices as well in the coming weeks. Everything done to greens at this point will not be aggressive and have very little impact on playability. We might need to do a series of micro tine aerations to help flush the sodium out of the root zone.
The grass range tee has been closed for the season. The tee has been topdressed, seeded, and fertility products added to it. We will be doing other cultural practices to it over the course of the fall in order to have it in the best condition possible come spring.
Over the rest of the season you will see some blue lines painted on the golf course. These are areas where the agronomy team may look into incorporating naturalized areas in the 2025 season. This would be done to reduce water usage and to provide some better aesthetics in certain areas.