Week of August 14th

Early morning maintenance on 5

This week featured more rain with .9 falling on Tuesday and another .9 falling on Friday. Between these two rainfalls featured cloudy and very humid weather. Really not the weather the agronomy team was looking for. This has kept the spray tanks rolling and all play surfaces have received a fungicide application this week with the last few fairways on the schedule for tomorrow.

Wet/humid conditions make turf very prone to fungal pathogens

Below the agronomy team is dragging fairways to remove the dew and reduce the amount of time the leaf blade remains wet. Many fungal diseases are based off of how long the leaf blade stays wet. Eliminating leaf wetness can help reduce chemical output and extend spray windows. The agronomy team simply drags what I call a fairway snake behind two carts which removes the dew.

Drag rope "fairway snake" can be seen in the distance

Aeration:

Greens aeration will take place on Tuesday, August 22nd and Wednesday, August 23rd. We will most likely need some time on the 24th to finish up as well. We will be core aerating with either a 3/8 inch coring tine or an 1/2 inch coring tine and topdressing with sand. We will also be adding some soil amendments. While greens need constant and frequent aeration this one is even more crucial with all the moisture we have been receiving this summer. We will aerate greens again with a smaller tine which will have very little member impact at the end of September or early October. Currently, the weather looks favorable for greens aeration next week.

A sample of what the 3/8 inch tine looks like before topdressing

Ants:

Ants are one of the biggest pests that we deal with on our putting greens. They have been particularly bad this year. Their mounds are not only unsightly, but damage mowing equipment and affect playability. Practice greens, 8,9, 10-18 were all treated for ants this week. Ants tend to get worse right after aeration and we will most likely be doing an entire treatment to greens after aeration.

Irrigation:

Marcelo fixing a saddle

While we haven't needed the irrigation system much this summer it still needs maintenance. Since my start at Ipswich this was probably our longest stretch with out a saddle leak, but had one saddle go on 14 this week and in need of repair. Marcelo is a pro at saddles and made quick work of the job.

Range Maintenance:

The range field had some additional fertility added to it as we are still in the grow in process. We also topdressed and dragged the targets as well as doing a variety of maintenance to the tee itself.

Driving range field looking good and topdressing added to first target

A variety of maintenance to the range:

Wildlife from the week:

Mother and fawn 17 fairway

Young painted turtle crossing the 15th fairway

Egret fishing on 8

Large coyote crossing 4

I also received a wonderful picture of a fox from member Greg Miller for the blog. Unfortunately, I cannot get the resolution right from email to blog to do the picture any justice.

This weekend looks to be a nice one. Take advantage of your golf course and all that it has to offer!