Spring dead spot

Slowly but surely the cool weather has returned. While it has been great for playing golf and for the cool season turf grass, it has been difficult for the Bermuda grass. As these changes in temperatures take place it marks the time to be taking precautions against spring dead spot. In past blogs we have discussed several things we will be incorporating into our defense but we still have a few tactics left.

Starting again this week we will be making the second half application of the Orgro compost material in the fairways. Time will not be spent in this installment covering the details of the Orgro again. For more information, the past blog on the topic can be referenced.

We also monitor the nutrient needs of the Bermuda grass plant throughout the year. One of the most important nutrients for all turf grass including Bermuda is potassium. Potassium provides many benefits to the plant, but especially important for Bermuda grass and spring dead spot prevention is that it increases winter hardiness. Many times the spring dead spot fungus weakens the plant but does not kill the Bermuda entirely. Instead the cold weather kills the Bermuda grass. So by monitoring the potassium heading into fall, we can make applications of potassium to the Bermuda grass and give the turf the boost it needs to weather the winter. We will be making our potassium application in the next couple of weeks as we fit it into the schedule.

We add nutrients to the soil, but allowing the plant to more efficiently use the nutrients that are already available to it is another way to improve health of the Bermuda grass. To do this, we begin to raise the mowing height of all of the Bermuda grass surfaces. By increasing the mowing height, we decrease the amount of tissue that is removed and increase the plant’s ability to prepare for the winter. Mowing turfgrass is stressful to the plant, even though we do this practice regularly. Taller Bermuda grass is mowed less frequently thus causing stress to the turf less often. A less stressed plant can more easily take existing nutrients in from the soil. Leaving more tissue on the plant also affords the plant more surface area to collect sunlight and produce and store energy to survive the winter. This stored energy gives the plant the food it needs to survive the winter but also is in storage for the spring when temperatures begin to climb and gives the Bermuda some energy to start to green up.

Although most of the factors regarding spring dead spot are not well understood, there are a few things that have shown promise in prevention of the disease. By doing everything we can to send the Bermuda grass into winter as healthy as possible, we are giving the plant every opportunity to be able to withstand the spring dead spot fungus and winter damage.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Regular maintenance of Master Plan holes

Construction is complete.  All the sod has been laid and crews have all but left Bretton Woods. Now the hardest part of all starts: taking the improvements and integrating them into our maintenance routines.

Nearly everyone has seen and played the holes that were reconstructed this year. Almost all reviews have been positive. The overwhelming feeling from the Grounds department is just the same. While the changes were made to improve many aspects that were lacking from the old course and to make maintenance easier, this does not eliminate the challenge of taking something completely new and deciding how it should be best maintained. New lines to denote where fairways end and approaches start must be marked; step-cut lines must be set; the line between what we can and cannot mow on the bunker face grass must be established. All of this takes time and patience. There will be some times where it may look as though we have forgotten to mow an area completely, or where a certain area appears to have been mowed shorter than it needed to be. This is all part of getting new turf and new holes to fit into Bretton Woods' style of maintenance. For example, new sod on the tees is walk-mowed initially to help smooth the turf but also to discourage the forming of ruts from the tires of a heavier machine. We will not walk-mow forever but lighter machines help the young turf get established. As the sand base of the tees has time to settle and naturally compact it will be able to handle the weight of a bigger machine. We also push mow much of the new rough sod prior to using a heavier machine. Again, this prevents damage done by being too aggressive too early.

As mentioned, we also have new mowing pattern lines to figure out. For example, the forward tees on #3, 4, 15, and 17 each meld directly into the fairway. Marking where each mower hands off duty to the next machine must be painted and our staff must add this into their routine. Our plan is for the fairway to come nearly all the way to the teeing surface. From there the smaller tee mower will take over. There will not be a step-cut line between the forward tees and fairway on these holes. All of the Bermuda sod came to us mowed at the same height from the sod farm. Therefore, anywhere that we will establish the step-cut, we must only let the turf grow. At first this will look as though it has been forgotten. Some areas will grow at different rates than others. It may look uneven for a time. Once the Bermuda grows enough to be cut in all places, though, it will give a distinct line between the fairway and step-cut.

The same is true for the bunker faces. We will initially mow all of the new sod to the same shorter height in order to help it root. As it grows we will begin to define the taller, shadowy, face versus the lower cut rough grass. Again, there may be times where the area that we are letting mature to be the taller face will look inconsistent and unkempt. However, once the majority of the rough reaches a certain height we are able to then make a clean cut and begin our regular routine as we do on previously reconstructed holes #’s 5-9.

All of this takes some time and the skill of our staff in adjusting to several different holes being in several different phases of maintenance. Now that all areas of this year’s Master Plan work are open and playable, adding these wrinkles into the maintenance routine is the next challenge.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Tree maintenance

As we head in to fall and then in to winter, maintenance of the turf grass slows, but maintenance overall does not. In a future installment, we will cover the extensive work done to maintain tee markers, signs, trash cans, and more items in the offseason. Fall and winter also provide time for maintenance of trees on the course. Pruning trees is an almost universally beneficial tactic to maintaining the balance between the trees and the turf grass. In the coming weeks you see will our staff out working on pruning all the trees on the course.

Trimming the trees and raising the canopy is most important. Lifting these branches will provide more air and light to the turf grass below. Increased light and air movement will improve the turf health underneath the trees. Turf that is deprived of quality light is very thin and wispy versus thick lush turf that receives adequate light. The turf cannot compete with the tree or with weeds and the result is ground that is either bare or weed infested. Similarly, when the tree is limiting the air movement below, the turf grass can suffocate. The turf is again very thin or non-existent which allows weeds to encroach.

Weeds beneath all of the trees are not aesthetically pleasing. Thin turf, weeds, or bare dirt is also not good for playability. Having a ball come to lie under tree is enough of a penalty, but then having to play it from a part-weed, part-dirt surface is then a double penalty. By trimming branches we can increase the chances of the turf grass to thrive. With quality turf under the tree, a bad shot is not compounded by having to play from a questionable lie.

We have many trees near our cart paths as well. Limbs that hang too low or stick out into the path are a safety concern. Cart drivers who are not paying attention may inadvertently drive their cart into a branch and injure themselves, their passenger, or damage the cart. Also, as trees age, branches can die for a variety of reasons. Regardless of the reason for decline, these branches pose a threat of breaking off and falling. While this is a concern for any dead or dying branch anywhere on the course, the branches that overhang cart paths pose a greater threat to the golfers because of the higher amount of traffic. So, making sure the clearance for carts is sufficient as well as safe is another purpose of tree maintenance.

Lastly, the health and structure of a mature tree can be improved and maintained through pruning. Removing dead or dying branches, or cleaning the tree, improves the aesthetics and structure of a tree. This is also a technique in improving the safety of the tree. Thinning a tree is the selective removal of branches throughout the tree canopy. This has several key benefits. Air and light better penetrate to the crown of the tree and help to improve its health. Excess weight can be removed from limbs and help to prevent breaking. Thinning also aids the tree in keeping its natural shape and structure. Raising the tree branches is another technique we will employ. This has a more indirect benefit to the tree. Keeping the tree branches up and away from carts and machines keeps the tree from being hit and branches broken and damaged.

While we are not currently equipped to climb and maintain the uppermost limbs on very large trees, we will be out doing what we can to maintain the balance between the turf and trees. By doing a little each year, the quality and appearance of the trees, surrounding turf, and experience for the golfers can all be addressed.

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Orgro

Spring dead spot is the only true affliction to Bermuda grass. It is a fungus that attacks the roots, stolons, and rhizomes of the plant. The infection occurs in the fall and winter. The fungus does not directly kill the plant but weakens it enough to allow winter to cause sufficient injury that the plant dies. Damage is seen in the spring when healthy Bermuda grass starts to break dormancy and infected sites do not.  There are far more questions than answers in regards to control, severity, and practices for prevention of this disease.

Recently, the use of organic compost in the fall has shown positive results. Several courses in North Carolina have been using these materials for a couple of years and have seen improved control of spring dead spot. There is only trial evidence thus far, but it is a relatively inexpensive and easy program to start. So in order to try and alleviate the spring dead spot problem we have, this fall we are adding this compost material, called Orgro, into our preventative maintenance routine.

This past week you may have seen us out spreading the compost or seen it in the fairways. The material will help relieve soil compaction which is one of the key strategies in fighting spring dead spot. Like most turf grass fungi, the pathogen attacks weakened and stress plants first. Compacted soil does not drain well and therefore the Bermuda grass is saturated and can’t breathe. The plants in this situation are susceptible to infection with the spring dead spot fungus. Also, the compost works as a fertilizer. Soil microbes break down organic material in the soil which releases nutrients that are then available to the plant. Soil microbes are active when soil temperatures get warmer, as it does in the summer. So, this material will be present in the soil as temperatures climb next spring and into summer, thus releasing nutrients to the fairways just as they are breaking dormancy and need food the most.

To work around a busy fall golf schedule we are splitting the recommended rate of application in half and will be applying the material twice. Our hope is that putting less material out will allow the fairways to grow over the compost quickly so as to impact playability as little as possible. However, we will not spread the two applications too far apart. One application is being applied at the start of the month and the other will be right near the end of the month. The timing of the application is important too because if applied too early, the material will begin to break down now and the Bermuda grass will take up nutrients. This would cause the Bermuda to grow too much as it heads in to fall which does not allow it to prepare for winter dormancy. This is another stress on the plant that can open the door for spring dead spot infection. If applied too late, the compost will sit on top of fairways that are not growing and the material will take far too long to be integrated into the soil. This would greatly affect the playability of the fairways. Also, the material would then not be in the soil through the winter, providing what defense it can, when the spring dead spot fungus is infecting the Bermuda grass.

Although, there is no way of completely preventing spring dead spot, we hope that by adding this new wrinkle to our management practices, we can see an improvement in the control of the disease.

 

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org

Labor Day

Happy Labor Day. This holiday can sometimes signify the end of summer and the beginning of fall or it may just be a bump in the road as summer rolls along. Whichever it is, a few things do change for sure when the calendar turns to September (including the start of another football season!).

One change noticed by everyone is that day-lengths begin to shorten dramatically as we move into September. Sunrises move later and sunsets move earlier. With this change at both ends of the day we typically lose 1 to 2 minutes of daylight per day. For most, this is an unwelcome change because outdoor activities that used to stretch well into the evening are now squeezed into shorter days. For turf grass though, it is significant because the daytime is when the turf grass is subjected to stress. The sun gets a later start in drying the grass out and finishes earlier in the evening. This translates to the window of stress on the turf being smaller. Less stressed time means that we can push the turf harder and can expect better tolerance and recovery.

Another change that occurs is that the angle of the sun begins to change. With each passing day the sun gets lower in the sky and thus the intensity of suns’ rays decreases. In the middle of summer, when the sun is directly overhead and beating down most intensely, the turf is under the most stress. Each passing day thereafter, the sun begins to shine on the turf at ever decreasing angles. The smaller angle diffuses the heat intensity that the rays can impart on the turf and the grass is much more capable of managing the warmth.

Finally, the overall average daytime and overnight temperatures begin to drop significantly in September as well. Many sources are available to check average temperatures but generally for August the average daytime high temperature is 85-87 degrees Fahrenheit. However, for September, the average drops to around 81-83 degrees Fahrenheit. Similarly, the overnight lows drop from 65-67 degrees down to 61-63 degrees. These both are significant changes. The daytime highs are somewhat clearer as to the importance of lower temperatures. Lower temperatures cause less direct heat stress and the turf grass is far more tolerant. Somewhat less well-known, is the importance of lower overnight temperatures. When the overnight temperatures drop below 70 degrees the level of disease pressure drops drastically. Also, as the overnights continue to drop down into the low 60’s, the turf grass can “catch its breath” overnight. The grass can recuperate from most stresses of the day more efficiently and effectively. Recovery overnight means that the grass is not still under stress from the previous day as it heads into the next day.

So as we all head in a little earlier because the summer-time sun is going down sooner, the turf is breathing a small sigh of relief as it recovers for tomorrow.
 

 

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org