Compost

We will be making one of our annual compost applications to the Bermuda grass on Thursday this week. Over the last few years we have applied at different times of the year and we have tried several different products. This will be the first year that we have used the same product and followed the same timing as the year before.

Compost is beneficial for the Bermuda grass in several ways. It provides basic nutrients, it can warm the soil and turf canopy, and it aids in recovery from spring dead spot. You can read more about our other attempts at compost here and here or read more about spring dead spot here.

This will be our fifth year of doing the compost regularly on the Bermuda grass and it will be our fourth combination of product and timing. The previous four years were all different and we could never quite get the whole program the way we wanted it. Most frequently, the compost material that we used did not perform as we would have hoped. 3 years ago, we finally found a great compost product but we continued to do 2 applications in late summer. Last year, we still did 2 smaller applications, but we moved one to the spring and kept one in the summer during aeration. The idea was to give the Bermuda grass a boost early in the season when it was getting its bearings. This seemed to work very well, so we will follow the same procedure this year.

The material that we have settled on the last few years is much finer (but not too fine) and falls down into the turf canopy much easier than other products. The material is much drier and less clumpy so it is much easier for us to apply. Finally, by spreading the two applications further apart, we don’t put too much material down at any one time and we are not applying again quickly back to back. Two applications in the late summer seemed as though as soon as the compost was gone from the surface, we were right back out there again with more. All of this leads to much less impact on golfers.

Finally, this has thus far been the 3^rd coldest April in history. We are roughly 2-3 weeks of growth behind last year, which is evident from the state of the Bermuda grass. As we have done every year since 2014, we took a picture from a similar location on #10 fairway on April 19^th for a comparison. Here is each picture from the last 5 springs. It is very interesting to see the different progression each year.

2014

2015

2016

2018

2017

Finding the right balance between turf health and golfing experience is difficult. We understand that everyone wants everything perfect all of the time, frankly, we do to. But we have to accomplish these maintenance practices to make sure that we are always moving forward, working towards that goal.

Etiquette Reminder of the Month

Please be patient with our spring debris cleanup process. Thank you

Also, as part of a Golf Committee initiative to improve course etiquette, we have included links to videos teaching proper on course etiquette. Please take a moment to watch:

Ball Marks - How to properly repair

Bunker etiquette

See you on the course!

Joe

jvillegas@bwrc.org