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Showing posts from January, 2017

I'm a speaker at #GIS17

That's right, I will be attending this year's Golf Industry Show in Orlando Florida and will be doing a number of talks . I hope to meet up and talk with everyone I have met over the years on social media and am really looking forward to this event. I will be involved with 4 presentations during the week. On Monday Feb 6th at 3:30pm I will be taking part in the environmental panel discussion where we will discuss; SUCCESSFUL LOW-INPUT TURF MANAGEMENT: IS IT PRACTICAL? I am very excited to join Doug Soldat, Matthew Crowther, and Chris Tritabaugh for this discussion. I've already seen their presentations and can say that you won't want to miss this. On Tuesday, Feb 7th at 9am I will be taking part in the lightning round presentations. These presentations are from a wide variety of people and are only 2 minutes long each! I will be sharing the craziest things I have observed over the years on my golf course. This is sure to be a lot of fun. On Tuesday, Feb 7th at 1pm I w

2016 almost no wetting agents on greens

Does needle tine aeration make  wetting agents redundant? In 2015 I survived the record drought with only Dispatch as a wetting agent on my putting greens. I had changed the timing of my irrigation on greens with much success. I wrote about some changes I made to how I irrigated my greens in this post . Last spring I then hypothesized that maybe I could get by without the use of wetting agents on my greens . So me being me, of course I tried it out. And long story short, I used no wetting agents...almost. The almost part of that statement comes from the fact that I decided to hit up the 3 LDS I had on all my greens with a spot spray of wetting agent which I did. I used the rinsate from an old dispatch jug and sprayed it on these spots. The only LDS on my greens this past year Of course the assistant superintendent at the neighboring course, Matt, called me on my use of wetting agents (he bet me that I would have to use them) and won himself a case of beer (that is if I actually make it

2017 pesticide usage summary

We have never spent less controlling pests on our golf course as we did in 2017. With a lot of hard work, determination, and luck with the weather and predicting the future , I was able to continue the downward trend of pesticide use on the golf course for another season. This year we spent 24% less than last year and 41% less than the last 8 year average despite the prolonged and sometimes record breaking wet weather. I used to believe that it was the wet weather that made disease management such a challenge. I am learning that it has more to do with me than the environment which is a tough pill to swallow but also fills me with optimism for future learning and improvement. The table below outlines the total cost of pest control products used on my golf course per year. The table says greens, and yes, this is the only place that pest control products (of any kind including ISR SAR and organic) are used. I have used a bit of iron sulfate on approaches and tees for the last few years fo