Fusariummy

OK that title is a bit much but bare with me. It's no secret I'm a fan of rolling. It has a ton of benefits from faster and smoother greens to disease suppression. Ever since I got my first roller back in 2010 we have been rolling daily and cutting every other day or some version of this. Basically we roll the greens 2 times for every mow without significant impacts on playability of the greens. If anything this schedule of greens maintenance results in more consistent playing conditions . The benefits of this are obvious when it comes to mower maintenance. If you use a mower half as much it will require about half the maintenance and last about twice as long. For me it has made it possible for us to use our only triplex mower for both greens and tees . We only need one mower for 2 jobs. One mower, Two sets of cutting units This year we looked at fuel use savings. Aside from the cost of fuel, we are also concerned with the use of fossil fuels and ways we can reduce our reliance...

"Summertime and the livin' is easy" We are now half-way through the summer and have still not required a broadcast traditional fungicide application on greens. To say it has been easy would be a lie. It has been a roller coaster of disease activity but for the most part I have been able to keep everything in check and the golfers here have been enjoying some of the best conditions in years. The weather this summer has been very diseasey. What I mean by this is lots of cool and wet followed by hot and humid. Last year it was hot and dry which made it relatively easy to manage disease. This year I have seen it all. Dollar spot, brown patch, fusarium, and even thatch collapse! Even crazier is that I have seen it all at the same time. Dollar spot, fusarium, and brown patch in one photo on tees. This is "diseasey" For the past 4 years I thought I had dollar spot beat. That was until this year when I started seeing dollar spot on my greens. It came on very slow and I ...

Lately I have begun to change the way I approach weeds in the landscape. In my experience over the past decade I have seen a lot of weed management failures, not just on the golf course but also on people's home lawns. I have noticed a few things and here is what I have got. The principle is this: Instead of focusing on the pest, focus on the desirable species. It might sound easy but it is really a hard thing to do.  Take dandelions in your home lawn for example. When dandelions sprout on most people's lawns their first reaction is "what do I apply to kill these dandelions?" While this is a fantastic short term solution it really solves nothing over time and not after long the lawn is usually plagued with more dandelions. Instead of focusing your energy on the dandelion focus on the needs of the turf. The dandelions aren't the issues. The turf that is weak and unable to out-compete the dandelions is the real issue. I am often approached by members telling me I be...

With all my talk about nitrogen lately I thought it would be cool to compare how different methods of nitrogen fertilization would look. As nitrogen is one of the few things that if we add more the plant will use more the differences in application rates can have a varied affect on plant health and response. The following chart illustrates the same amount of nitrogen applied per season but at different rates at different times of the growing season. Now we know that the blue line is what the plant actually needs so if the lines from the other application methods are above the blue line you are essentially over applying nitrogen and if the lines are below the blue line you are under applying. Over applying and under applying both have their purpose in turfgrass management but they also carry consequences. I read somewhere that a visual turf response can be seen at nitrogen rates as high as 6Kg N/100m2 per season! Currently my rates are about 1.4Kg N/100m2 per season. So essenti...

Roughskin Newt Nov 15 9th green  Yesterday while inspecting my greens I came across this Roughskin Newt ( Tarichia granulosa ). In recent months I have seen a noticeable increase in the number of newt or salamander sightings on the putting greens at my course. This is the fifth salamander sighting since September. I have always made mental note of newt sightings on the course simply because they are quite rare. I can only remember about 4 or 5 sightings in 12 years before this September. Salamanders are considered to be an indicator species as they are extremely sensitive to environmental changes or pollution. They basically breathe and drink through their skin. Where human skin is one of our greatest defense mechanisms, amphibians will absorb anything they come in contact with through their skin. Many also spend part of their life cycle in aquatic environments and terrestrial environments which means that any pollution in either will drastically affect them. Th...