Greens update

The weather has been right for growing bermudagrass, now we just need a few greens to respond to fertilization.  A few still can't seem to get going with what I have tried to "push" them to fill in.  As I described in an earlier post we have an underlying issue with the greens, Thatch.  Thatch is a mat or layer of decomposing stems, leaves and roots between the grass and soil.  An excessive thatch layer over 1" can restrict air, water, fertilizer and nutrients to the roots.  I feel this is really impacting the greens.  This thatch layer holds excess moisture and chokes out roots.  This is also the reason for aerification of the greens 2 weeks ago.  The idea is to create hole space in the soil for the roots to drive downward.  The more material we can pull out and open the greens up the better.  In a perfect world I would aerify the greens at least 3 times in the growing season, as opposed to the once a year we have done in the past.

Busy week...and it's only Wednesday

We have been hard at work this week on the course.  To start the week we aerified the greens with a 1/4" side eject tine.  A small core was removed to help alleviate some compaction and get some oxygen down to the root system.  This small hole will also allow for better nutrient uptake.  As you may have noticed the weather has not been cooperative for growing bermudagrass greens.  It has been inconsistent with wet, dry, warm and cold temps.  Monday morning May 13 the temperature was 39 degrees, which is not ideal for Champion.  I am hopeful that the weather has finally changed for the good.  Today's forecast is for 87 degrees and mid 60's tonight, which is exactly what we need!

The machine I used to aerify

Greens were then blown off

Greens were rolled and this is final result.

Greens update

I want to update you on the current condition of the greens.  As you may have noticed this past weekend many greens developed patches of various sizes.  They went from looking great Friday to looking pretty weak and off color by Sunday.  Several factors lead to this; cool weather, overcast skies and another 2+ inches of rain.  I took a few samples to the UGA plant pathologist located in Griffin yesterday and we had a great conversation about what I am seeing on greens.  I applied 2 separate fungicides Monday to clean up any disease and according to his diagnosis the samples were clean of disease.  Another serious issue we discussed was the thatch layer.  Bermudagrass produces alot of thatch and if not controlled by aggressive aerification and verticutting, it can prove to be harmful for the long term health of the greens.  He recommended more often aerification of the greens.  The more organic matter that comes out the better. 

With all of this said, Dr. Martinez wanted to prescribe me Patience!  I understand what he means but it is hard to just sit back and wait.  Almost all of our problems are weather related.  We have yet to have bermudagrass growing weather.  We were teased a month ago when highs were in the upper 80's, but we have only seen a few days in the 80's since.  As a general rule of thumb bermudagrass needs 150 degrees, meaning a combination of high and low temp.  Temps of 85 and 65 is optimal. 

So to sum it up, please have a little Patience.  Before long Summer will be here and we will be begging for Fall!

Here is a great video from the USGA about aerification.

Update on #9 project

The sod which was delivered and laid 3 weeks ago is gone and new sod was laid this week and it looks great.  Obviously I was not pleased with the sod and asked the installer to come back and replace it with new.  I expect for the new sod to be ready for play in a month or so. 

Thanks again to the Sewer/Septic group for funding this project!