Help I'm Drowning! If Only Turf Grass Roots Could Talk

Drown: To kill by submerging under water. To die under water of suffocation. We sliced the fwys shown to get oxygen to the roots and dry the soils out. Yes this caused small brown spots at the slice area but it will prevent larger dead areas of turf in the next few weeks. A minor disruption for a major gain. Hard to understand this preventive management practice until you see turf die right before your eyes on a sunny, breezy day.

Turf Grass Roots Need Equal Amounts of Air and Water to Prosper

Too much water, from constant rains, saturates the soil and pushes the air right out of the ground which creates a very unhealthy situation for the turfgrass roots. Turf roots need an equal amount of air and water to grow properly, when saturated conditions persist, the roots die back and consequently the grass can no longer take routine foot or vehicle traffic without thinning out. The month of June, with its nearly 11" of rain, created this anaerobic (without oxygen) condition in the soil beneath our turf and has caused some thinning, particularly in some of our new fairway areas adjacent to fairway sand bunkers. We have flagged some of these areas off so golf car traffic and mowing vehicles stay off them until recovery is achieved. We will use special equipment that will relieve compaction in these areas and allow a pathway for air to reenter the soil. As the turf and soil in these areas mature the wear will be less of an issue.

American Ingenuity Keeps Ponds Free of Algae

At the end of each year we evaluate our performance on how we manage the golf course from a quality stand point and an efficiency point. Several years ago we wanted to become more efficient with our application of algae and pond weed control products to our ponds it was just taking too long to apply products to our 11 ponds which total out to 5.6 acres of surface water. What we came up with, to cut the time in half, was a flat bottom boat with a gasoline powered trash pump mounted on board to pump water out of the pond into a short hose attached to our applicator gun. On the hose we have a T hose adapter which connects to a flow control value and a 5 gallon pail of control product. The boat is powered by a small trolling motor and we have a home made boat trailer to get it from pond to pond. It works great and the credit for the idea and putting it together belongs to Mark Mejchar pictured in the boat making the application and John Niemiec our Equip. Tech.

Rain Persists. First 23 Days of June 9.94 Inches

I-94 Rain Runoff Floods the Golf Course

Rain, 2.5 inches in less than 2 hour, produces near 4 million gallons of runoff water from I-94 and the city streets to the east and the north of the course.

Fusilade II Delivers Thin Wispy Looking Fine Fescue

Fusilade II was applied on May 5 @ 16 ounces per acre this application stunted the growth of canary grass, quack grass, bluegrass and rendered this thin wispy look to fine fescue that you actually can find a golf ball in. I plan on expanding this program next year. Great look and golfer friendly.

Sand Bunker Edging Crew: Fantastic Job!

Exceptional Sand Bunker Edging Crew: Lead by Enedino Perz, 2nd from the left, and left to right Jose, Enedino, Angel and Arnulfo. Hot humid or cold and wet this crew cranks out perfection. Great Job Guys!