Mosquito Repellent Damage

This picture is from Seaside Fairway #5.  Someone had one leg out of a golf cart and sprayed some Deet based Insect Repellent.  The resulting overspray damaged the turf.  There are some newly created Botannicals that are also effective.  I have found the Lemon Eucalyptis based botannicals are almost as effective as the Deet based repellents.  The best advice I can give is spray repellents on cartpaths or deep in the roughs, to prevent turf damage.

Aerification and Water Repellency

This picture is of water repellency on 9 Seaside.  With the Moderate Drought we are in and all of the foot traffic, the greens begin to seal off and not accept moisture.  We use soil surfactants every two weeks to help, but for this reason, we have to vent the greens with small solid tines every 4-6 weeks.  As you can imagine, this could cause serious problems.  When we aerify Seaside next week and roll the green, you won't even notice it, but the grass plants will.

Greens Mowers Going Green!

While I was at Nutters Crossing in 2006, we changed out our greensmowers from regular hydraulic oil to biodegradable oil.  This investment paid for itself many, many times over.  One of the drawbacks to riding greensmowers always has been potential hydraulic leaks.  The resulting damage required soil removal, tedious sod work and a lot of nurturing.  With bio oils, the main thing that happens is the tops of the plants get burned.  The damage can be topdressed and fertilized out.  We are doing the same thing to our mowers here at OCGC.  The greensmowers are being converted over to the Bio Hy-Guard II.  Hopefully we never see the benefits of this product.

New Equipment Starts Arriving!

Our new fleet of John Deere equipment started arriving today.  We are bringing in a lot of nice new technology to enhance your golf experience.  We are all excited about the new package.  Our hope is to make our staff even more efficient and make your course better in less time.  Feel free to stop us and take a look.  The machines are amazing!

Why Do You Use So Much Growth Regulator?

This picture shows a typical Perennial Ryegrass seedhead.  Note how it is growing.  It is very upright. 
NOW look at this picture of Perennial Ryegrass sprayed with the growth regulator Primo Maxx.

The seedhead is growing laterally.   The regulator changes the growth pattern and the turf requires less mowing, uses less water and yields less clippings. The result over time is a dense, very playable turf.  We use growth regulator on tees, greens and fairways.  It puts less stress on the mowing equipment and requires less mowing.  Doses of regulator range from 6-7 oz per acre on greens to 9 oz per acre on tees and 11 oz per acre for fairways.  A typical application lasts 2-4 weeks.  I thought everyone would find these pictures interesting.  The turf does turn yellowish the first application, then the plant seems to react better to heat and traffic stress.

Topdressing Newport Greens

Today we topdressed the Newport greens.  We applied the sand a little heavier than last week on Seaside.  The topdressing was drug in with our cocoa shell drag mat.  The greens should firm up and smooth out.  We hope some of the thinner spots will knit tighter.  We are irrigating the sand in tonight and then applying a soil surfactant tomorrow.

The Miracle of Epinasty

I have taken the pesticide exam in three states.  The same question was on all three.  We have used a generic of the old standby weed killer Trimec.  It is three chemicals in one application.  The chemical works by excelerating the growth of the weed, using up its food reserves in the roots.  The weed outgrows itself.  This is the miracle of epinasty!  Look it up!