Knock Out Rose Trimming

Now is the time to prune your Knock Out Roses. Never prune more than half the original height

You Sprayed What On Newport Fairways?

This week we had a break in the weather and a couple calm days. We sprayed the Newport fairways with Roundup. Roundup at the rate of 24 oz per acre will not harm the bermudagrass. It will however kill any ryegrass or poa annua or weeds that popped up. Usually they appear in divots. We apply a preemergent in September as a poa control. The Roundup gives the fairways a clean, maintained look. It also promotes one grass type and is part of the ongoing attempt to control poa annua which is a bad problem right now on the greens. More about that in another post. So no we aren't crazy using Roundup on the fairways.

Newport Pond Intake Work Complete

Just because the Blog has been on mothballs does not mean we have not been busy.  As we emptied the bad water from Newport pond, we discovered the pumpstation intake was corroded and collapsing in some spots.  This intake is the aorta of the irrigation system.  The pumping down of the pond has been a double blessing.  The water in the pond WILL be suitable for irrigation (its being retested).  IF this were July and the pipe collapsed, the pumpstation would have taken in silt and fish.  We hired a company to build a new intake and repair the pipe.  While the galvanized pipe was failing in the water, when we dug up the pipe in the pond bank, it was like new.  Here is the new piping and screen

 

BEST TRASH WE FOUND AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POND:

Anyone know Gen???

 

 

 

What Happened to the Newport Pond?

Once the flood water from Hurricane Sandy receded, we noticed the water foaming around our fountain. We also noticed foaming when cleaning equipment. I made a decision to have the pond water tested at a lab. The results showed the water was not suitable for fine turf irrigation. I interpreted the results and has my interpretation reviewed by the USGA. The sodium, chloride and boron levels were toxic by 100x!!! We decided to pump a majority of the water out of the pond. A combination of rain and well water should restore the pond. Remember there was at least 5-8 feet of bay water on top of the pond. A good thing came of this. Once the water level lowered we inspected the intake line. We discovered the line was made of galvanized steel and was badly deteriorated. This could cause silt, sans, eels and fish to enter and clog our irrigation system. It's much better to replace this pipe now than in July!

Vandals Strike

Tuesday night, a group of vandals broke into our first cart barn. About 20 carts were driven out on the golf courses. They drove over and through bunkers and made donuts on 8 greens. Fortunately it's December and the greens were firm and well rooted. We applied a fungicide and some Floratine Per 4 Max to help the tracks recover. The police and forensics units were here to take prints, photos and DNA samples.

Storm Fallout

Some unusual fallout from Hurricane Sandy. The sheer amount of trash that flowed to the golf courses was amazing. One thing we did today was apply gypsum to the bermudagrass fairways. We hope to neutralize some of the salt from the flooding. If we had bent grass fairways or over seeded, the fairways would be dead. Talk about dirty jobs!

Brown Approach Edges

Some of the Newport approaches had some tan spots develop. What we discovered was the cold nights combined with growth regulator caused the bermudagrass to tan. A few warm days cleared up the problem.