Thursday 18 February 2016

Tree Planting



The last few days has brought our first batch of snow of the year. Not much but enough to close the course for a day. We used the time to start planting the new stretch of thorn hedge to the right of the 20th. A 1000 whips have been planted so far with another 1000 to go. This will create the new boundary for the hole. It also allows us to keep some land for excavation and store any thing we might need. For future years. The hedge runs across the end of the range and therefore will screen the out field in years to come. 

Over the next few weeks we will be planting another batch of new trees on the course. Many of the members will have noticed the new trees we planted on the course last year, the pines to be more specific, have died off. A total of 9 pines died over the space of this year. When lifting the dead pines to investigate we noticed a distinct lack of fibrous roots within the root ball.

 Just so all are aware a root ball tree is mechanically lifted using a tree spade. The tree is grown from young in the ground allowing its roots to grow outwards finding water and nutrients from where it can, opposed to a container grown tree, as the name suggests keeping all its growth in a container for the duration of its life until planted. Root balled plants have to be cut from the soil with a tree spade which cuts down into the soil around the base of the tree. Some roots are severed but most fibrous roots should be maintained within the root ball.
Now to solve our situation. Talking to Wykeham Trees where the trees were bought we have identified 10 trees were lifted with the wrong size tree spade. The spade was too small for the size of the tree, severing all of the fine roots. This would have meant no water or nutrients could have been taken up no matter how much we watered them. This confirms the fact they were planted correctly and watered sufficiently as the remaining 34 pines planted have survived and are doing well.
Wykeham have agreed to replace all the dead trees free of charge, we have also got a number of other trees to plant across the course.
We are creating a stoned area outside our shed to make storing equipment and machinery easier and solve the water standing where we travel through.
Wednesday was an incredibly wet day so we carried on with machinery and painting/staining posts and bins from the course.

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About Me

Im the Head Greenkeeper at Malton and Norton Golf Club. I began my greenkeeping career at Malton and Norton Golf Club straight from school as an Assistant Greenkeeper. Wanting to climb the greenkeeping ladder I gained my NVQ level 2 and 3 at Askham Bryan College. I continued with my education gaining a HNC in golf course management and took the position of Deputy Head Greenkeeper at Malton and Norton Golf Club in 2005.In 2008 I was promoted to the position of Head Greenkeeper, leading a team of 6 hard working and dedicated Greenkeepers. Our aim is to continue to improve the condition of the course year on year maintaining our high reputation within the area.