Staying mild

The last week has seen an area of high pressure dominate the weather. At this time of year that usually means humid dank mornings and lovely days. More or less what we have had. The afternoons have been fantastic with the sun still feeling warm but the mornings have been plagued by thick fog and messy cutting is inevitable. 

To add to that leaves are coming down which require regular clearance. Growth has slowed however cutting still is going strong. Given the humid wet conditions disease pressure has been fairly high. A few signs of fusarium on the 12th and 2nd, our indicator greens show that it was the time to apply a preventative fungicide to try and stop further infection and damage. 

The height of cut has been raised as growth has slowed and the turf needs de stressing after the intense cutting of summer golf. We have set the mowers at 4.25mm for the next few weeks. 

The rescue application on the surrounds is really starting to kick in now. The next couple of weeks are going be where we see the rye starting to die off. Other grasses have yellowed but will recover slowly over time. To help recovery we have sprayed them with some liquid fertiliser and iron. 

This is the 2nd surround. Originally this was one of the worst infected with coarse rye grass, this time I think there are only small patches that have re grown. After the rescue really takes it out we will know for sure. 

The rest of the long rough is down and with a little to collect that job is nearly complete

September dews

Now we are well and truly into September the typical autumn weather of dewy mornings that hang around all day are with us. These create a number of problems for the staff. Firstly the dews have to be removed to get a clean cut on the grass. This takes an extra man, and time to remove the dew from mainly tees and greens, but sometimes fairways as well. 

If the dew wasn't removed then the cut between blade and cylinder isn't as clean and secondly the wet grass collects on units, tyres and wheels, which then drop off in clumps around the course looking unsightly. The next problem is following mornings of dew and the cut grass from previous days work stick again to machinery and golfers feet which again trails around the course, on to playing surfaces and again looks unsightly. Although the nights are drawing in and getting colder, there is still some heat in the sun, when its out!

We spend a lot more time blowing, switching and trying to remove cut grass at this time of year then any other time, it therefore takes us off other jobs which are usually done more regularly. Once growth begins to slow, due to colder night-time temperatures then this should ease a little.

The leaves are beginning to fall faster, a lot of trees are changing colour which means we are out daily blowing and removing leaves before cutting and from the main playing surfaces, greens, tees and fairways.

Following the 30mm of rain we had last week the course has dried out again and all surfaces are looking great.

 It has however started some thatch fungi, which as it sounds is a turf disease which thrives on thatch, it usually starts in humid wet conditions where there is constant high levels of moisture. The worst area is the back left of the 11th green. Unusually there isn't a high amount of thatch on this green and looking at a soil sample seems to be active within the sandy top profile. We have had historic thatch fungi problems on that green and could be a disease which is active in the soil profile, waiting to be initiated by favourable weather conditions. I'm happy to say that it will not effect the turf long term, once the weather pattern changes it will grow out.

The 8th pond has been completed, looking better for a clear out

Education week

This week we have had a couple of educational events for the greens staff. First up we had Ian Levelle from complete amenity turf with his self invented sarrel roller. Obviously these have been around for sometime but he has made his own version that he brought to malton and invited other greenkeepers from around this area to view it in action. 

Next all the staff visited the stri in bingley for there 'live' event. As seen in the photo above. This event discusses and showcases all the hot topics in greenkeeping at the moment. A interesting and good day out. 

Unfortunately the course had a deluge of rain on Tuesday which brought 30mm of rain throughout the day. 

The staff battled throughout the day to remove water from the greens and by 2.30 the course was dry enough to begin play. Some may think what's the point if opening at that time but there was still sufficient time to play 18 holes and the course was more than playable so why not. The review system we have in place is exactly for this situation. 

Conditions at 6.30pm

This week we are trying to make up for the day lost due to rain, cutting at a pace to wrestle against the ever continuing growth. 

Work has continued cleaning out the pond at the 8th. Still more to be done yet. 

Long rough is still being cut and collected. And areas cut and cleared by hand. 

Tees and the practice area have been sprayed for worms. This prevents them casting rather than killing them. 

The surrounds have also been sprayed with 'rescue' which kills and removes rye grass. Rye grass is a clumpy unsightly grass, especially the coarse varieties we have at malton and norton

The surrounds on the course will look green/ blue to begin with as due is added to the chemical to see where has been sprayed. After a couple of weeks the grass will start to show signs of stress  before the effected grasses begin to die back. They then will be fertilised and aerated going into autumn. 

A small patch of rye on the surround. 

Indian summer

This time of the year is fantastic when the weather is settled, usually influenced by high pressure from an ever sinking jet stream. But unfortunately the high pressure systems are quick to pass us leading to very up and down weather. When the weather is not as good it certainly feels very autumnal. The end of last week brought stunning conditions and the condition of the course matched. The team doing an exceptional job, all areas in great condition. We took advantage and continued with the long rough. Two thirds now down and removed. 

Hopefully we will finish the rest next week. The remainder will be more difficult after today's conditions. Heavy rain and long rough do not go well together. It makes it tangly and difficult to cut cleanly. We may have to choose our moment to carry out the cutting. Fingers crossed there will be an oppertunty. Following the main cutting all the remaining trees in the rough will need strimming around and any areas such as slopes, ditches and awkward corners. The rough is then cut again to remove any missed growth and to keep it at a manageable height coming into the leaf collection period.

Rich and Sam have made a fantastic start to clearing some of the reeds and weed from the 8th pond. This will look great after another session of clearance next week.

One of the greens mowers needed serious repairs and sharpening after a long season of cutting. Adam is making great progress with the machine and should have it back in action next week. In the meantime we have a demo mower from Russell's Groundcare to use for the week. 

The slog

Now all the intense course maintenance is complete it's now a slower longer slog to cut down all the long rough. We started last week with good progress being made. Cutting down of the longer grass is essential to ensure once the leaves fall we can round them up and clear them easily. The other positive side to the cutting is that the 'in play' areas are also collected. This removes nutrients from the ground which would otherwise just be returned. Removing of the nutrients leads to thinner, less vigorous growth in following years. The type of  land is never going to yield whispy rough like on a links course but we feel we do what we can to improve all areas. 

Overall the course is looking great. The downside of cutting at this time of the year is the amount of mess created due to wet, dewy mornings. This is difficult to avoid as we can't wait until the grass dries as growth is still to vigorous and all the cutting jobs would not get completed.

Fertiliser application

This morning Sam and alistair applied a little fertiliser to the greens, surrounds and approaches. September is a danger month for anthracnose. Anthracnose is a disease which comes in two forms foliar and basal rot, effecting the root systems of plants. It mainly infects poa but can take out bents as well. The last couple of years we have had it, last year the most severe. Once the plants are infected they will not recover. Only new growth will fill in areas. It therefore is vital to keep the plants strong, healthy and try and prevent surface wetness. The recent aeration can stimulate anthracnose disease as the surface get severe abrasion allowing plants to be more easily infected. We did apply preventative fungicides plus the nutrition, this should help reduce the likelyhood of outbreaks. We will keep an eye on the health of turf on the indicator areas. 

Elsewhere we have started to cut the long rough areas. These need to be cut down before the weather gets too wet so when the leaves start to fall we can collect them easily. This is a long process as a lot of areas need to be hand cut and then the excess grass hand collected. Over the month of September we hope to finish this job.

After the recent rain worm casts are getting worse on greens, tees and fairways. The greens and tees will be treated if needed. Should the weather improve next week then they should diminish however if it continues an application of iron and carbendazim will be applied.