On the course we have been trimming most areas as and when conditions allow, greens and surrounds have been cut following the fertiliser application which was put on last week, that is now starting to take effect and we should see some 'green up' soon. Following that application we will now be looking to apply our next preventative fungicide, mainly to reduce the risk of fusarium at this time of the year, but will also help fight other diseases that may be active.
All hedge cutting is now finished, so our focus has been on finishing pruning of shrubs and gorse bushes.
Staining of seating and bins is nearly complete, with only a few left for bad weather days.
Now our attention will be on bunker edging and filling with sand, most of the bunkers need sand, some are worse than others. All bunkers will be strimmed around and any damage or poor edges will be reshaped or repaired. Levels will be checked and sand added where needed.
The irrigation contractors are making great progress, all the pipe work has been installed and they are now continuing with the control boxes. They are having to re-pipe some of the tees as the damage to the pipework has been too extensive to repair, this will be at their cost. The tank has started to be constructed, this is made of sections which are bolted together, there then is a liner which is placed inside and secured around the rim. The roof structure will then be built to protect the water from debris and other contaminants.
The trees are now all planted and secured, we have also planted up where the old 20th hole used to be, Lesley Matthers has kindly donated four trees and Colin Webster has planted a number of small trees taken from off the course. Some more tree work will continue during spring, where trees will be pruned and some thinning work undertaken.
This week we attended a seminar at Pontefract Golf Club, where we listened to various speakers discussing the future of chemicals within the industry. Over the past 3 years we have already seen a number of very effective chemicals taken off the market due to their risk to the environment. EU directives are being tightened to not allow any chemicals that are extremely mobile within the soil to be used, not just on turf but within agriculture also. Their logic is if they are mobile then they have the potential to enter water courses and cause greater damage to the environment. Over the last few years it was just the active ingredient within the chemicals that was analysed and restricted to the minimum safe effective use quantities, but now they are looking at all ingredients which come within the chemical bottle, so adjuvants, wetter's, colorants etc. Some are already being restricted and are having to be remade using safer additives to ensure the active ingredients are maximised. A number of fungicides will be the next to go, they estimate over the next 3 years. For us as green keepers this will make maintenance of a golf course much more challenging. For example the chemicals used for worms, chafer grubs, leatherjackets, rye grass removal and selected fungicides have already gone, with no replacements. As I have spoke about previously sanding will be more common to keep surfaces dry, and reduce cast damage, this will be our greatest challenge going forward due to the land type. As for grub damage, nematodes are still available, however are extremely difficult to apply. There are new chemicals being developed which are safe to use and meet the criteria asked however new chemicals take around 10 years to be fully tested and developed to the point the can be brought to market. I will keep all informed if there is any further news.
