Quick update

Just a quick update to show how things are progressing on the course and the work that has gone on over the last week or so. Firstly the weather has been very mixed, we have had a spell of very Autumnal weather. Cool winds from the north dropped temperatures dramatically, almost to the point of a couple of frosty mornings. Temperatures dipped to around 5 degrees C. That has slowed grass growth down and given us a chance to catch up on a few jobs. With paternity leave for a couple of our staff over August and September, we have struggled to get on top of cutting until the growth slowed, thankfully now all areas are under control.

We have had chance to start a few of the winter type tasks, the first being clearing some vegetation from the 11th storage area to make room for leaf disposal. We will aim to clear a couple more areas in the next couple of weeks. All gutters on buildings around the car park have been checked and cleaned. The bridges across the 10th have been tidied and weeded. Also we have started to sharpen the back up greens mower units.

The cool nights have brought some dewy conditions which makes an ideal environment for disease. With this in mind we have sprayed a preventative fungicide which should reduce the risk of fusarium on the putting surfaces over the next month. should conditions prevail and we think disease pressure is high then a follow up application will be made in October

We have applied a slow release fertiliser to the tees which has now taken effect and are looking good.

The worn areas on 10-18 holes have been vertidrained before the machine was taken off in preparation for the leaf/grass collector to start work.

We are continuing to trial the worm suppressants which are on the market, with no real winners so far. Worm casts are still going to be the most damaging problem we will face this winter. Please be understanding, as there is very little we can do to prevent the smearing and mud that will build up in high wear areas.

Generally the course is playing well for the time of year, the staff are working hard to present the course in the best possible condition for the busy end of season period.

We are starting to mark trees which are for removal this winter, dying, dead or dangerous trees are 'ringed' before the leaves fall. This makes it easy to see which trees are for felling and which are to be pruned come the middle of the winter when we will start this type of work. We are also in the process of creating a tree management plan, this will involve analysing all tree areas and suggesting a plan to ensure that all woodland is managed correctly long term. We do not want to see the trees become over crowded, lose turf quality or lose the play-ability of the course we have.

Wormcast woes

As we head into the middle of September, the onslaught of leaf collection seems as its just around the corner. Some trees are showing colour change and a hand full of trees have started to drop their leaves. We are regularly out with the tornado blower dispersing grass clipping, from wet cuts, so these few areas are not an issue as yet.

Storm Aileen, the first of the season passed across the country on Tuesday night, this brought strong winds and a bit of rain, fortunately after a couple hours of clearing and pushing water off the greens the course suffered no real damage. Unfortunately this hasn't been the only rain the course has had over the last week, to be honest there has hardly been a day without rain. 37mm has fallen so far in September, followed by a wet August (87mm) and an even wetter July (112mm). The course is therefore getting sticky, the rainfall in July and August is not ideal, but there is sufficient heat in the sun to dry surfaces and remove moisture from the soil, in September the air and soil temperatures start to decline, therefore less moisture is lost from the ground and we start to see some damage. This has been exaggerated this year due to the worm cast issues we are facing after the removal of all effective worm suppressants from the market.

Carbendazim could be sprayed at this time of the year to supress worm casts on all areas of the course, with no means of preventing them we are seeing more and more as the soils get cooler and wetter. Ideal conditions for worm activity. These cause damage in a couple of ways, firstly they are smeared by machinery, foot traffic and other golf vehicles such as buggies and trollies. The smearing looks bad, but once the grass slows down in growth will not be able to recover as quickly as it would at this time of the year. This will lead to poor, thin turf in high wear areas. The second way turf can be damaged is the casts blunt the mowers, the soil is abrasive and will dull sharp blade edges. The poor cut will then lead to tearing of the grass plants, opposed a sharp scissor action, letting in diseases and adding stress to the plant, which can only be detrimental to its growth.

We are noticing the most cast activity on wetter and poorer soils and on high wear areas. We have trialled 4 different products on the market which claim to suppress worms, 2 of those had no real effects to the cast activity, 1 had an immediate effect but its longevity was limited to a couple of days and the final product which is an organic soil conditioner showed the best results, however its longevity was limited. It claimed to have an effective suppression of 3 months, however after 3 weeks casts have started to return. I will reapply the product to see it a build up of the organic substance is needed to have a longer effect on the casts. This product is over 5 times the price per hectare than carbendazim, so reapplying to large areas simply wont be affordable. The tests I have done so far are on singular greens so cost at this stage is not an issue.

In a couple of weeks we will begin to cut down all the long rough once more. The amazone machine will be geared up to start the collection in all areas. As mention on my last post we will be starting to clear some areas for grass and leaf disposal. Below are some pictures of the long rough areas around the course, compared to year end 2016 there is a remarkable difference. Even in the wet year we have had the rough is far more playable than previous years, given a couple more years of cutting and collection we should see a big difference to our natural areas on the course.

September 2016

Adam, Sam and myself attended a machinery demonstration day at Wetherby racecourse organised by CLS and Campeys. It was a good day and a chance to see some of the latest machines in action. Days like that always give inspiration and help us think about where we can improve the course here at Malton and Norton. Below is a disc seeder, one area I'm keen to persue once we have tackled drainage issues on some of the greens is to create a more uniform and dense bent grass coverage in the Poa dominated areas of the greens. The reason there is poor bent growth in certain areas of the greens is due to saturated soils providing unsuitable conditions for bent grass. Conditions that Poa loves.

Last but not least I'm pleased to say we have now a second new born on the greens team, Matty  Turnbull and his fiancé Ellie have had there first child. Lola was born on Monday 11th September weighing 8lb 2oz. Matty is now off on his paternity leave, however I'm pleased to say Rich Malthouse is now back to work after becoming a new parent himself.

Happy Autumn

This year seems to have flown by and now we are officially into Autumn(meteorologically). The leaves are already starting to fall in one or two areas of the course but we certainly aren't thinking about starting to get the leaf collector ready just yet.

With the routine settling back into some normality we will be concentrating on presentation of the course, with a few smaller jobs to catch up on. Sprinkler heads, winter cups and junior discs are the first priority, as mentioned the growth has been very strong and some of these are getting lost in the long grass. We also need to get caught up on lower priority areas of cutting, such as strimming, cutting copses, intermediate rough areas and the clubhouse border areas. Overall the course is looking great.We are now going to start grinding and changing blades on the greens mowers, as the sand we apply to the greens during maintenance weeks blunts the cutting edge, leading to a poor cut. When the units cut poorly they tear, rather than cut the grass. This sometimes isn't clearly visible as the grass is very short, however on closer inspection the quality of cut can clearly be seen. A torn edge can lead to more disease, stressed growth and slower greens.

We will be starting to look at removing some trees and vegetation around certain areas of the course to create disposal points for leaves and grass once we start to use the new Amazone machine. We are looking at minimising travelling across the course with heavy machines, so we need to have multiple areas across the course. initially we are looking at the 1st, 3rd, 6th, 11th, 23rd, and the end of the range.

The greens have recovered really well, holes 19-27 will require another application of sand to fill any remaining holes in a week or so. We will be applying another application of fertiliser to all the greens in the coming weeks, we will also be applying a granular fertiliser to all the tees, this will boost growth and strength going into the Autumn period when recovery from play isnt quite as good as through summer. A granular application of fertiliser will be applied to the greens once we get into October, however when conditions are still good liquid applications are preffered.

We will be booking in the spraying contractor to apply another mix of fertiliser and selective herbicide to the fairways towards the end of September, its important that this is applied before soil temperatures dip away. The programme we are currently running on the fairways has worked well this year, they are dense and growth is strong, the fairways on 14, 15 ,16 and 18 still need a little more work, there is some dry patch which can be amended using wetting agents and in combination with a little more aeration. We will be also looking to get the Air2G2 booked in sometime in October to aerate the greens again. This machine causes very little disruption to the surfaces and is a fantastic tool which keeps the greens more playable and increases the drainage as we head towards the wetter months.