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.
