Last week's aeration went very well. The weather was in our favor and the team was able to do something to all our bentgrass areas. The rain we needed came just as we completed our process, over five inches since Wednesday, with more still coming. Our hope is that the greens will be completely healed by Labor Day weekend.
Greens, Tees and Approaches The greens tees and approaches received the same prescription. They were core aerated, fertilized and topdressed. This process is very laborious but gives us the best results over the long run. Our process manages our organic matter, creates pore space, and keeps our infiltration rates high to keep our surfaces dry. Fairways The fairways were sliced. This is a process that is very quick and low impact. It creates a opening in the soil for gas exchange and water infiltration. We have found doing this several times during the season combined with our late fall core aeration and deeptining balances the agronomic needs of our fairways and the playablity of our golf course. We will be applying an organic fertilizer to the fairways in the next few weeks to give them a little carbon based feeding at the start of fall. The Rough This week we hope to start fall renovations to the rough. The aerovator seeder is being put on the tractor as I type. We will be aerovating, seeding and fertilizing the majority of the in play rough in the next few weeks. We will be working from the 1 inch cut out. Traffic areas that need to be sodded will be refreshed late in fall. Thank you all for the understanding during last week's aeration. We do not like taking the golf course away from the membership, but it is a very necessary process for the long term health of the Crest. Another summer month has pasted and we are now in August. Although the past few days have felt more like October. The golf course continues to have a healthy season. The heat has not been as relentless as in previous summers so the course has gotten a nice break along with some timely rains. The team is looking forward to more cool nights and shorter days in the near future.
The Greens In mid July we were very conservative with the greens, putting their health in front of daily conditioning. Now that the worst days of summer are behind us we have started to get the greens rolling again. We anticipate continuing this up to aeration and picking back up on it as soon as the greens heal. The Tees and Fairways The other bentgrass playing areas are having a great season. The changes to the agronomy program are continuing to pay dividends. We hope to keep this level of plant health and good playing conditions right into the fall. Rough The rough at the Crest is our weakest area of turf. July was hot and dry, causing extra stress on the rough that does not get coverage by our irrigation system. Other areas are getting worn out from traffic. As part of our fall agronomy program we will be aerovating, seeding and fertilizing most of the rough so that it can be in great shape for the fall and start of next season. Aeration week is right around the corner and the team is looking forward to putting in some agronomy work to all our playing surfaces. Thank you for your understanding as we complete this necessary work. Tim Edwards |
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Tim Edwards tge@rivercrestgolfclub.com Archives
January 2023
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