This sort of preventative maintenance
affords the greenkeeper an additional opportunity to spot disease, giving him the ability to take remedial action quickly when necessary. Hydrophobic soils present serious
problems for golf greens, especially smaller ones with stress areas due to high golfers’ traffic. Summer aeration is imperative to help alleviate these problems. Taking the surface tension out of the top layer will allow more oxygen down to reach the roots. Summer aeration, combined with a good hand watering programme, is the best way that I have found to reduce the pressure on these high stress areas.
Water balance sheets 12th tee at Ealing Golf Club
If a greenkeeper’s energy sources are unbalanced or out of harmony with his maintenance programme, his greens will be poor, whatever the height of cut
As a greenkeeper plans the fertility application schedule at the start of each season, I believe that both organic and inorganic type fertilisers should be included. Both have a role to play. I predominantely use organic feeds in spring and autumn, when deep tining of the greens is also scheduled. By applying an organic feed at this time, it allows the fertiliser to get down to the roots. Also, this is the time of year when most greenkeepers are overseeding. I have found that the best preseeder is an organic feed which contains lots of primary and secondary nutrients. The inorganic fertilisers available today are becoming more advanced. Foliar feeds are relatively new to the sportsturf world, but they have already become an integral part of many programmes. A feature of a foliar feed is that it goes straight into the plant, somewhat like injecting a needle, but predominantely through the leaf. This gives the greenkeeper greater control as wastage is reduced. The downside is that it is high maintenance, requiring lots of spraying. As a result, I like to apply a granular base feed first and follow it up with liquids. This way the intensity of the spraying can be reduced, while still keeping the plant healthy.
Another advantage of foliar spraying is that it can be tank mixed with other products such as seaweeds or plant growth regulators such as Primo Maxx. Primo Maxx is a great product which helps control top growth by putting a lot of the plant energy into the root system. By doing this, it has the advantage of reducing Poa Annua seed heads that appear every spring. These seed heads
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tend to cause slow bumpy greens at this time of year. If you start this programme early enough, coupled with a low cutting height, bumpy greens will be eliminated. Another factor to bear in mind, when designing and implementing a fertiliser programme, is organic matter build up. A survey conducted in America a few years ago, concluded that on a normal maintenance schedule, with an average fertility programme, the plant will produce 22% more organic matter than the previous year. However, this type of organic build up can be broken down with verti-cutting, sanding and aeration programme. Organic build up can lead to thatch and, ultimately, slow, bumpy greens. As a result, feeding programmes should never be planned in isolation, but in tandem with the verti-cutting, sanding and aeration programmes.
Irrigation
Irrigation has become a hot topic over recent years and some greenkeepers proudly tell how little water they put on to their greens. By all means be on the lean side when watering but, as with fertility, the plant has requirements. Don’t fall into the trap of starving greens of water. Even fescue needs water to survive.
As with the fertility programme, I
recommend the little and often approach when irrigating. I tend to restrict the use of sprinklers to a light watering early in the morning if conditions dictate this. I follow this up with selected hand watering. Although hand watering is quite labour intensive, dry patch can be kept at bay while allowing the greenkeeper to stay more in tune with his greens.
Water balance sheets are becoming more popular. They allow greenkeepers to calculate water loss or gain on a daily basis. In the past, greenkeepers have just relied on their own experience and skill to apply water. Experience still counts, but can be improved upon with water balance sheets. Gone are the days when irrigation systems were turned on in late May and switched off in early September. The plant has needs which vary for all sorts of reasons. This might mean that the plant requires a couple of millimetres in early March or October to keep it healthy, and this is where a water balance sheet helps to diagnose the moisture requirements, and takes out the guess work.
The right balance
Fertility and water are the key energy sources, and greenkeepers know that they require balance in quantity and application. Too much feed or water and the greens quickly become soft, leading to organic matter build up and scalping. Too little and the plant will just wilt away. The maintenance programme also
requires planning and balance, where aeration, sanding and verti-cutting help make a very tight cutting height sustainable. To sustain the very short height of cut increasingly demanded by golfers, these maintenance operations must be coordinated and integrated with the fertility and water programme. From my experience, I know that
greens cut at a constant height of 2mm can remain healthy and sustainable. The same can be said about a grass plant that is cut less aggressively, and few, if any, will dispute this claim. But, if a greenkeeper’s energy sources are unbalanced or out of harmony with his
maintenance programme, his greens will be poor, whatever the height of cut.
Greg Evans runs
the Complete Golf Solutions consultancy company. He can be contacted on 07951 157208 or by email on
gregevans1973@hotmail.com.
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