Winter Prep Comes Early
It may sound a little early for this, but this week was all about winter prep.
It was a busy application week for the crew. Monday started with a bulk spread to get all 100 acres fertilized before a Monday outing. We applied a product with some slow-release nitrogen to provide a steady feed through the remainder of the growing season, a healthy load of potassium to help strengthen the plant and get it ready for its long winter nap, along with some iron to help extend the color a little farther into the fall.
These bulk spreads are a fantastic resource for us, especially with all of the Monday outings we have this fall. Being able to get that much product applied quickly allows us to get the work done without tying up the course or the crew for an extended period of time.
The crew was also focused heavily on spray applications. We made our regularly scheduled wetting agent and fungicide application to the greens Monday. All of our sprayers were in service, with the rest of the crew working on our fall and winter applications for pre-emergent control of winter weeds, primarily poa, as well as fungicides for Spring Dead Spot.
Spring Dead Spot is one of those diseases that you see the results of in the spring — those familiar circular dead patches in bermudagrass. The work to manage it actually starts much earlier. We begin our fungicide applications in the fall when soil temperatures are hovering around 65–70 degrees, which is when the disease is most active.
We make split applications of both our pre-emergent herbicides and fungicides approximately 28 days apart. This gives us the best opportunity to hit the environmental conditions when these pests and diseases are active rather than trying to perfectly time one application around Mother Nature.
And, as anyone who has spent much time in the Richmond area knows, timing can be a little difficult this time of year. We can see some pretty impressive temperature swings in a short period of time. This week was a perfect example.
The third major "winter prep" task we tackled this week was overseeding. We overseeded the range, practice tee and a few areas around the club grounds. On the range, we're experimenting with ryegrass this year to see if we can improve the appearance during the off-season while also trying something different to help manage the amount of traffic the range receives throughout the year.
Then, after all of that...
We got 5 inches of rain on Wednesday.
All things considered, it actually seemed like an ideal rainfall event and one we weren't too disappointed to see. The rain and cooler weather gave us a chance to slow down a little and knock out some of the smaller projects that tend to get pushed down the list when we're busy mowing, spraying and preparing for outings.
One of those projects was a little goosegrass picking party in some of the Sabot green surrounds. Not exactly glamorous work, but sometimes the little things make the biggest difference.
Chronicles of a Monday Outing
And finally, this week's installment of Chronicles of a Monday Outing...
#12 Sabot Creek is not suitable for 4x4 equipment.
It's also apparently not suitable for a golf cart.
That escalated quickly.
We'll leave it at that.
The weather looks great heading into the weekend, and after a very busy week of applications, overseeding, fertilizing, rain and everything else that comes with this time of year, we're looking forward to a great weekend.
Have a great weekend!