Snow way we are closed!

So winter finally arrived in the UK with temperatures dropping fast. this is something i prayed for myself to help with drainage long term and to bait off disease pressure. October and November has seen some of the highest disease pressure I have seen in my 23 years as a greenkeeper, Constant leaf wetness and temperatures prime for fungal growth is usually wave type pattern up and down but this year has seen a constant threat. 

I was praying for the cold to hit us not just to hurt disease pressure but because we have not had a decent cold spell or beast from the east for a few years now. The frosts are a necessary evil through winter as they help break up compaction leading to soils that drain better in the long run. In colder regions this can have a detrimental effect heaving at the soil too much and causing the ground to lift and actually ruin soil structure so there is a balance in my prayers (I seem to say that all year). I have never seen this in our region and only benefits occur by opening up already made aeration holes lower down in the profile through ice expanding.

In the last 5-10 years I have seen very little frosts that get deep and last all day so non of these benefits have occurred and as a consequence soil drainage has only become worse. Non of these effects are witnessed by sight and once thawed you do not know this has happened but on our clay land with little drainage to speak of we need mother nature to help us out when ever she can, she certainly throws it the other way. 



The problem we have now is the snow has disappeared and the ice melting only in the upper 2-3 inch from a little warmer rain, this is a big issue. We play on frosty greens in winter here at Phoenix golf club as I have never seen a detrimental effect on the surfaces, with one exception, thaw in the upper profile only. when this occurs the top becomes soft as the lower profile is still hard and will not drain. You essentially rip the top away from the sub surface with your feet, breaking roots and ruining that soil structure the little bit of ice has just helped you with.

The diagram below isn’t just for golf greens but all surfaces, fairways, tees and aprons included. Watch the state of the football pitches once play commences as some referees are blind to the perils of a thawing deep frost and pitches are deemed fit On a weekend.





So I know we are eager to play after the snow and cold but a little patience of a few more days will benefit the course long term and prevent further closures once damage occurs and areas become unfit for purpose. Once Christmas has disappeared the golf season is around the corner.

Merry Christmas to all from the ground staff and Thank you to all for your patience all year as we prepare your course.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poa flower in putting surfaces

Image
Here at Phoenix we have been managing Poa annua on our golf greens ever since they changed to being a high percentage of Poa probably 50 or 60 years ago. The old management techniques have certainly given us some problems underneath in our soils and consequently on top on our surfaces. High kg of Nitrogen per annum, too much water, height of cut too low and lots of disturbance to keep on top of organic matter has started the circle of decline and has given Poa annua the advantage it seeks over other more preferred perennial species like Bents. There are several sub species of Poa annua, old established push-up greens like here at Phoenix are 95% Poa, but I would have a guess that 90% of that is Poa annua var reptans which is the preferred species. This so called annual actually grows as an annual, a biennial and a short lived perennial. The pure annual species is more prone to death from disease and drought so is definitely not what we want in the green. All grasses flower and
Read more

10th green hydraulic leak

Image
10th green hydraulic leak As you May have noticed in spring we had a massive oil leak from one of our oldest tractors straight through the middle of our 10th green. As this was clean mineral oil from the hydraulic system it doesn’t show up on the green straight away and a couple of lines was expelled before noticed by staff. Death of the turf occurs initially from the heat of the oil but the difficulty in recovery comes from the oil taking time to leach out of the soil and break down. Oil by its nature is a water repellent which is not good for water loving grass. Unfortunately for the golf season turf was ordered but poor planning meant this died over a weekend!. My staff and I was left with a dilemma, wait to see if recovery started and over seeding actually started to germinate, or turf with a fresh piece of turf cannibalised from another green or the same green edges. We opted to try seeding but the seed just wouldn’t germinate in the hydrophobic soil profile caused by
Read more

No core aeration and why!

Image
It’s been a while since I posted a blog and that’s partly because of a busy schedule both at home and at work these days. So you may be wondering why I’ve aerated our greens and no longer pull out messy cores. The answer is a relatively simple one and it all revolves around management techniques. There’s more than one way to skin a cat and some manage their surfaces with high nitrogen feed and higher irrigation volumes to produce greens that recover well from damage and look nice and green throughout the season, others manage their surfaces with less nitrogen feed and less water that requires less of some other inputs to produce firm greens that putt well. The science behind those techniques is a simple one too. When turf grasses grow they produce thatch or Organic matter (OM), the faster they grow the faster the OM produces. We greenkeepers and groundsman force grass to grow sometimes by adding nitrogen feeds and we can also control growth by water inputs and plant growth regulators (
Read more