Calabasas Country Club
Course Update
The unexpected weather the nation has been receiving has a lot of people scratching their heads; luckily Southern California has stayed on the cooler side somewhat consistently. The Midwest and East Coast has had it bad with low temperatures in the 40’s and highs in the low 100’s and rain almost every day over the last couple months. This will definitely affect grain and soy prices this winter along with Fungicide usage on golf courses.
Most members who read my blog or have asked me questions about the greens know that a big issue at CCC is the fact that the non-potable water in Southern California is reclaimed, and as such has an extremely high sodium content. Many issues we have with greens health could be resolved if sodium chloride water softeners were banned and replaced with potassium chloride water softeners. Many states across the US have already adopted the use of potassium-based water softeners. Unfortunately potassium-based water softeners are a relatively new product, and the households and businesses within the Southern California water districts are not yet equipped with the infrastructure needed to support its use. In the meantime, sodium management at Calabasas Country Club is a big concern that is constantly monitored and addressed with the following techniques.
1. Gypsum “Calcium”
· Bimonthly applications of soluble calcium are put down to replace the absorbed sodium.
2. Leaching/flushing
· Leaching/flushing the process of putting 6” of water down on the greens in a single night; this is the most important tool in aiding greens health. It moves the sodium down the soil profile and into the drainage. This is also why the drill and fill in March of this year was so crucial to open up channels that reach to the drainage. In some cases our 42 year old drainage system was not working properly which rendered this leaching process ineffective, and the drill and fill has been a good step in the right direction to restoring healthy drainage.
3. Humic acid
· Humic acid restores missing or used up nutrients back to the soil which feed the naturally occurring processes that maintain a healthy environment for plant life.
This week all of these activities are scheduled, the effects will be the immediate dark green color which shows the importance of this process. The down side would be the greens will be softer which makes fixing ball-marks very important to sustain consistency and smoothness of the greens.
Thanks for you're continued support and understanding of my efforts,
Eric Wenzinger
Golf Course Superintendent
