Nursery Green

The preparation of a nursery green construction is now almost complete.
The nursery green is used as a bent-grass supply for replacing worn or damaged areas on the putting greens.
This is a four week process:

• First the soil is sterilized with a fumigant
• Then the area will be leveled 
• Next the cores are spread over the prepared area. The cores are collected from our aerification June 26th. 
• Last the area will be leveled and seeded; the green will be ready to use next summer. 

Bermudagrass Color Retention

Fall is in the air, literally.

With the dropping temperatures, I have been asked a few times “When are the fairways going to turn brown?” I would like to discuss the factors involved that make this change happen and when to expect to see the change.

In the fall, bermudagrasses will start to lose their green color when the soil temperature drops below 55 degrees F. When soil temperatures drop to and below 55 degrees F, bermudagrass has difficulty producing chlorophyll more rapidly than it is degrading in the plant, particularly with high light intensity. As a result, the turfgrass will start to lose its dark green color. All bermudagrass will go dormant with air temperatures below 32 degree F. The ice crystals that form within the cells of the leaf tissue with freezing temperatures pierce the cell walls, ultimately killing the leaf tissue. It takes several days after this event for the bermudagrass to turn its characteristic dormant color; this happens gradually over the next several days as the sunlight degrades the chlorophyll in the leaf tissue.

#13 Fairway

Course Update

Calabasas Country Club

Course Update

So far so good; the month of November has given us 3.5’’ of precipitation and the damage has been minimal.

This week the grounds staff will be cleaning debris left from Sunday’s storm as well as:

·         Seeding the greens

·         Light greens top-dressing

·         Preventative fungicide application on the greens

·         Fertilizing greens surrounds

·         Fertilizing tee-tops

Regards,

Eric Wenzinger

Golf Course Superintendent

Anthocyanin

Picture taken of #18 green showing purple colored bentgrass.

I've received a few inquiries as to why the greens are so many different colors of grass, and below is a quick read from an article I found at www.paceturf.org/ which is a trusted authority on turfgrass management:


As temperatures cool, some bentgrass plants produce the red pigment anthocyanin, a stress-response chemical. This behavior is restricted to only small patches of bentgrass, which are most likely clones that have segregated into small clumps of progeny that are not exactly the same as the parent variety that was originally planted.

 Even the latest and best bentgrass varieties will segregate over time to yield patches of turf of diffferent texture, color or growth habit. Since the appearance of these patches is driven by the genetics of the plant, there is unfortunately little that can be done to manage it, other than to wait until environmental conditions favor more acceptable appearance of these clones. 

The good news is that while these segregating clones do create a cosmetic disturbance, they rarely have any impact on playability.

Course Update

Calabasas Country Club

Maintenance Department

There has been a lot of positive feedback about the course since the Calabash, and congratulations to Rich Colabella on his victory.  Some questions have arisen about the advantages and disadvantages in bringing up the course's playability.

It definitely is a give and take situation, which I separate it into three categories: health, aesthetics, and playability.

Members see that when we aerate or perform other necessary activities to ensure the course's health, the playability of the course goes down. Conversely, when we double cut and double roll the greens for three days straight (as we did for the Calabash) in order to enhance playability, the health of the greens decline.

The aesthetic value is affected by both conditions in different ways. Maintenance projects disrupt the short-term aesthetic value, but are done to ensure health and thus long term aesthetics and playability are gained.

On the other hand, constant sweeping and mowing makes the course look great for a short period, but in time the mowers will wear the grass down to nothing, which has adverse effects on health and aesthetics.

My main concern is health; it is not possible to keep aesthetics and playability up long term without raising the health. The goal is to raise the health and slowly bring up aesthetics and playability until they are all at a notable and sustainable level.

A few activities planned for November;

·         Tree trimming and clearing dead trees

·         Needle tine aeration on the greens

·         Light top-dress applications on the greens

·         Soil, tissue and water test were conducted to ensure proper nutrient and amenities are added to the greens over the next few months.

·         Collar and approach verticutting; this removes excessive thatch build-up and reduces scalping.

·         Edging cart paths

·         Fungicide application to the greens

·         Fertilizing the greens

Regards,

Eric Wenzinger

Golf Course Superintendent 

There will be needle tine aerification on the greens during the week of 11/7/11.This will greatly help the greens health and not interrupt play.

Frost

 This morning the temperature dropped to 30 degrees.

    

Soil temperature has been recorded the last few weeks.

The average soil temperature on the course is currently is 55 

and with the frost you can expect the fairways to start shutting down.

As soon as the soil temperature reaches an average of 50 the 

bermudagrass leafs will dye and the plant will be dormant.