The Irrigation Battle

A golf course is viewed by most as a giant playing surface composed of fairways, tees, greens, rough, and a driving range, but when we look deeper into what keeps all of these in the condition they are is a complex system composed of miles of irrigation pipe and wiring. It is an ongoing battle just to keep the irrigation system running properly and in sync with the change in temperature, wind, and ET and always issues with repairs and troubleshooting of the system. The picture below is a piece of 2" PVC that was installed 13 years ago during initial construction. Due to being installed too shallow, only about 10" below the surface, the pipe actually kinked from being driven over with equipment year after year.

 

After the broken pipe was cut out it was fixed and the hole was back filled. After a couple days the rough mowing unit passed over the area again and the section of pipe was broke yet again, mostly due to poor installation this time as well. As you can see in the picture below it blew out hundreds of gallons of water in the short amount of time that it leaked. This is not only an eye sore but creates a wet spot that can not be driven or played out of for a couple days. 

 



After breaking the second time I felt more comfortable fixing it myself this time. In the picture below you can see we decided to cut out the entire section of shallow pipe and use the back hoe to trench deep through the clay. Alex was in the trench doing the final prep before installing the new section of pipe and re-splicing the wiring together.

It has been almost a month now since this has happened and all is well. The area dried out nicely, and the sod took hold and is growing well. It was a battle but very rewarding to have your work hold up. Next time you are playing golf and see employees waste deep in a muddy hole, do them a favor and thank them for their hard work and dedication to the property while they do the best they can to get the area back to normal playing conditions. 

Disease

As most people know, the Willamette Valley in Oregon is known for its beautiful summers and its very wet winters. Along with wet conditions comes disease on the golf course. The picture below is of Fusarium patch (also known as Microdochium patch), a common turfgrass disease in the Willamette Valley. Fusarium patch begins to show up on golf greens in late fall when we begin to get lengthy periods of cool wet weather. It is a significant problem on the putting surface because of its unevenness and patchy distribution. It is related to the snow molds but in this case, Fusarium does not need snow cover to begin its life cycle. It produces thousands of spores that will lay at rest in the thatch layer of turfgrass throughout the warm season, these spores will then grow when triggered by the cool temperatures. Fusarium patch can be managed by chemical and cultural control methods but the best way is to use a dedicated IPM (integrated pest management) program. A well balanced IPM program will use both chemical and cultural control methods throughout the entire year. The best cultural control method is to remove leaf wetness every day. In our environment we have dew that forms every morning almost, it is key to either mow, roll, or "mop" the greens in the morning to remove the dew and dry out the leaf surface. Chemical controls come into play when the disease really begins to take hold of your putting greens. Heavy metal fungicides were most commonly used in the control of this disease but as the years pass the golf industry is becoming more and more conscious of the environment and has moved away from these toxic chemicals. Commonly used fungicides include DMI's such as fenarimol and propiconazole, also hydrocarbons such as PCNB, and the cholronitriles such as chlorothalonil. You can see in the picture below the overall size of the patches and the significance it could cause to a rolling golf ball. Once the warm weather kicks in, any disease left on the greens will begin to heal and fill in with routine top dressing of sand.

Fusarium patch on a creeping bentgrass/poa putting green at

 Mallard Creek Golf Course in Lebanon OR.

Landscape Project

Even though this isnt golf course related it is something educational and fun for me to do. The past two weekends I have been helping my parents with a landscape project in their front yard. The goal was to eliminate some of yard for lower maintenance and clear away from the road to develope a better view of traffic. This first picture is of the front yard after spraying out the lawn and de-thatching it to get rid of the tangled mess of thatch that it was. Thatch is the layer of organic material that forms at the surface of the soil below the blades of grass, it usually gives a spongy feeling like a mat when you walk on it.

After de-thatching the lawn we tilled about 2" deep to remove the top layer of soil. We then raked out all the clumps and rocks before rolling it to create a smooth surface. Also we cut out the front portion (left in photo) of the yard to re-shape it. Also moving the Redosier dogwood from the corner to open the view of the road. Finally in this step we added the large rocks and strategically placed them for a natural look.

Our third step was to seed the lawn and then add a layer of loamy mulch over the top. Not only does the loam help level the surface more but it also provides a great growing environment for the seed. The mulch helps retain moisture under the surface and keep the soil temperatures up at night. As you can see in this third picture the loam is laid out in the shape of the yard and is leveled to proper grade.

For the final step we added bark mulch to the front portion of the landscape for a fresh clean look. Also placed ornamental grasses in spots near the rocks to attract the eye of the viewer. Also down the driveway you can see a strip of small river rock, this is to give a nice border yet also catch any runoff from the driveway. The river rock runs around between the house and the yard which will double as a walk way over to the secondary driveway where the pickup is parked. The river rock is a nice addition to a landscape because it is clean, easy to blow off debris and pull weeds from, and doesnt fade in color.

You are probably thinking how is this done, there's no grass? All of what you see in these pictures was done in a total of about two days. We chose a Tall Fescue as the grass of choice. Weather depending it should be germinating and showing some growth within two weeks. We chose Tall Fescue for a few reasons. One being that it is known for its deep roots, the goal for this is to lower water use, and deeper roots mean more available water. Secondly is that we dont use the front yard for any social gatherings. Tall Fescue is a thick bladed, coarse grass, therefore not the best for high traffic areas. Lastly is the color of Tall Fescue, it gives a nice bluegrass look with deep green colors. It will be interesting to see how this turns out after the yard has grown in all the way. I enjoyed working on it and am excited to see the finished product.

***UPDATE***

Grass is growing!!!

***UPDATE***

Grass is coming in nicely, starting to look like a lawn!

Greens Mowers: From Old School to New School

Over the last 100 years or more golf course maintenance has changed from a job to a science. The greens are the heart of the golf course where the magic happens, which means that it requires top notch maintenance. There is way more than mowing that goes into the greens but for this I am just covering the change in mowers. The use of a reel blade was used prior to the 1800's to cut fabric but in 1830 Edwin Budding joined John Ferrabee and engineered the worlds first lawn mower by mounting the cutting unit onto a wheel drive system. Not until the late 1890's did engineers begin to put steam powered motors onto the reel mower.

This is your typical push style reel mower. It uses the rotation of the wheels and a set of gears to transfer that motion into the cutting unit mounted in between the wheels. A very simple and effective design but hard to use. This same basic design is still being manufactured to this day and they are still in use in many small urban landscapes.

This is today's push reel mower, visually different yet vary similar in function. This specific model is the 2012 Toro Greensmaster eFlex. Battery operated for reduced emissions and very efficient. Toro also makes this in gas powered and a riding model with 3 reels instead of one. The differences in today's technologically advanced mowers is the fact that they are driven by force and the operator merely just has to keep it straight. Also they are much more efficient. Golf course greens used to be cut at a much higher cut then they are today. Most courses mow their greens anywhere from .090" to .125" which is a very small and nearly un-noticeable change but affects they playability of the green and the overall health of the plant greatly. Its hard to imagine a blade of grass being cut shorter than these letters are tall but it happens daily on a golf course.

Golf course mechanics use highly sophisticated machines like this grinder to sharpen the reels and the bed knives of the mowers regularly to maintain a sharp cutting edge and a quality cut on the plant. These machines can be set by a computer to shave off thousands of an inch at a time at precise angles and locations on the reel to achieve maximum effectiveness and life of the unit. Hopefully you learned something from this short and very broad overview of today's greens mowers. Next time you are out playing golf look closely at the greens and appreciate the work that the staff puts in to keep them the way they are, its not your typical home lawn by any means. Also feel free to stop by the shop or send an email to your superintendent and thank him/her and their staff for what they do, they are very under estimated in today's "take it for granted" world we live in.

And as always, have a nice day!

Guest Speaker: Larry Gilhuly

Today the Hort. 418 class was privileged to have Larry Gilhuly speak to us on What Makes a Good Golf Course Superintendent. Larry has been a USGA Agronomist and the director of the NW Region for over 30 years now. I will give a quick outline of the quality information he had to give. First off a few key attributes that make up a good super. Thick skin, your members will approach you with what they think is the right way to do things. Also they will always have complaints, the bunkers are inconsistent, the greens are slow and fast at the same time. These are really just cover-ups for their lack of skill so take them with a grain of salt. Do your best to educate the players and remember that not all of them can be trained to see things how you do. Next is be a good communicator. Speak intelligently and thoughtfully to players and staff both. Use your communication skills to develop quality relationships with them, fellow superintendents, and suppliers of the industry. Also remember who you are talking to, the media and environmental advocates are always listening and taking notes and will jump on any opportunity to bash the golf industry. And lastly don't forget your family. Communicate with them about your job and make them apart of it. Most superintendents have the luxury to take family members on the course with them in the evenings so use this to your advantage to make up for lost family time. Next is agronomic skills, not only common cultural practices but also fundamental skills and organic management. Also be able to play the game and understand the rules. The better golfer you are and the better you can explain the rules of golf and answer questions about the game the more respect you will receive from the players. And finally, make yourself known. Be on the course as much as possible, especially on foot. This shows that you do care and that you are out there seeing what the players see. Don't go by the 20/20 vision tactic, that is 20 mph and 20 yrds away, that wont get you very far. Also make yourself known to the pro shop. Whether its frost delays, top dressing, or aerification, be in the pro shop talking with the pro and his staff, they are the voice of the golf course and might not have all the right answers. Be there to correct the member who thinks the frost doesn't matter, but do it in an educative way. Also, always remember what you are dealing with. The golf course is ever changing with weather conditions, its a living and breathing organism, and you are preparing a surface daily for public scrutiny. Some of the most remarkably resourceful people come out of our industry so use them to your advantage to help you in any way possible. Thank you to Larry for sharing with us and also to all the other USGA Agronomists for doing such a fantastic job.
And as always, have a nice day!

Tom Cook: Poa annua Culture

This week we were privileged to have former professor Tom Cook to come and speak to our Hort. 418 class. The topic of interest was maintaining annual bluegrass especially here in the PNW. I will give a quick summary of what he went over with us. He discussed three different types of Poa, an erect type, a spreading type, and compact types. Most mature Poa putting greens consist mainly of the compact types while patches in home lawns or fairways is more commonly erect types. Poa annua typically flowers in mid April through June (+ or - two weeks depending on temperatures). The flowering is the only downfall to Poa being used for a putting surface, not only is it bumpy, it is also rather distracting to the eye. Typically in the PNW bentgrass is planted for the putting surface and the battle begins to keep Poa off the greens. Encroachment of Poa can be controlled until it reaches about 25% coverage on the putting surface and then it really begins to take off. On the other hand, some choose to have Poa as the main putting surface, Eugene Country Club comes to mind first. The process of maintaining Poa consists of good cultural practices including a balanced fertility program with adequate NPK ratios, coring and topdressing spring and fall with an optional 1/4" tine in the summer. Lastly application of growth regulators. Most commonly Proxy and Primo applied together, Proxy for seed head control and Primo for improved quality. As far as diseases go, Microdochium patch, Anthracnose, and Gray/Pink snow mold are the main concerns. Irrigation will directly affect the risk of Anthracnose so keep it uniform and consistent. Keeping it a little on the dry side with daily syringing is a good goal to shoot for. Thank you to Tom for sharing with us yet again and as always it was a pleasure to learn more from him.
And as always, have a nice day!

Crane Fly

Yesterday as I was out at the Oregon State Turf Farm I was walking across the Poa green and noticed this guy poking up out of the surface. This is a crane fly emerging from its pupate stage. Crane fly are known for causing damage on turfgrass but only during their 3rd instar stage of life as a leather jacket. They eat the roots and crowns of the plant and can cause browning or in some cases death of the turf in small areas. Crane flies are not harmfull in their adult stage and you can most likely find one anywhere there is turf. The simplest way to control crane fly is by limiting your amount of irrigation approaching labor day. This is the time when they lay their eggs, lack of water will affect their ability to do so.
And as always, have a nice day!