With less than 2 weeks away from graduating from Rutgers, I'm get excited to return to the golf course. I've been constantly brainstorming these past 10 weeks and have alot of new ideas and maintenance practices for improvements to the course. There's quite a few practices I would like to in corporate in to the maintenance practices at Warnimont this year.
This past summer we had alot of problems with hot spots in the green (localized areas in which the soil won't retain water), this requires us to water for longer and often times over watering areas just to water the hot spots. We have used wetting agents(which helps the soil retain water) in the passed, but this year I'm going to use them alittle more frequently in order to increase firmness to the greens,reduce thatch accumulation, conserve water, and improve nutrient holding capacity.
In the spring and fall, which is the optimal growing period for turf grasses, I would like to spike the greens. Spiking the greens penetrates the thatch layer and allows the turf canopy to dry, which should help against Dollar Spot(disease which attacks the leaves of the grass plant.) This is a practice that is often neglected, but has many benefits, such as reduced disease pressure,increased turf density and water movement,penetrates thatch, and other agronomic improvements.
These are a couple of the many ideas I have for this summer. My crew and I are looking forward to getting the course open, and hopefully we will come out of the winter with minimal freezing desiccation, and snow mold. I'm kind of concerned about this, because of the amount of snow we had this year which increase the chance of winter damage to the greens.
Two more weeks until I'm back to work at Warnimont and I can wait! Here are some pictures from a field trip to Pine Valley with my Rutgers turf class.
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