Over the last 3 days we've really started seeing a change in the fairways. For the past 2 weeks it seems we've been coming in every morning anxious to scout the fairways for signs of growth only to be disappointed by little to no change. However, upon arrival Saturday morning there was a definite and abounding growth from the sprigs on nearly all the fairways.
We have been keeping the soil moisture in the fairways very high to ensure the short roots the sprigs have have plenty of moisture available to them. This has resulted in significantly more push mowing around the course as many of our rough units simply cannot get close to the fairways without damaging turf. We have also been spending a lot of time on repairing our irrigation system. We have out dated Rain Bird Impact heads in our fairways and honestly throughout most of the course. These old 51DR heads work a lot like a home sprinkler you would use in your yard, utilizing a "tail" and "kicker" to turn the head, if the head is to low or not level water builds up on one side and the head can no longer turn, flooding the fairway. The springs and washers also go bad after time causing the head to either not come on, not shut off, or weep when they do turn off forcing the jockey pump to run and putting stress on our system. All this to say is that we've had to spend a lot of time and energy on repairing these heads to ensure adequate water reaches the sprigs.
Last Monday we put down the first application of Fertilizer. We used Water Soluble Urea (46-0-0) at a half pound of Nitrogen per thousand square feet. I'll admit I was expecting to see an immediate response and was disappointed when there was little of no change. Wednesday we put down a starter fertilizer (12-24-05) which had high Phosphorous levels to help with root growth. We applied one pound of Phosphorous per thousand square feet which also gave us another half pound of nitrogen per thousand. That application was the golden ticket, after receiving nearly an inch of rain between Thursday and Friday the fairways exploded the and the growth was evident just by driving around.
We followed up today with an Ammonium Sulfate (21-0-0) application at one pound of Nitrogen per thousand square feet. I'm hoping to see them start moving in the next couple days. I'll end with some pictures from the last 2 weeks.
Peter Danaher
Assistant Superintendent
Talbot Country Club
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| 8 Days post sprigging, Starting to see new roots. |
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| 13 days in the ground, starting to see growth |
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| 46-0-0 Urea Application |
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| 12-24-05 Starter fertilizer, 2 weeks post sprigging |
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| 16 days post sprigging, 2 days after starter fertilizer, seeing more growth |
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| What nearly an inch of rain does to us right now |
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| 17 Days post sprigging, sunshine and fertilizer making them grow |
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| Finally seeing sprigs in almost every slit |
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