Compost Amendment on Fairways

16 Fairway, Good germination 

16 Fairway, Seeded Nov. 23rd

One of the recommendations for amendments on our fairways was to incorporate 1" of organic compost from leaf litter into the top 3" of the soil profile. We did this on all the fairways although it amounted to more of a dusting due to time constraints and material available. On most of the fairways we just put out a light dusting to darken the soil as we didn't usually have time to wait for the amount of material needed to be delivered to achieve the desired 1".

"Skip" in compost = No Germination 

Virgina tech in cooperation with the University of Maryland did a study a few years ago on germination rates, establishment, surface water runoff and overall turf quality when using organic compost vs no compost. The were establishing Tall Fescue in low maintained rough areas. They set up a trial tilling in organic compost, topdressing with organic compost and no organic compost control. They found that the use of organic compost delayed initial germination but once the seed did germinate it was healthier and stronger and performed better during the course of the trial. (you can read the report here, Page 15)

15 Fairway Seeded Nov. 10th 

When we got around to 16 fairway we had somewhat of a surplus of compost. Combined with the fact that we weren't rushing to get 16 done as it was approaching December and from our standpoint we were dormant seeding the fairway. Soil temperatures had already drifted below 50 degrees on average and we weren't expecting to see much germination this fall/winter from the seed but had high hopes the seed would germinate once soil temperature increased in the spring. We also had not logged the heads on 16 into the computer and therefore couldn't supply the new seed with water to encourage germination. With all that in mind I decided it would be a good time to do our own trial in regards to the organic compost.

"Pocket" of Compost 

Instead of doing the usual dusting I put out a good 1" of compost across the entire fairway and then worked it in to a depth of 3". We then seeded the fairway the same way and let mother nature take over. We seeded 16 on November 23rd, I used 15 and 3 fairway, which had been seeded on November 10th and 16th to compare germination times and rates.

To my surprise 16 out performed both 3 and 15 despite both those fairways receiving adequate irrigation following seeding. Turf cover on 16 is around 65% compared to roughly 20% on the other two fairways. In areas where the organic compost had been sitting on the surface and collected from rain the Bentgrass turf is doing exceptionally well and is growing. The rest of the fairway has germinated but isn't as far along as the seed thats in these "pockets" of the compost.

3 Fairway, Seeded Nov. 16th 

Come spring time I will be sure to put the full 1" of compost across the rest of the fairways

Fairway Grassing

Seeding September 24th

We seeded our first hole September 24th which was the par 5 6th hole. From that point on we moved at pretty good clip averaging seeding a hole every 7-10 days. At this point holes 3, 4, and 6-17 have been completed and seeded minus cart paths and tees.

Seed bed Prep 

The first hole took the longest to prep for seed at about 10 days. The construction crew and shapers had already come through and rough shaped the holes, moved soil, built bunkers, installed drainage and dug out lakes. Each hole was then stabilized with Annual Rye Grass and the shapers moved on to the next hole. ISI Irrigation then came in and laid out the piping and heads on the stabilized holes following closely behind the shapers. We decided to go with Toro Infinity Heads and Toro Lynx 2 wire system with Smart Hubs. ISI did a great job with the instal and have been a pleasure to work with.

Ripping with Motor Grader

 Most of the holes sat idle all summer till we could get back around to do the seed bed prep, final shaping and touch up work after the irrigation had been installed. In order to create an adequate seedbed we ripped the fairways to 12" with a motor grader. After that we took a chisel plow over them and then chopped everything up wth a disc. Once the initial ripping, plowing, and discing had been completed we applied Lime, Gypsum, PPM (Chicken Manure) and Organic compost to the soil profile and worked it in to provide pre-plant nutrients.

10 days post germination  

Once that process was completed the finish work began. The construction crew floated the fairways and rough, did the final shape on the bunkers and installed drainage in them. Greens were keyed in, a process to insure the transition from soil to greens are smooth and level and greens drain properly. After that we laid sod on the greens surrounds, bunkers, and any slopes we were worried would wash away with heavy rains. Like I said this process took 10-12 days on the first hole as everyone was learning to work together and establish a solid game plan. by then end we could complete this process in 3-4 days depending on sod delivery!

4 weeks post germination 

After the seed bed was prepped and ready for seed I came through and seeded the fairways and rough with a 6' box dimple seeder. We seeded Fairways 2 directions at 2lbs/1000ft2 total of Tee 2 Greens Pureformance Fairway blend. Rough we seeded one direction at 7lbs/1000ft2 with a 90/10 Tall Fescue/Perrenial Rygrass blend. Once the seed was down we put straw mat down around the fairway perimeter and on any slopes in the rough we were worried would wash away. The difference in germination and maturation between the straw mat areas and non straw mat was so impressive we started straw matting the entire rough as we progressed. We didn't put any cover or matting on the Bentgrass seed.

Behind on Mowing! 

The first fairway took about 6 days to germinate with the rough right behind it. Once the plants had matured enough we began hitting them with ammonium sulfate to encourage growth. The earlier fairways came in nicely and began thickening up quickly, we weren't able to get as many applications of Ammonium Sulfate on the later Fairways due to MD's Fertilizer cutoff. Those fairways are still coming in nicely though.

Aerifying with solid tines 

With everything going on and a limited staff we struggled to stay on top of the mowing of the new Fairways. Number 6 got a little shaggy toward the end of October. We were able to Demo a Toro Pro Core 648 Aerifyer the beginning of November and I went out and Aerified any areas that were struggling to come in with 1/2" solid tines. This process really helped the fairways retain moisture and let the seedlings spread.

6 Fairway Cutting Nicely

 Moisture management was a struggle with the speed we were seeding. Bentgrass seed needs constant moisture the first week to aid in germination and with our limited water supply (2 wells for 200 gpm total) it made for some interesting programming to keep moisture up in the newly seeded Fairways as well as the young plants. However, Toro Lynx Programming made this job easier and I was able to run a lot of the irrigation right from my phone. This let me add water to areas that were drying up as I was checking on the course without having to run back to the computer.

One of the big take aways I had from my classes at Rutgers Professional Golf Turf Management School was from Stephen Kay, Golf Course Architect. He recommended slicing Bentgrass Fairways to encourage lateral growth. We didn't have a traditional slicer on hand so I took our Disc and straitened the arms, added a Excavator bucket for wait and attached a pull behind roller to it to do our slicing. It worked great and I feel it aided in the fairways tightening up and filling it.

 As of now 7 of the 10 fairways we seeded have germinated and are filling in, 15 and 3 are trying to germinate and 16 looks like its going to wait till spring.

Growing in and looking great 

A week in Review

So much has happened in the last week its hard to remember where we started. We went from looking like we might not accomplish anything to seeding our first hole. Monday began as a total wash as we received an inch and a half of rain. Unfortunately the unproductivety spilled over into Tuesday as the course was a muddy mess that morning. By early afternoon it had begun to dry up enough to start the finish work on the 6th Fairway and laying sod around the 6th green.

Wednesday came with sunshine and much to be accomplished. Abe worked on finishing the seed bed prep on the 6th hole, we began ripping, disking and raking the 8th hole and prepping the green surround for sod. We had 3 truck loads of sod delivered on Thursday and Friday which finished off the 7th and 6th green surrounds and wrapped the fairway bunkers on the 6th hole.

We also spent Thursday and Friday doing final seedbed prep for 6 Rough and Fairway. It felt really good to see everything come together. As if all that wasn't enough we also began pouring cart paths this week and cleaning up the weeds on holes 9 and 10 to get them ready to rip.

By Saturday we were finally ready to seed the 6th hole. It was very exciting and was a huge step. After calibrating the spreaders and one or two hiccups seed was down and ready for water. It was a dusty mess but after spinning the heads a few times everything tightened up and we were able to build up soil moisture. Now its just time to wait and let the seed do its job.

Beginning the Sod on 6 Green Surround 

Lightly tilling 9 to clean up dead grass 

Sod around 7 Green Surround 

6 Green surround and Bunker being wrapped 

Bunker Complex with a bonus pot bunker sitting on top

Good looking Par 5 

Ripping 8 Fairway 

Cleaning up rocks on 8 

Cart paths going in 

Seed going down 

Let the water fly 

Drivable Par 4

There is much going on at the course this week. We've begun laying sod around green surrounds, prepping fairways for seed, installing drainage in bunkers and cart paths should be going down this week. Pictures will be forthcoming of all this excitement very soon but I'd like to take a minute and present the 9th hole first.

The Par 4 9th hole is a drivable par 4 at just over 330 yards. Temptation, folly, and reward liter this hole. Longer golfers will be aiming for the green while there wiser partners will choose a hybrid or fairway wood. A perfect drive will give you the opportunity to roll onto the green but a little left or a little right and you might wind up with bogey rather than birdie. Bunkers with high banks line the right side of the fairway while the left side slopes dow severely and is guarded by pot bunkers making for awkward and unpredictable recovery shots.

As the grow in continues I will update these posts with pictures of these holes sodded and seeded.

Fairway with bunkers waiting to catching errant shots.

Front of the fairway looking towards the green. Just passed the bunker on the left it drops off severely 

Bunkers lining the right of the fairway

George is tamping down the greens so we can Key it in. Green drops off nearly 8' to the left and back.

Severe Drop off 

Back side of the green

Back of the green looking down the fairway 

Back left corner 

Left Side 

Independence update

Happy 4th of July!

Good Evening! As Independence day winds down I finally have time to sit down and catch up on some writing. Its been 31 days since the Sprigs were spread and crimped and there growing very well. We put a reel mower on them for the first time this morning cutting at .850 (roughly 7/8ths of an inch). This came after cutting them all last week with our intermediate rough mower set to 1.5 inches to trim up some of the larger clumps.

 5 Fairway, June 24th 

5 Fairway, June 27th

We put 4.5 pounds of nitrogen down over a 2 week span while reducing watering to encourage the roots to establish and grow.  As it was a holiday and the course was full of happy golfers playing the Par 3 course we have set up we were only able to cut 2 of the fairways this morning before it became impractical to continue. If the rain there calling for misses us by some chance we will finish cutting the fairways tomorrow, if not we will have to wait till it dries out some to finish. Were planing to fertilize again after all the fairways have been mowed, we'd also like to get a foliar nutrient feed on them after they have been cut but        that will depend on how much time we have with the short work week.

We would like to open the fairways some time next week depending on how they look after they have been cut. There's many factors that determine whether or not we can open them but we're all working hard to achieve that goal. Once there open we will probably need to instate a temporary "pick and place" rule as we currently only have between 65% and 75% coverage. 8-10 days may change that but we'll just have to wait and see.

First cut with the intermediate mower at 1.5"

 As you drive around every single day its sometimes hard to recognize any change in the fairways because your seeing them every minute of every day. However in the last week I've been able to see the growth change almost every morning, luckily i got some pictures from almost the same location on a couple of the fairways which shows the amount they grew in just 3 or 4 days. We're going to keep pushing them with nitrogen and mowing and get them to start moving sideways more. If you scroll down there are some comparison photos from 5 and 17 Fairways.

I hope everyone has a good and restful Independence Day and can get out to play a round of golf at some point.

Peter Danaher 

Assistant Superintendent 

Talbot CC 

5 Fairway June 24th 

5 Fairway June 27th 

17 Fairway June 29th 

17 Fairway July 2nd 

The Sprigs have Arrived!

On Wednesday morning the first load of Latitude 36 sprigs arrived at the course, we spent all of Tuesday pre-pairing for there arrival. The course closed for 2 weeks to complete the sprigging and extensive watering that has to take place afterwards. We are extremely grateful to have a free golf course to complete our management practices without interrupting play.

On Tuesday, we sprayed the third application of roundup on the last 6 Fairways to kill any regrowth that had occurred and then began the process of Aerating the fairways that had already been sprayed. It took me 30 hours to aerate all 22 acres of fairways, beginning Tuesday afternoon and not finishing till Friday morning. While I was going deaf on the tractor the rest of the crew worked very hard all week to keep up with our regular maintenance practices so that when we open back up the course hasn't skipped a beat.

Oakwood Sod Farm supplied the sprigs, machinery, and labor to do the actual sprigging. We went with 1,000 bushels to the acre of sprigs and double crimped them in. The machine would lay all the sprigs with the first pass and then go a different direction doing the second crimp. The end result was lots of soil contact and the sprigs spread evenly over the entire fairway. Jim McHenry and his crew worked very hard and completed the sprigging on time Friday afternoon.

As soon as the "sprigger" left the fairway we sprayed Ronstar Pre-Emergent Herbicide directly on the sprigs and then turned the water on and walked away... Not really but it felt like that! Its very important to make sure the sprigs don't dry out at all once there in the ground. Quick side note, a sprig is sod that has been run thew a machine that chops it up and leaves just the roots and leaf tissue, which when pressed into the ground are free to grow.

I'll leave you with pictures from the last week which details the entire process. This week has been all about water so far and probably will be till the end of the week.

As for the Greens-

Keep it Dry, Keep it Dry, Keep it Dry!

Peter Danaher
Assistant Superintendent
Talbot CC

Aerating, 2x2 spacing, running just under 2mph hour = 30 hours total. 

Finishing up our longest fairway. 

Sprigs going down directly on top of the aeration plugs

The sprigging machine after its first pass, smooths everything out. 

Close up after the first pass 

 Sprigging machine in action 

Spraying fairways with Ronstar to prevent crabgrass and other weeds from germinating

Keeping it wet