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 

Lets Kill Some Grass

Its not every day you get to show up to work and start filling a tank with Glyphosate. I have to say it was one of the more nerve racking things I've done around a course, just the knowledge that whatever I spray and potentially wherever I drive the grass will die had me a little on edge.

This year we are converting our old Vamont Bermuda Fairways to Latitude 36 Bermuda, one of the newer hybrid Bermuda grasses. Latitude 36 has a finer leaf texture, better color and wear resistance and is much denser than Vamont making it a better playing surface in season and out of season. Everyone here is very excited about the "upgrade" to our Fairways, especially those of us on the maintenance staff, despite the added stress, labor, and worry the process adds.

4 weeks ago we began spraying our fairways with Glyphosate (Roundup), for effective control of Bermuda grass it takes 3 applications spaced 10-14 days apart while the plant is actively growing That allows the Glyphosate to be translocated throughout the plant and into the roots, stolons, rhizomes and other leaf tissue giving good control. We had planned to begin this process the middle of April so we could have the time to let any turf that hadn't died begin growing again prior to the second and then third applications, the weather however did not cooperate. With a cool April and lots of rain the soil temperatures stayed down causing the Vamont to no break dormancy until almost the last week of April, a few hard frosts didn't help anything either.

We had to wait for the Vamont to come out of dormancy and start growing prior to the Glyphosate applications because we need the plant to be transpiring so the chemical can move through the plant, otherwise it won't kill anything and just delay the process. Once it broke dormancy and started growing it began raining, and since Glyphosate is taken up through the leaves and not the roots or soil that meant we were very limited on when we could spray and how much we could accomplish. The first 25 days of May boasted 21 days of rain, throwing a giant wrench into our plans.

Despite this we have pushed through and with the sprigs scheduled to arrive tomorrow we have sprayed all 22 acres of fairways twice and half of them a third time. It took us a minute to figure out a good rate with the Glyphosate, a balance between enough chemical and wasting it as the plant can only absorb so much. We've settled on a rate with the second app and have seen really good results, and should have no problem getting the third app out prior to sprigging. Below are some photos one the past 4 weeks.


Peter Danaher
Assistant Superintendent
Talbot Country Club
peter.danaher88@gmail.com

Boss had a great idea of adding dye to the tank as well as using foam to make it as obvious as possible where we sprayed. 

1 week after first application of Glyphosate. Starting to see the Poa go off color. 

1 week after first application, Poa is dying, Bermuda has slowed growth and is just barely showing chlorosis. 

1 week after second application. Starting to see some of the Bermuda die. 

No thats not a skip, we're saving that piece, it shows the difference clearly, 1 week after the second app which had Finale as well as Glyphosate. You can also see how wet its been out here. 

10 days after second app which had 64 oz Glyphosate per acre and 100 oz Finale per Acre. Finally some dead Grass.

Mostly Dead. 

Little bit of regrowth