What an incredible spell of weather we have had recently, it has been truly glorious!
We have started on the Autumn renovations a touch earlier than normal this year to gain better soil temperatures and recovery from aeration and oversseding carried out, the two machines we have used create very minimal disturbance and the results are fantastic.
We recently had the Air2G2 aeration machine in recently to help with essential aeration on the greens and approaches, the machine injects compressed air at a 12" depth to shatter any compacted rootzone with no surface disruption, the lowering of compaction will increase porosity, improve root growth through good micro biotic activity,better drainage and aeration provides a more efficient take up of nutrients that will have long term beneficial effects to the soil structure and health of the grass.
During the same couple of days as the Air2G2 was on hire we also hired a Vredo disc seeder in which the seed is placed in a V shaped slit,directly in contact with soil for maximum for maximum germination rate, this is also a very non disruptive operation and has proved to be a great success.
We used bar fescue seed for this operation which is a mix of Chewings and Slender fescues as they have excellent drought tolerance, the fescue grasses with it's erect shoot growth ,narrow leaves,low levels on Nitrogen inputs required is truly a sustainable grass and provide fast, true and smooth golf greens hence our continual quest to improve the compositition to get as much fescue grass in the sward as possible.
Following the double pass overseed
We have been busy overseeding all of the walkways and other weak areas,the seed we are using germinates at slightly lower temperatures and we are already seeing some germination. Just a note that many of these walkways will be roped off to protect our investment in overseeding these areas, we will try and minimise any disruption to playing lines.
Please be patient with our protection of these areas as this will benefit the golf course massively in the long run.
The switch to a straight sand dressing which has enabled us to apply more dressings when conditions and the golfing calendar allows and has made a big difference.This is one change im very exited about for the future one i believe is and will even further make an enormous difference to the greens as we will accelerate organic matter reduction at the base of the turf which is one of our key objectives whilst creating a drier environment for the fescue to thrive whilst from a playing perspective has given a much firmer, smoother and faster greens!
The sand dressings and the new roller has enabled us to keep the height of cut at a much healthier height which has resulted in much healthier greens but whilst also improving the speed, firmness smoothness and trueness.
The winter work programme this year will include a mixture of
-Replacement of shell pathways with matt and turf
-Scrub management
-Bunker revovations
-Tree removal
-Rabbit hole patching
-Rough management
There is also a very exiting project in the pipeline! More details to follow soon!
Regards
Rhys Butler, Links Manager, Royal St David's Golf Club.
