Winter is not over yet.  I am so glad I decided to push aerification back 1 week.  This would have been a nightmare for us.  We will aerate on Monday 3/31/14 and Tuesday 4/1/14.

 

 

 

Cold weather is forecast for next week.  Lows in the 20's high low 40's  So we are moving aerification back 1 week to Monday 3/31/14 and Tuesday 4/1/14.  We need warmer weather so greens can heal faster.  Sorry for any inconvenience.

Update on Maple Syrup

 

 

 After 4 days of cooking sap we are down to this 5 qt. pan.

 Karen giving syrup a taste taste

 Rob is straining syrup.

All done we collected about 40 gallons of sap and made 3 qts. of Maple Syrup.

We will be aerating our greens on Monday March 24 and Tuesday March 25 weather permitting.

 

     Aerification is a cultural practice that is vital to having good greens.  The purpose of aeration is just what it says AIR.   Turf absorbs air through the root system.  Too much organic matter prevents air exchange.  Organic matter is the old leaves and root from the the plant that is left behind.  This layer is between the turf and soil.  Organic matter is good in small quantities but left to build up can be damaging in long run.  Bentgrass can produce large amounts of organic matter in a short amount of time.

 Too much organic matter can:

1. Repel water.
2. Cause isolated dry spots.
3. Reduce the amount of air getting to the roots.
4. Give a place for insects and disease to live.
5. Can cause the greens to be spongy which causes poor ball roll and green unable to hold proper golf shot.

     By removing cores and filling the void with sand this removes the organic matter and opens the sub grade with air channels.  The roots get more oxygen and the plant response by giving a burst of growth with a dark green color to the leaves.  Usually after 1 week greens will putt much better as the holes heal and in 2 weeks holes have completely healed.  Thank you for your patience at this time .

    

We have started boiling our maple sap.  It will take about 3 days to complete.  40 gallons of sap will yield about 1 gallon of syrup.

Sonny and Dan collecting maple sap.  This will be the last week we will collect sap.

Anyone that has been out playing golf the last month has certainly seen the buckets attached to our maple trees around the course.  We are collecting maple sap to make maple syrup.  We presently have about 40 gallons of sap.  I hope to collect around 60 gallons before we are done.  That will make roughly 1.5 gallons of maple syrup. If I can make enough syrup  I would like to have a pancake tournament.  More post on cooking sap will follow.

 Spraying # 4 Fairway

 Poa annua

We have been busy spraying fairways for this coming season.  I am spraying Roundup and Barricade.  The Roundup kills any weeds actively growing in fairway at present time and the Barricade is our preemergent used to control crabgrass and goosegrass. Pictures above show our spray rig and bottom two picture show weeds we are controlling with Roundup.  If we let the weeds continue to grow they will compete with our Zoysia grass.  The Zoysia grass is dormant so the Roundup will not harm it.   During this time I like to restrict carts to cart path.  If carts run in fairway and pick up roundup it can do damage to surrounding cool season turf in rough.  Even if turf is dry any cart that runs through a wet area can re wet chemicals on leaf and track chemical into rough.  We should see rain by Wednesday rain will wash off any residual roundup.  Thanks for your patience at this time.

We were able to burn our no mow areas where we have prairie grass.  This is the right side of 4 fairway.  The burning rejuvenates the prairie by removing excess leaf litter and duff allowing more plants to flower, produce seed and grow taller.  It also increases available nutrients through indirect stimulation of microbial activity in the soil and releasing nutrients from the ash.  Burning exposes the darkened soil and allows sunlight to warm the soil quicker and extend the growing season for warm season native plants.  The fire also suppresses many weeds and non native invasive cool season grass.

Snow in March.  Our low temps for Monday 3/3/14 was 3 degrees.