Course Update 12/27/18

It was a short week due to the Christmas break, but we were able to continue spraying fairways with the snow mold fungicides.  Lakes and Grove courses are complete, along with most of Orchard.  We were hoping to finish up today, but ran out of daylight.  We'll try again tomorrow, but it all depends on the weather and how much rain we get overnight.

Speaking of rain, the National Weather Service office in Pittsburgh has reported that our region may break the yearly rainfall record if 0.67" of rain is received before year end.  Here at Treesdale we've received 61.58" of rain so far this year, which is 22.5" above our yearly average of 39.08".

Course Update 12/20/18

The courses were a little wet after last weekend's rain, but it was a very productive week for the maintenance team and a few outside contractors.  All greens and tees, along with most of the fairways on Lakes were sprayed with a winter fungicide application to protect the turf from snow mold.  The chemicals used specifically target the disease and are formulated to last up to four months given moderate weather variations.  The ideal application period is when the turf has stopped producing new leaf tissue and the ground is not frozen.  Frozen ground limits the plant's ability to absorb the fungicide which results in reduced disease control.  We had planned to apply the products at the beginning of the month, but the rain, snow, and ice events prevented us from doing so.  In total, we will spray 53 acres of turf with a chemical cost of $17,000 and plan to finish spraying the fairways after the Christmas break.

There are two types of snow mold that negatively affect turfgrass, pink and gray.  Gray snow mold is associated with long periods of snow cover and pink snow mold can occur with or without snow.  Gray snow mold is much more destructive and can kill large areas of turf, while pink snow mold typically attacks leaf tissue and does not harm the growing point (crown) of the plant.  In southwestern PA we use a fungicide that targets both pink and gray snow mold since we don't know what the weather will be like during the winter.

This is the typical appearance of Pink Snow Mold on fairway turf.  Notice the pinkish hue around
the outside of the infected patches.

In addition to the chemical sprays, a considerable amount of time was spent blowing leaves and cleaning up debris.  There were also a couple frosty mornings that allowed the staff to continue removing brush and unwanted vegetation near cart paths.  A few contractors were also on property grinding stumps, deep-tining fairways, and backfilling gravel in the fairway drain lines installed during the summer.

Like I said, it was a busy week!

Removing brush around the drainage swale left of Lakes 3 fairway.

Tree roots, broken branches and a buildup of leaves are limiting the amount of water going into the drain pipe. 

The contractor used three machines to deep-tine the fairways in two days with an equipment value of $250,000.

This was supposed to be core aerification back in September, but the rainy weather kept delaying the process and we decided to deep-tine versus doing nothing at all.  Regular core aerification is already scheduled for the spring.

The aerification process uses 3/4" solid tines that penetrate up to 8" deep depending on soil conditions and the amount of rock present.  Deep-tining fractures compacted soil for improved water penetration, gas exchange, and root growth.

Course Update 12/13/18

Tree work continued this week since the courses remained frozen and snow covered.  The staff spent most of the week removing brush and smaller trees in the wooded area between Lakes 7 green and 8 tee.  They are getting rid of the unwanted vegetation in preparation for removing the bigger trees after Christmas.  We'll be renting an excavator again this year to make removing and cleaning up the larger trees faster and more efficient, and having the brush removed saves a lot of time.  There are several large Oak, Maple and Hickory trees in good condition that we plan to keep, while most of the smaller trees (Cherry, Locust, Poplar) are damaged or in decline, and need to be removed.  Similar to past years, we're removing trees and brush to provide more sunlight and airflow to areas of the golf course that have weak, thin turf.

Looking back towards 7 fwy from 8 white tee.  7 was not visible prior to us removing the smaller vegetation.

Looking towards 8 from 7 fwy.  Still a lot of work to do, but it's a good start.

8 near the silver tee

Woodline to the right of 7.  A significant amount of brush and smaller trees have been removed, but there's numerous trees that still need to come out to improve the turf above the fairway bunkers.

This area between the rain shelter and 8 silver tee was so overgrown you couldn't walk around the rain shelter.

Here's a view of the blue and gold tees on 8.  Notice the shade cast by the trees even when they don't have leaves.

Weak, thin turf around the tees on 8 created by a lack of sunlight and airflow.

I regularly use an app called Sun Seeker to identify where the sun is located at a given time on any day of the year.  For our purposes I chose the first day of spring and summer to identify which trees need to be removed to maximize morning light.  This is a view of 8 gold tee looking back towards 7 tees.

Course Update 12/6/18

With the golf courses still too wet to access early in the week, we continued underbrushing and removing trees around the entrance to the tunnel behind Grove 7 green.  We kept the pine and spruce trees bordering the area to buffer the road noise and the view for the homeowners, but had to remove all other trees and the underbrush that was choking out the evergreen trees.  Cleaning this area up not only improves the aesthetics, but also allows for more sunlight and airflow to penetrate which will keep the cart path drier and reduce the accumulation of moss during the summer and ice during the winter.  The final step for this area is to grind the stumps and clean up the spoils.  The contractor will be on site in the next few weeks to grind other stumps throughout the property, and we will direct him to these as the weather allows.

Course Update 11/29/18

It seems like winter may have arrived early with the cold, snowy weather the first part of this week.  Since we couldn't perform any turf-related maintenance activities, we continued cleaning up broken branches and removing damaged trees.  Most of our time was spent behind Grove 7 green pruning broken branches on some Oaks and Maples, along with removing 5 white pine trees that were severely damaged by the recent ice storm.

Please be aware that we had to close and winterize the restrooms on each nine due to the extended period of sub-freezing temperatures.  The walls and ceilings are not insulated and the buildings were not designed to stay open all year.  The restrooms will open in the spring once the temperature warms up so there's no chance of frozen pipes.

Course Update 11/21/18

The winter storm that hit us last Thursday and Friday left a considerable amount of damage that we're still cleaning up from.  The worst part of the storm was the freezing rain and subsequent ice accumulation on the trees that brought down a lot of limbs.  Damage was widespread due to many trees that still had leaves, along with the typical white pines that have soft, weak wood.  After getting around all three courses, most of the damaged trees will survive and only require selective pruning to remove the broken branches up in the canopy.  A few trees have been removed because the damage was too severe, and in several cases trees were removed for safety concerns due to their proximity to cart paths and other high traffic areas.

One of the trees that was severely damaged was the American Elm adjacent to the gold tee on Grove 1.  It's one of only a few American Elm trees remaining in this area and we have invested significant resources over the years trying to keep it healthy.  The main trunks are supported by heavy duty cables that connect opposite trunks to offset their weight, and still allow them to move naturally.  Unfortunately, one of the smaller trunks that wasn't cabled couldn't hold up to the extra weight of the ice and broke away from the tree.  A small amount of decomposed heartwood was observed in the crotch where the trunk attached, so we had a certified arborist look at the tree on Monday.  They said the decomposition was common for a tree of this size and age, and it should remain healthy with a little TLC this spring.

Pear trees are routinely damaged from ice storms and there was nothing left of this one.

American Elm on Grove 1 damaged by ice and snow.

Here's a close up of the damaged trunk.  Notice the darker decomposed wood higher up that doesn't offer any structural integrity.  Only the lighter colored, healthy wood towards the bottom kept the limb attached.  Once the limb is removed we will clean up the damaged area to prevent disease and insect infestation.

The staff started cutting up and sorting the branches to make it easier once the chipper arrived.

Course Update 11/15/18

Deep tine aerification of fairways was scheduled for this week but had to be postponed again due to wet conditions.  The fairways are too soft for carts or equipment, and we would cause more damage by trying to aerify.  The contractor is based out of western Ohio, so he can mobilize in a day or two if we feel conditions could allow the equipment on the turf.  I am optimistic that we will have warmer, and possibly drier weather after Thanksgiving to complete the process.

Course Update 11/8/18

With the courses still very wet from another week of rainy weather, most of our time was split between blowing leaves and winterizing the irrigation systems.  Every fall all the water has to be removed from the irrigation systems to prevent ice from forming and damaging critical irrigation components.  As water freezes it expands and ice is much stronger than plastic pipe.  I've even seen ice cause steel pipe to split open.  The first step in the process is to shut down the three pump stations, open all drain valves, and let gravity remove most of the water.  Once the water has drained out a large air compressor is connected to the irrigation systems and air is forced through the lines at a high volume, but low pressure.  Too much air pressure can damage pipe and irrigation heads the same way high water pressure does.  The staff will then split up into several teams and go to every satellite control box to systematically turn on approximately 1,300 irrigation heads to blow out any remaining water.  After all the heads are blown out we will go back to the areas that tend to hold water and run through those heads for a second time.  It usually takes 4 full days to winterize both irrigation systems.

In addition to the two irrigation systems on the golf courses, the maintenance staff is responsible for winterizing the restroom facility on each nine, along with miscellaneous landscape irrigation and a water line in the driving range building.

We rent a 900 cfm air compressor that connects to the irrigation systems through a 2" hose with special fittings.  We have to install a pressure regulator on the compressor's discharge line to lower the operating pressure from 150 psi down to 50 psi to prevent damaging the pvc pipe.

The mist coming out of the irrigation head is water vapor being pushed by the compressed air.

Course Update 11/1/18

It was another rainy week and brings our total rainfall in October to 4.33".  That's 1.66" above the monthly average and puts us just over 20" above normal year to date.  Even though it was wet, we were able to finish topdressing and aerifying Lakes tees, along with topdressing the remaining tees on Orchard.   We still need to finish topdressing the tees on Grove 6 and 7, and will complete that as soon as conditions allow.  In addition to tee aerification, we mowed Grove greens this week for the first time since being aerified, and continued mowing outer rough and blowing leaves.  It's been challenging to complete our list of regular maintenance activities this year, but we're making the best of it while not damaging the turf and creating more work later on.

On a recent frosty morning we started removing some of the River Birch trees along the sidewalk at bag drop.  We're removing the trees along the hillside covered by river rock because the trees have grown too large for that area.  They have girdling roots which slowly encircle the base of the tree, ultimately killing it, and the roots that have spread outward are cracking and buckling the cart path and sidewalk.  Once the trees are removed we will pick up and re-use the river rock in other parts of the landscape.  We will then transplant perennial grasses and a few other plants to fill in the space and spread mulch in the spring to finish the area.  Stay tuned for more pictures showing our progress.

Course Update 10/25/18

Lakes and Orchard greens were mowed for the first time this week since being aerified approximately two weeks ago.  The healing process is progressing as expected for this time of year and most of the holes are almost grown over.  The recent frosts and cool temperatures have slowed down turf growth so there may be some aerification holes that remain open into winter.  That's not a bad thing since it allows water to drain faster off the surface and more oxygen is able to find its way to the roots.  As we normally do this time of year, we've raised the cutting height on greens to help the turf prepare for winter dormancy.  Most golfers won't notice the change given all the sand that's still on the surface, but the increase in length provides more leaf tissue that allows the plant to increase its carbohydrate production.  Carbohydrates are the main source of food for plant cells and will be stored to help the plant survive the winter.

Tee aerification began last week, and Orchard and Grove are finished.  We plan to start aerifying Lakes tees tomorrow and will most likely need another day to finish.  We've also been topdressing the tees with sand this fall, which hasn't been done for a while.  The combination of core aerifying and topdressing is the best practice to having firm tees.  The tees currently have too much thatch (organic matter), which is why the tees are soft and spongy.  Going forward, our plan is to core aerify and topdress the tees in the spring and fall to reduce the amount of thatch.  Several tees on Orchard and Grove still need to be topdressed, and were initially skipped because the tees were too wet and soft to drive the topdresser on.

Fairway aerification has been rescheduled to November 14-16.  Those were the first dates the contractor had available and hopefully the weather cooperates.  We had originally planned to core aerify the fairways again as was done in the spring, but the days are too short for adequate drying time and the soil is usually too wet that late in the year.  Instead, the contractor will be deep-tining to a depth of 8-10 inches using a 3/4 inch diameter solid tine.  The deep-tine is a good alternative to core aerifying in that it also relieves compaction, and opens the soil to exchange harmful carbon dioxide for beneficial oxygen.  Another benefit to aerifying that late in the year is the holes will remain open through most of the winter and will allow water to drain from the surface.  That water will most likely go through several freeze/thaw cycles and the expanding ice will fracture the soil creating more channels for root growth and water drainage.

The same machine is used to aerify both tees and greens, but we use a larger tine on tees on a 2x2 inch spacing.

Scooping plugs is a great way to stay warm on a cool fall day.

This year we experimented with topdressing before or after aerifying to see which gave the best results.  Topdressing before is the preferred method because it makes cleanup easier and works more sand down into the turf.

This tee was topdressed prior to being aerified.  Very little sand was removed from the surface and the remaining sand will be washed into the holes during the next rain storm.