Winter Play - Divots and Ballmarks

I have been asked about filling divots over the winter and is it worthwhile?  The answer is yes, please continue to fill divots and fix ballmarks even during the winter months when we are dormant.

The reason is - even though the soil temperatures are low enough where seed will not germinate, the seed will start to absorb moisture and stay viable until the soil temperatures warm up again, and when that happens the seed will actually be ahead of the game and germinate faster compared to if we just went and filled all the divots this spring. 

Please watch the short video below about dormant seeding produced by a superintendent in CO and a mentor of mine that I once worked for as an assistant at the Country Club of the Rockies.

http://www.turfnet.com/page/turfnet-tv.html/_/kevin-ross/

Also, by filling divots it creates a smoother surface for our winter playing surface.

Lastly, please make sure to fix all ballmarks as it is even more critical this time of the year because the turf is not re-growing itself and we are not creating a new putting surface everyday.  Over the winter we are playing on the same putting surface day after day so it is even more critical to maintain the surface we have for the next day.

Fall Wrap-up Work

Things are winding down with fall work to get the golf course ready for winter and winter play.  We most likely performed the final mowing on greens this past week and applied the snow mold chemicals to all greens.

Spraying #11 green

I did add some green pigment into the tank mix last week so the greens have more of a green color.  Painting turf is becoming a common practice on warm season turf down south as it is much more economical than overseeding during the winter months and it creates a better playing surface during the spring transition period in the spring.  We will continue to spray the greens a couple times throughout the winter.

Leaf clean-up has been tedious for the last 4 weeks but I would say about 90% of the leaves are down and cleaned up.  The big windstorm last weekend had the golf course covered in leaves and kept us busy for most of this past week.  Fortunately, that should leave us just small spot clean-ups in the future.  

Monday morning after the windy weekend

The future will be getting the golf accessories ready with trash cans, ball washers, and matts for the par 3 tees during the winter.  Greens will continue to be to rolled on a regular basis through out the winter but only mowed as needed for a "clean-up".

The Power of Social Media

In our day and age right now social media is a very amazing tool to distribute information and inform a group of people.  I started my turf maintenance blog last winter to inform my members what was taking place on the golf course and what we actually do to maintain a high level course.

Last week I created a twitter account to only share my blog and spread the information, not going to be a tweeter or twerker or a re-tweeter.  Currently I have an entire 2 followers on twitter.  Last week I did a typical post to my blog about what we do on the golf course to control Canada geese and why the golfers will see fishing lines running across the pond, and then I tweeted the link to it on my twitter account.

Well one person re-tweeted it and it was picked up by 3 turf related companies that all re-tweeted it and all of sudden it was tweeted to 9,000 followers.  One tweet to 2 followers lead to a tweet to 9,000 followers, which led to 1000 views on my blog in that 1 day.  My small northern Idaho blog that gets 50 views per day now has 1000 views in 1 day by golf course related individuals across the US.

Amazing what 2 clicks of the mouse does today compered to just a few years ago.

Thank you to all my readers and followers. Have a great Holiday Season

Jason Habeck, CGCS

Frost delays

3 days in a row with lows of 16-18 have led to some late frost delays and frozen conditions on the course.

#6 green at 7:30 AM

#17 green

#18 green - pond not frozen yet but maybe in a few days

We hope to get open by 1:00 today and the golf course will be playing very "firm" and fast. It has been between noon and 1 the last 3 days and looks like that will continue through the first part of next week, but a warm up is in the future for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Canada Geese Control

One challenge we face all winter long due to our lack of snow cover, open water habitat, and nice grass providing a food source, is the large population of Canada geese that want to take up residency on the golf course.  They do look nice when they are swimming in the lakes and ponds but when they come up on land their numerous droppings, regurgitation of food, and pecking and digging at the turf really damper the playability of the golf course.

Over the years I have tried numerous different techniques to scare them away, some have worked very little while others have worked for only a short time.  Two things we do know is that geese will adapt to many things we throw at them, but also being persistent in trying to deter them from the golf course wil work if you stay after it day after day.

We have tried the predator method with alligator heads and cardboard coyotes.  They work for the first couple weeks until the geese realize they are not real, we also have tried to move them everyday and set them on swivels that will turn in the wind, but after a few weeks they all become friends.  We have purchased plastic "dead" geese and they again work for the first couple weeks.

Cardboard coyote acting as a predator

A plastic dead goose - this works fairly well about 3-4 weeks

 
We have tried also the annoying technique by harassing them and chasing them away with red and green laser lights.  Remote control boats to chase them off the pond.  Fishing line going around the edge of the pond about 6-8 inches off the ground to keep them from walking out of the water and up onto the golf course.  We have had some success with our golf course dog "BJ".  She does a great job of chasing them into the pond and even swimming out to clear out the pond, just make sure your dog will come back when you call as geese will try to swim out in front of a dog until the dog gets tired and could drowned.

BJ keeping the geese away

We have also had success with bangers that we get from our local State Fish and Game department.  They are a cartridge that is shot out and makes a bang like a shotgun shell once it has reached out about 50 yards.

Noise makers that travel out 50 yds and explode

These harassment techniques do work, but only when you are at the golf course to perform them, and so may times the geese arrive at dusk or even after dark for their nighttime feeding.

So this morning the staff put out our most successful technique, and that is to run fishing lines over the top of the ponds.

See the fishing lines in the red circles, 11 lines total going side to side across the pond

They are ran from side to side about 15-20 ft apart, stay about 3 ft over the top of the water, and have to be mono-filiment.  The mono-filiment makes the line so one side can be seen but the other side of the line is invisible.  The geese prefer to land on water and when they fly over they see these lines, but as the lines come and go into sight they do not know how many lines are out there, where they are located, or even if it could be a net over the top of the pond, so they just keep on flying to their next feeding ground or the next golf course.  The whole key is the deception of where the lines are located and how many are out there, and that is done by the visibility of the mono-filament line flickering and twisting in the wind.  

2 lines - 3 ft above the water

A line heading across the pond from its anchored point on shore

It does not hurt the geese at all, it does not make any noise for the homeowners and golfers, and most importantly it works 24 /7 even when we are not at the golf course or out near the ponds.  This is the 3rd year we have done this and even though it doesn't keep all the geese away, it does keep the large majority away.  The whole key is to take away their habitat as they like to land on the water, come up on land to feed, and be able to return to the water for safety to escape any predators.   If you can take away either the land or water source, i.e. lines over the water or a dog on land, then they will go find an "easier" place to feed.

A combination of several of these techniques and staying persistent with our harassment, does seem to allow us to win the battle over the mess the Canada Geese create.
        

Irrirgation system winterization / blowout

For the past 3 days the maintenance team has been hard at work winterizing and blowing out the irrigation system.  It is a long process to blow compressed air through all the pipes and heads to prevent any parts from freezing and cracking over the winter months.  We use two large compressors to fill the system with air and then go through each head blowing out the water til it is clear.  Everything went very good this year with no issues and everything is now ready for freezing temps.  Here are some pictures of the process the last 3 days.

One of the compressors hooked up to one of the pump stations

Fall / Dormant Fertilizer

On Friday we put down the final fertilizer application for the season.

This is one application that people discuss what time of the year to apply it.  Earlier in Sept when the turf is still actively growing, right now when the turf is going into dormancy, or late fall after the plant has shut down and all growth has stopped?  I choose an organic for my product and go with a semi-dormant application where I hope for a small amount of release this time of year in the fall to make the plant healthy going into winter, and a slow release over the winter allowing for a quick spring green-up and growth.  An application this time of the year will provide a faster green-up in the spring compared to applying a product first thing in the spring.

The picture below is not great, but it was taken in early spring and  you can see above the red line the turf is greening up faster than surrounding turf because that area received a dormant fertilizer the fall before.

Spring picture showing turf greening up that received a dormant fertilizer application

Foam marker line

In the picture above you see a foam marker line. We have attached a kit to the vehicle pulling the fertilizer spreader that drops a foam dot every couple feet to allow us to see where our previous pass was.  This allows for a very precise application with minimal skips and overlaps.