We are busy preparing for the season with equipment maintenance to ensure a smooth mowing season. Reels and blades are ground, bearings and seals inspected and changed when needed, lubricants and fluids are changed and filled. Luckily we have a equipment hoist to allow us to closely inspect frames, hoses, suspension and hidden areas of the mowers carts and tractors.
For turf managers the perfect winter is a warm November followed by a slow steady cool down to put the plants to sleep and the allow the ground to freeze 12-18 inches. On top of this a foot of snow in a couple small storms before Christmas with steady below freezing temperatures are just what the turf needs. To come out of winter it would be best if February 10th we started a slow steady warm up with no temperature swings and a light breeze.
We have never had a perfect winter nor do I think we will so each winter brings surprises and challenges. Although this winter was not severe it did offer unwanted warm spells, snow and rain bringing us a crusty 6 to 18" of snow with a little ice at the surface. Turf mangers wait with anticipation for the snow to melt so we can inspect the turf again and make sure we have had no winter problems.
One concern a lot of course managers had this winter is the fungicides we applied for snow molds were subject to early winter warm spells with sunlight to degrade the contact fungicides and rain to wash away the products. I have been out the past two weekends and the only snow mold I have seen is on the untreated roughs and so far it looks superficial or just on the leaf tips.
The other concern each year is long term ice suffocating the turf or turf sitting in water either in puddles or under ice for long periods of time. With the mild winter long term ice was not a concern but for the past two weeks many parts of the course have been sitting in water under a layer of ice/slush or just in a light layer of water due to the slow snow melt and temps near 30.
Home lawns are rarely a issue nor is the golf course rough but greens, tees and fairways can be damaged from repetitive freezing and thawing. The best thing is to just get the snow and ice off the greens reduce how much water is held.
Many years we are able to take our snow blower and blow the greens off before a warm spell but this year it was difficult due to the crusty nature of the snow and the ground not being frozen. The last thing we need is to damage the turf with tire tracks or gouging from shovels or equipment.
This season to shorten the melting process on greens to remove a layer of snow, slush and ice we applied a green dye to the problem areas. The dark color of the dye absorbs the sunlight and helps speed up the melting process. Other courses have used black sunflower seeds, Gypsum or sand. Milorganite fertilizer can be used because it is black and will not harm the turf and will then be available as a slow release nutrient source in the spring.
The dye worked and yesterday afternoon most of the greens were clear and dry. A little snow this week should not hurt anything and will melt off fast with the sun higher each day as we approach spring.
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| February 24, quite a bit of snow on 4 and 5. |
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| 10 Green Feb 21st, sitting in water and slush. |
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| 10 Green Feb 22, Dyed green to speed up melting. |
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| Feb 28, 15 green was blown off leaving a island of turf surrounded by snow. |
We are hoping for a warm spring and hope to see you on the links soon!
