NOVEMBER COLOR

As we head into November, there is still some excellent fall foliage to be seen around the course. I took this photo on a frosty/foggy November 1'st morning. Yes the temperatures are dropping and the season is winding down rapidly. Our seasonal golf maintenance staff are finished for the year, however Shaun Maher(Asst. Supt.), Rich Johnson (Equip. Tech.) and I are still quite busy around the course. As you can see from this picture, many leaves are still on the trees. We have a significant amount of clean up still to be done.
We are identifying pipe sizes on 3 isolation valves to be replaced. One valve located  on #3 near the green, another valve on #14 between the forward and back tees and  another on #18 fairway.
Our plan is to apply our last plant protectent application on greens, tees and fairways next week. This application will protect us from a disease called snow mold. There are two types, pink snow mold (Microdochium Nivale), this type does not need snow to be present. It likes cool, moist conditions. The second type is grey snow mold, (Typhula incarnata, and 3 varieties of typhula ishikariensis). We see grey after deep and prolonged snow cover. These are both in the fungus family. You may recall seeing this on your home lawns in the spring time once snow has melted. Matted circles of grass/turf with  fluffy, cotton candy looking rings around the outside if the patches.
The week of November 14-18 we will be topdressing greens heavily. This aides in the reduction of winter damage to the turf. We will then cut drainage trenches in a handful of greens we see water accumulation during any mid-winter thaws. We will then cover the greens where we perennially see winter/ice damage.
We will also be winterizing our irrigation system and pump station. This process is done much like that of home irrigation systems however we utilize a very large compressor 8x that of what is used by your local landscape company at your homes. If water is kept in plastic pipes through the winter, the water will freeze and rupture the pipes leaving extensive damage to the system. This blow out process usually takes 2 full days to complete.
I would like to thank all that came out last Saturday morning for member help day. We had 15 members assist us with limbing up trees and hauling to the burn pit. It was quite a bon fire. We all enjoyed lunch  in the mixed grill accompanied by some college football. The course looks great. Come on out for some excellent fall golf.

Fall time at Lakelands

Believe it or not, October is one of the busiest months for our crew.  We have unpredictable weather to contend with, the falling leaves add so much more labor to every job we do out here, from cutting greens to raking bunkers, the leaves are always in our way from here on out.  The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting cooler. With the cooler night time temperatures comes frost. It will soon be part of our morning challenges. Please be aware, that any traffic on the turf that has frost may damage or even kill it. A typical the fall time question, "when will the frost be gone"?" and when can we get out there and play"?  As soon as frost melts is when play can begin.
The aerification of greens and tees are complete. We are verticutting the fairways and currently have 4 holes finished. The process is quite labor intensive, however, the results from this turf cultivation equal strong healthy plants that produce optimum playing conditions.

Greens aerification

As planned, we were able to aerify all the greens on Monday August 29.  We had a set back when our top dresser went down.  This proved to be a challenge since we do not currently have a mechanic.  After a few phone calls, Huron Meadows Metro Park Golf Course graciously allowed us to borrow their top dresser.
The greens have almost completely grow in in the nine days since aerified.  We are planning to lightly  top dress greens again Monday September 12'th.  We saw the true extremes of Michigan climate with temperatures in the mid 90's on September 1,2,3 only to plummet by 40 degrees two days later. 
We did suffer another pump station failure on Monday, Labor day.  However, if there is any luck involved it is on our side with the drastic temperature change.  We have new in line pipes on there way.  Although frustrating, this is only to be expected with an aging and outdated pump station! These pump house failures continue to adversely affect our turf conditions. The golf maintenance team continue to repair all irrigation issues as rapidly possible to lessen the negative impact of these very issues.

Finally some relief...

Despite some major irrigation and turf issues we made it through the Invitational and Club Championship!
All in all I think both were a big success!
This past week has offered us some much needed relief temperature wise as well as much need rainfall.
The course has really had a chance to breath.  The turf is loving this weather, as is the staff!

Our plan is to aerify all the greens on Monday (we aerified 2 green this past Monday due to the decline we saw from the pump station failure, the week of the Invitational).

Invitational Shoot Out

Life and Death

Tragedy has struck our maintenance team. Barney Blackshear's brother
> passed away unexpectedly yesterday afternoon. I believe the cause to be a
> brain aneurysm. Services are this week. He did not have insurance
> therefore, the family is trying to do some fund raising for funeral
> services.
> Our Equipment technician Ryan Lee is part of their family and is with 
> the family. It is hard to stay focused at the task at hand. However, I
> must keep pushing ahead.
>
> I came in this morning to a failure in the pump house. No water ran last
> night after very hot Sunday temperatures. I am working on the fix with a
> short staff. Many greens wilted pretty heavily over night and we are
> working quite hard to get some recovery. I have parts being fabricated as
> I type and delivery will be this afternoon. I have spoken with our pump
> maintenance people and they are checking their schedule to fit us in to
> ensure the station is back up and running as well as it can.
>
> The pythium in the fairways has come back and we sprayed for it yesterday.
> The anthracnose on the greens is back and active and as soon as we can
> cool the greens down this morning we will be spraying for it. We are also
> adding a wetting agent to the greens to help retain some moisture during
> this record setting weather.
>
> It was the hottest July on Record with an average high of 89.2. That is
> 6.2 degrees higher than average. According to NOAA data, our July weather
> was the same as St. Petersburg Florida.
> We are doing everything we can under these horrific circumstances.

Hot and Humid

The LA Belle is now behind us and The Bellringer is just a short couple of weeks away. My staff and I are focused on the first week of August.  The weather pattern we are in right now has warranted some changes to our maintenance programs. The stress on the turf is very high during these extended hot and humid spells. We will be mowing greens every other day but we will roll every day. You may see a drop in greens speeds, however this is the sort of protocol we need in place to get our turf through this very stressful period. The irrigation system is running as best as it can. Once again, we really see just how efficient or non efficient the system is here at Lakelands. When the weather breaks, we will plan to replace the 2
isolation valves that failed last week. One valve is in 18 fairway about 30 yards from the green, and the other is right beside the cart path on 3 close to the green.

The forecast for the remainder of the week calls for highs in the 90's and lows in the 70's with very humid air. This is a perfect storm for another disease called pythium. Pythium can grow and kill a green over night. Hot, humid, moist conditions like what we are experiencing is the recipe for pythium and many other turf diseases as well. Basically, we have a petre dish of turf diseases waiting to express themselves when the right
environmental conditions are there . We have many different chemistry's on the turf right now and  we are on full alert scouting all turf areas for outbreaks.

The following information was sent out yesterday from the turf team at MSU under the direction of  Dr. Joe Vargas.

The hot weather is here and more importantly so are the warm nights. When the nighttime temperatures stay above 68 F, diseases like anthracnose and crown rot anthracnose, brown patch and Pythium blight become a problem. If the warm nights are accompanied by heavy rain showers, then summer patch will also be a problem. If you have not made preventive fungicide applications for these diseases they should be made now. If any of these diseases are already present, curative fungicide applications should be made before the diseases become worse. Remember, if the disease is present, systemic fungicides need to be applied so they can enter the plant and stop the fungus from destroying more tissue. Also, these hot temperatures will stop root growth and cause any roots already present to suberize. This means the turfgrass root systems will not be functioning very well. This is the time to bypass the root system and foliar feed the turf. Needless to say, these hot temperatures will require a lot of hand watering to keep the turf alive. Good luck to everyone and try to stay cool. Dr. Joe Vargas MSU Turf Team

The Heat Is On!!

As we head into July, the heat is on and no rainfall in site. The irrigation system is being well tested right now. Today we will dust the greens with a very light top dressing. Topdressing with sand helps firm the greens for smooth,true, fast surfaces.
Enjoy and stay cool.