The Masked Menaces are Back

It is that time of year again when we begin to see the racoons and even pigs going after the grubs.  We will typically see the damage in the rough because we spray a preventative insecticide in the fairways.  Five years ago we only had to spray maybe 6 fairways for grubs.  Due to adaptation, we will most likely be spraying all of the fairways next year. The 9th fairway of the Mountain is a perfect example of a fairway that will need to be treated.  The quality of the 9th fairway on the Mountain course has been less than stellar this year due to the grubs chewing up the roots. Those roots will come back this winter, but to get them back in the middle of the summer is a tough task. The damage shown here in the picture is about 50 yards before the 6th green of the Lake course.

Bird of a Different Tune

After listening to a seminar by Dr. John Kaminski (plant pathologist) of Penn State University and being totally inspired, I have decided to join Twitter.  I vowed that I would never do it, but it can get my blog out there and I am going to tackle my fear of social media.  You can follow me @bboyer925.

Staff Lunch

We recently had our staff lunch the other day and I was able to grab a few pictures of the lunch.  This year we had El Guerro on-site to do tacos and beans for the crew.  They made for us asada, pastor (pineapple pork), tripa (intestine?) and chorizo tacos.  The salsas they had brought were also amazing.  As a special treat, the wife and mother of Arturo and Addel respectively, made chiles rellenos.   Mrs. Monteros cooking is some of the best I have ever tasted and it was a great day had by all.

Ron and Debbie joining the staff

Rodolfo (mechanic) and Erica (clubhouse landscape)

The Next Generation Irrigation System

I had the opportunity last week to visit Las Positas Golf Course in Livermore and view the installation of what I think will be the future of irrigation systems.  They are installing Rainbird's new IC system which is a system that only has two wires in the trench.  A typical irrigation system has 1 wire that goes to every head in order to achieve individual head control.  That 1 wire gives the sprinkler its identity to the computer. With this system, the solenoid is what gives the sprinkler its identity.

The picture shown left has the new system in the foreground with the old system in the background. The older systems can be a pain to install, but talking with the construction superintendent of Wadsworth Construction, the Rainbird system has been a breeze.  He now just hopes it works.

One wire trench

The installation of this system is one of the three things that excites me about this system.  The other two things that excite me are the cost savings on wire and the ability to add a new sprinkler.

In a typical irrigation system (according to Rainbird), 29,000 pounds of copper wire is used.  With the new IC system, only around 3,000 pounds of copper wire will be used.  Current copper prices are around $4/ pound so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the savings there.  I don't know for sure, but the installation time has to be around twice as fast so there is a labor savings too.  It should be noted that while the wire cost is significantly reduced, the sprinkler is priced higher than a normal sprinkler.  The overall savings though is still roughly 10-15%.

Having the ability to easily add a sprinkler is huge in my book because no irrigation system goes in perfect.  I currently have two options. 1)  Run new wires back to the irrigation clock which is a lot of work or 2) add a special device to the solenoid which 'creates' an individual identity for that sprinkler.  Option 2 isn't always possible though if I don't have enough room on the irrigation controller for another sprinkler.  With the IC system, I just have to connect new wire to the old wire and then program the computer with the new sprinkler information.  I can do this with up to 24,000 sprinklers (Cinnabar has maybe 2,500).  Piece of cake.

While it may sound like I work for Rainbird, I don't.  I appreciate people and companies who make me look good at my job and also make my job easier.  Thank you to Tom Jackson of Sierra Pacific Turf Supply for the site visit.  He can be reached at (408) 374-4700 with further questions.

Size 11

Anybody know who's size 11's these are?  If you do, I need you to pass on some advice from the Superintendent.  When you want to perform hours of putting practice, throw a towel under your feet.  This will prevent your footmarks from burning into the turf.  Or you could be like me and just make them all not requiring any practice!

2011 Aeration is In The Books

After three days of hard work, we can finally say the worst of aeration is over and we are on the path to recovery.  All in all, I would say this year's aeration was a success.  I was able to remove a lot of thatch and we also got a lot of sand down to manage what is remaining.

Going forward, we will continue to water the greens just a bit every night and before we mow or roll in the morning to keep working the sand in.  We will mow the greens every three days until the following weekend when we will go back to a full time mowing schedule.  Mowing every day right now only picks sand up which I want to leave there.

I already have an idea for what I would like to do different for next year.  Instead of 3/8" tines on 1.5"x1.5" spacing, I am thinking I could get away with 1/4" tines on 1"x1" spacing.  It is just slightly less material coming out and I won't be able to fill the holes with sand, but that is not what I am hoping to accomplish.  This method should provide an even better product than this year.  I will try this out in October on the practice greens and make sure that this is what's best for our greens.  Until then, enjoy your time at Cinnabar!

Isn't it Obvious?

I get what seem like ridiculous questions every year when we aerate like; why are the greens slow and why are the greens bumpy.  The other day our local Hall of Famer, Larry Dorsey (he really is; check it out) asked me why the greens are shaggy and slow.  To me Larry isn't just any Joe Smoe.  I happen to highly regard his opinion and if he is asking these questions, then I guess the answer isn't as obvious as I thought.  Here are the answers to some common questions.

Q: Why are the greens slow?  

A:  Prior to aeration, we fertilize the greens to get them growing fast to aid in recovery.  After aeration, we fertilize them again to continue the healing process.  Every night the greens also get water to try and germinate the new seed we put down.  All of these items plus one more in which I will get to make the greens slow.  I will put down a growth regulator in two weeks to try and slow the growth down.

Q:  Why are the greens shaggy?

A:  A few reasons.  One, we don't cut them every day.  Two, we cut them a little higher with all the sand down. 3) All the sand makes the mowers dull and combined with fast growing grass the results are less than stellar.  All of these items contribute to green speed too.

Q:  Why are the greens bumpy?

A:  After aerating, the greens are extremely soft. We have to drive on them after to pick up the cores and put down sand which leaves ruts.  We roll very often to quickly smooth them out, but it still takes a week or so.

Q:  Why don't you do one course a week?

A:  We use the band-aid approach with greens aeration.  Let's just get it done.  Also, we can't afford to cut off 30% of our revenue maker for that amount of time.  Instead we offer you discounted rates to ease the pain.  

I did play the Mountain course yesterday and must say that the greens were rolling nicely considering.  

Aeration: Day 1 in Review

Day 1 is in the books and overall it was successful.  We got done in good time and the end product was almost exactly what I wanted.  I say almost because we only got about 75 - 80 % of the holes filled.  When we punch close to 500,000 holes per green, I don't think 75 - 80 % is too bad.  While filling all the holes is nice, it is not the main objective of this aeration.

What I did different this time was leave more sand on the surface.  In years past we would fill the holes and have a really clean surface.  While I filled the void of thatch with sand in the hole, I didn't do anything to manage the remaining thatch.  With the extra sand on the surface and a lot of water, that sand will work in to our existing thatch layer and dilute it.  The extra sand on the surface also makes for a smoother roll.  Like I have said many times; you have to determine what you want to accomplish when aerating.

I am off to start blowing the sand around on the Mountain course today.

Greens Aeration

It has officially started as of 05:30 today.  There is a misconception out there that this is a Superintendent's favorite time of year.  We finally get to relieve any compaction, get water moving again and also remove some thatch.  While that is all true, I think the preparation that goes in to making aeration successful is what makes this my favorite time of year.

I aerate once a year and I want to get all the benefit I can with as little to no disruption as possible.  I start thinking in November as to what my problems were and what I hope to accomplish the following year.  After that, I base all fertility applications based on the date of aeration.  It really is quite a bit of prep that is involved for just three days of work.

All the prep in the world though can't stop a machine from breaking down or an employee calling sick.  Coincidentally, before 3 years ago, we would always have issues on the lake course which had always been day two.  I finally said, "F it. Adam we are doing the lake from now on first".  Since then we haven't had any issues, but my fingers are still crossed!

Words of Wisdom

Annual member, Ned Brogdon, had some great words of wisdom this morning as we talked in the pro shop.  "Never go in where you can't see your feet".  Stay safe and avoid those rattlers with Ned's words of wisdom!