Once in a Blue Moon

With the hours that a Golf Course Superintendent keeps, it is really to no surprise that many take a strong interest in astrology.  We are up and at it before the sun thinks of rising and there isn't much more peaceful than staring up at a clear sky full of stars. I remember vividly sitting under the stars around 3 am at Cattails Golf Club with Superintendent Doug Palm when I first started in this business.  Life was made to seem pretty easy at that particular point.

That being said, their will be the second full moon of the month which doesn't happen every year.  The last blue moon was in 2009 and our next blue moon will be in 2015. It is somewhat eerie that it just happens to coincide with the passing of Neil Armstrong.  Nonetheless, whether you stay up late to see it or get up early to see it go, go outside and check it out and think back to a simpler time if just for a moment.

Yardage Marker Arrival & Installation

We received the yardage markers for all of the tees last week from Tee Box Creations and everything looks wonderful.  We began the installation today and they look even better in the ground.  

This time around, all yardage markers will be placed on the cart path side of the tee.  It will mostly likely take all of this week to install  them.  

2012 Bird Season at Cinnabar Hills

With our last two owlets having fledged, the 2012 bird season is officially over.  It was a wonderful year for Lee Pauser, Cinnabar Hills, and hundreds of birds.  We (Lee Pauser) counted a total of 356 eggs on site.  350 of those eggs hatched and 264 birds actually fledged.  That is a 75% success rate!

The 264 birds that fledeged include Western blue bird (89), Barn Owl (12), Ash-throated Flycatcher (14), White-breasted Nuthatch (7), House Wren (25), Tree Swallow (99), Violet-green Swallow (15), Oak Titmouse (10).

It has been fascinating to work with Lee and his birds over the past two seasons.  He has really opened up the eyes of my crew, our members and myself to the birds that have always been here, but we never took the time to notice.   

Foot Loose

Over the last couple of years, one of the best forms of continuing education I receive is by reading fellow golf course superintendent blogs.  One of the many superintendents blogs I follow is Rick Tegtmeier of Des Moines Golf & Country Club.  He recently had a post that almost made me vomit in my chair, but I learned the lesson.  If you are of strong intestinal fortitude, please visit Rick's blog by following the link below.  You may never hang your foot out of your cart again.

http://www.dmgcc.blogspot.com/2012/07/hanging-foot.html

More on the Freckles

After applying the same fertilizer to the golf course as the practice greens, but three times the amount of water, I am disappointed to say that we experienced tip burn throughout the golf course.  The grass is growing fast like expected and should be gone in just a couple of more days.

The cause of tip or fertilizer burn is related to the amount of salts in the fertilizer (salt index).  The higher osmotic pressure of the salt particles in the fertilizer draws the water from the plant to the salt particles.   This causes the grass surrounding the fertilizer granule to wilt and look bleached.

We used ammonium sulfate which has a fairly high salt index.  We actually use ammonium sulfate as the nitrogen source every year prior to aeration, but the difference this year was the size of the granule.  In years past, the granule size was much smaller and it was more difficult to notice the burn, but there was burning.

Going forward we will buy a premium fertilizer that is less likely to burn.