Micromanaging water

One of the problems that is not realized during this extended dry period is the fact that the winter rains haven't come and flushed out all of the salts that accumulated in the soil after a season of irrigation. This flushing allows our bare turf areas that turned because of salt stress to recover.  To give a numerical number to describe the problem, our fairway soils this time last year had an average sodium percentage of 2.25ppm.  This year the average sodium percentage is 8ppm.  With this much sodium in the soil, despite the soil profile being saturated, the plant will take up the sodium causing something called wet wilt.  

To begin to address the problem, I need to knock down the sodium. I have taken the steps of applying both gypsum and potassium sulfate to the fairways.  The gypsum will help remove some of the sodium in the soil and because  potassium is easier for the plant to uptake than the sodium, we should see (we have seen) a positive improvement.  

With the sodium problem being addressed, we are now beginning to aerate and fill in voids of turf that were salt stressed last year.  This is a difficult task in the sense that it is hard to keep such small areas of turf moist throughout the day and using the sprinklers is an incredibly inefficient use of our water.   

To solve this problem, I turned to a page from my first year in turf back home in Michigan and that was to fill up the sprayer and go water the small spots.  While it eats up labor hours, 100% of the water is going where we need it and it is actually  faster than pulling a hose down the fairway like you see us do for dry spots.

October, The Hole-y Month

As we approach the end of October, we will have completed aeration on all surfaces at Cinnabar Hills.  October has got to be one the most anticipated months in my calendar.  By this time of the year, we are all just trying to hang on for a couple of more weeks and there is nothing like aeration to past the time.  

The month started out with doing both fairways and approaches.  We pulled cores that were 5/8" in diameter and we then topdressed both fairways and approaches at a rate of 12 tons per acre.  Partly filling the holes with sand  has been part of the reason why deep watering has been so successful for us.  Something different this year was that we purchased 25 tons of gypsum in pellet form and got that dragged into the holes as well.  That will help flush out any salts we have now for  when the rains come and also help with nutrient retention.  

Bulk gypsum

In the middle of the month, we were able to get in one more deep tine event on the greens.  What is amazing with the SR-54s deep tine is that it leaves the greens faster after they have been punched than before.  We actually get compliments after the deep tine event.  I know that you would think that we always get compliments after any aeration considering the cost of aeration and the long term benefits, but golfers don't like aeration for some reason.  

This week we will begin aerating the tees and to wrap up the month we will begin punching the rough.  It really is a fun time of year and not just because we are putting holes in the ground.  The planning that is involved is half the fun and when let's say your topdresser just happens to flip over, the improvising can be fun too!

    

White Powder

I am not talking about the fresh powder in Tahoe and I am not recalling the eighties, but rather our fairway's that have had gypsum applied to them.  This year I purchased agriculture quality (cheaper) gypsum and it is a little more messy than prilled gypsum.  The white powder are the fines that don't spread as far as the granular.  That is why we have white stripes.  After irrigation, the white lines will dissipate.

When we apply gypsum, I am looking at three benefits;  removing sodium  (salts),  improve soil structure and increase nutrient retention.  There are many more benefits, but these are what I am most interested in.  

We get sodium in the soil thanks to our water supply.  While our supply isn't loaded with salts like some other courses, we still have to deal with them.  When salts accumulate in the soil, the soil becomes hydrophobic.  This  makes it extremely difficult to keep the soil profile moist and hence, keep the grass alive.  The calcium that makes up gypsum will replace the sodium within the soil and with sufficient water, the sodium will be flushed through.  This in turn also improves soil structure.

Gypsum is also good for nutrient retention which means fertilizers that are applied will last longer.  This can be seen when you look at the difference between our roughs and fairways.  The fairways will hold color longer than the rough because they have been on a regular gypsum program.  This year for the first time we are putting gypsum in the rough to help improve the quality.   

This is one of the first programs I  re-started at Cinnabar and and it has made a huge difference in fairway quality.  It took almost 4 years to build calcium levels up and the results have been outstanding.