May Greenkeeper Update
April weather was a mixed bag with some cold frosty nights and wet days along with some warmer sunny spells. Perfect conditions for fungal attacks on the greens and unusually we had to resist temptation at this time of year and apply a full fungicide. Over the recent years the sward has been in full growth and any fungal attacks can be grown out without the need of chemical applications.
The greens were treated with thatch eater that is applied to the top layer and converts the thatch into nutrients that feed the grass, also they were treated with fertilisers and compost teas that add to the biology of the green. Despite this unfortunately the greens at this time of year look off green as the dominant grass species (annual meadow grass) re seed and if you look closely you will see the white seed heads that give the greens their yellow colour. This re seeding is essential and will go on over the next month and finally the greens will starting to be at their peak in June and early July.
In late April we fully opened the first green to allow play and although the green is far from totally repaired it is dry and players can access it without damaging it.
We had to delay plans to top dress greens and tees until mid to late may as April’s low temperatures meant that there was not sufficient grass growth for the dressing to be effective.
As usual with the starting up of the irrigation system there have been many failures of irrigation heads, valves and coils and the system has been on and off which is normal after it has been switched off and cleaned out for winter so that it does not get damaged in frost and ice. The system has over 60 individual operating circuits each with 2 parts that can break or malfunction and do regularly, and along with over 240 sprinkler heads we have over 360 items to monitor on a daily basis.
We will be filling the bunkers in May with the remaining sand and dressing the greens and tees, so a busy month with bank holidays and coronations it will be a challenging month. Our main task in May will be to ensure that we keep up with the grass growth but sometimes with sporadic weather there are very different growth rates over days of the week and cuttings can take time to disperse.
Some past years we have been seeing high temperatures at this time of year and we had to make early plans for drought management but so far the slow rise this year has given us a different start to the season which is a welcome change.