VENTING GREENS: Providing a breath of fresh air.

This morning we are venting (solid-tine aerating) the greens and collars.  They will be double-rolled immediately following the procedure, and will be double-rolled again tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday.  We typically vent the greens during a scheduled Monday Maintenance Morning, but with the double shotgun to accommodate the tournament this Monday we were not able to do so.

Our greens are holding up very well this summer, but their rootzones need oxygen right now as the droughty and hot summer conditions along with added compaction from the traffic of maintenance equipment and heavy play have taken their toll on them.  Venting accomplishes just that, it provides channels for gas exchange and enhances root growth, but without the major disruption of a core aeration.  Venting greens is scheduled for every 14 days during the season, but we have not done one since July 21^st due to a stat holiday and outside tournaments.  

We are using a different style of venting tine this time around so we completed a trial on the front of the 9^th green Tuesday morning to ensure that they deliver the results we want.  This bayonet style of venting tine produces more of a narrow slicing action on the surface vs a small round hole.  The slicing action of these tines sever the small fibrous roots instead of separating them.  This severing action causes the plant hormone Auxin to be released that causes root branching even in times of stress.  Root branching enhances root density and contributes to a stronger and healthier root mass.  Here is a photo illustrating venting tine setup, the immediate results and the finished product following the first double-roll:

You can expect the greens to be a bit bumpy today and again tomorrow, but back to normal following their 3^rd double-roll on Saturday morning.

It's mosquito season!

When I think of summer, I think of sunshine, backyard BBQs, hanging out at the beach, camping and unfortunately, those pesky mosquitos!  The mosquitos can annoy the heck out of you while playing golf, especially if you're like me and spend a lot of time in the rough or near the ponds.  When they are as annoying as they are right now, we typically get asked, "What are you doing about the mosquitos?"

The truth is, there is nothing more we can do to effectively reduce the mosquito population than what we are already doing.  We used to spend lots of $$$ spraying our ponds with larvicide to help reduce their population, but these treatments were not very effective.  Furthermore, unless the City of Richmond completes the same treatments along the dyke and in and around the ditches surrounding our property, mosquitos from the immediate surrounds of the Club will hunt down our golfers for their precious blood.

We have installed a couple of bat houses on the course over the past few years as bats can consume up to 1200 mosquitos per hour and each of the bat houses accommodates up to 300 bats.  That’s up to 720,000 mosquitos being consumed on the property per hour with the two bat houses we have!  We do hope to continue to add more bat houses to the course soon. For now, I’ll have a word with our bats to ensure that they’re continuing to do their part.  

What you can do to keep the pesky blood suckers from ruining your round of golf is apply bug repellent.  That being said, PLEASE ONLY APPLY BUG REPELLENT ON PATHS.  As you can see below, bug repellents damage turf:

Here is another photo taken yesterday from our lower putting green where someone applied bug repellent right in the middle of the green:

The green footprints you see in the photos indicate where the golfer was standing while applying the bug repellent.  The turf underneath the golfer's feet was shielded from the spray.  As you can see, the turf that did come in contact with the spray was damaged by it.  It typically only takes about 24 hours for the damage to show up.