Irrigation Update and Aeration Reminder

The roller coaster ride of early spring is in full swing.  We had to hand water greens in 80 degrees and wind on Sunday, we got 1.3" of rain on Monday, and we now have heavy frost on Wednesday morning.  Grasses, including the zoysia fairways and new bermuda tees on 8 were jumping out of the ground last week.  Unfortunately, the frost and cold temps may set things back a week or so.  

Irrigation Start Up Drama

After a crazy late fall and winter we have had a relatively uneventful week in the irrigation world.  Once we got all the leaky pump station pipe temporarily fixed, we found a leaky pipe beneath the bridge on hole 2 and had a blow up near the green on 13.  For now, things are sealed up tight and functioning well.  The temporary pipe fix will be made more permanent in May we hope.  It will involve some pipe replacement between the clubhouse and the lake.  We need to time it with good weather when we can do without water for a few days.  I hope that will be the last section of steel pipe we find.  

The pipe has worn very thin on the bottom.

We need to dig up the section that you see going into the ground.  We'll
take down the back portion of the building to do this.  There will be a lot of 
hand digging to expose this as it's under the REC power line and hard to access. 

Greens Aeration Next Week

Greens Aeration is coming up next week and will involve the use of a two aerators and lots of sand.  The holes will be 1/2" in diameter and vary in depth from 2.5" to 8".  Sand will be applied with the goal of filling the holes to the surface.  With good temperatures the recovery process should be fairly quick.  The process takes a long 3 days to complete fully and have things back in order.  

Stumps and Root Pruning Next Week

While we are closed for aeration we have lined up stump grinders and a root pruner.  There are well over 300 stumps from all our tree work and they are hard to handle with golfers everywhere.  The root pruning that was done for the first time two years ago has made a huge difference and we hope to tackle the entire course again this year.  It's very slow so we may be dreaming to think we can get it all in one day.  Root pruning helps to salvage cart paths without taking down trees.  In some cases the trees are too close to the path for this.  In other cases the pruner can sneak along the path at a safe distance from the tree.  They will also work on the tree lines opposite the cart path.  In both cases the turf inside the pruning line will be much better.