Agronomy Department and Course Weekly Update

November 19, 2015

Even though it feels like we just finished with the summer season, covers are right around the corner. We are going to stay with the guidelines we have used the last 2 seasons for when to pull covers over the greens, as I do daily, I will monitor the forecast and communicate with the membership when these times arise. The forecast for this winter is an, El Nino, which is expected to bring a wet and slightly warmer winter. Hopefully, that will translate into more rounds and fewer cover pull but as always it will be a treat to see what curve balls Mother Nature will throw at us. If you would like up to the minute information, please follow the Blog and Twitter ( @stivescc_vcsup ) !

Forecast for pulling covers:

1)      25 degrees or cooler for two consecutive nights

2)      Soil temps less than 40 degrees

3)      Daytime High less than 50 degrees

As always when dealing with Mother Nature there will need to be some flexibility. We understand the greens are our most valuable asset and will make all our decisions based protecting our asset.

The greens are being prepped for winter, this includes; raising the HOC (height of cut), increasing fertilizer/fungicide applications and preparing covers. The green speed will decrease during the fall months; we do this to ensure suitable speeds for the winter months. We plan on going into winter 1-1.5 ft slower on the stimpmeter than our target speed, once the greens go dormant the speed picks up considerably and there is no way to slow them down.

I also wanted to remind the membership to repair all ball marks on the greens, we will be dormant soon and that means the greens will not recover from unrepaired ball marks. Therefore, any unrepaired ball mark will be seen until next summer L…

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at kmacdonald@valleycrest.com and for more information follow us on Twitter @stivescc_vcsup and the Blog: http://vcgmstivescountryclub.blogspot.com/

See y’all on the course,

Kyle Macdonald, GCS, Class A