Update on protocol for covers....

It is as follows: 25 degrees or cooler for two consecutive nights with soil temps less than 40 degrees and expected highs the next day less than 50 degrees. 

Agronomy Department and Course Weekly Update

January 23, 2014

 Burr…. This is really shaping up as a cold winter! We have already exceeded the number of hours below 32 degrees from last year by a whopping 251%.

The covers were pulled Tuesday morning ahead of the high winds.   Prior to pulling covers, the Agronomy Team ran 10 minutes of water on the greens.  One of the biggest concerns is desiccation (drying out) of the plant during the winter, which can lead to winterkill.  Since the greens will be covered for at least 5-7 days, we needed to make sure the plant was sufficiently hydrated.

With the greens covered the majority of the week the focus will be on winter projects.  Some of the items on our list include: under brushing, irrigation repairs, landscape planting, trimming miscanthis, pruning crape myrtles, mowing fairways, leaf removal, drainage repair, painting ball washers and removing fans. We obviously won’t finish all of these projects this week but we should make a big dent. 

I can’t wait until the weather turns and we see y’all back on the course!

  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, Class A, GCS

Agronomy Department and Course Weekly Update

January 16, 2014

 2014 picked up where 2013 left off… WET!! Last year the golf course received 69 inches of rain, the average for our area is 52. The course has already had 2.5 inches of rain since the January 1^st. According to Channel 2 Weather Team, this upcoming weekend (Jan 18^th and 19^th) will be the first weekend since November without any rain. I don’t like to complain about rain but it sure would be nice to catch a dry stretch for a few weeks.

The maintenance staff will be pulling covers on Wednesday afternoon, off Thursday morning, on Friday afternoon and off on Saturday morning. So far, it has bee an wild winter with the MiniVerde greens. After the cold snap last week, I put a few plugs underneath a heat lamp in our shop window. We are already seeing new growth, which is a great thing! We still have a lot of cold weather to endure but so far so good.

  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,

Agronomy Department and Course Weekly Update

January 8, 2014

 A few bullet points this week:

The landscaping on 7 Green and 8 Tee has been completed and we are moving to Holes 15 and 16 this week. Due to the cold snap, we were unable to install any plant material earlier in the week. We will be marking install locations on Wednesday and begin installation on Thursday.

The covers will be removed from the greens tomorrow morning in front of play. Kevin Dunn, Asst Superintendent, will take 6 inch plug samples from the 4 greens and bring them into the shop. By collecting a few samples we can keep them in a greenhouse environment and give us a head start on determining if we had any damage from the record low temperatures.

Once the ground thaws in the fairways and roughs we will continue our weed control program. In these extreme temperatures even the weeds shut down and do not absorb any herbicide.

 

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,