Hello Summer!

Many of you have seen the current condition of our 8th fairway. We don't have a mystery disease attacking the fairway. The brown areas are the result of localized dry spot, a condition I wrote about in this blog back in August, 2015.

LDS on 8 fairway.

This condition was triggered by an electrical surge (lightning) in the irrigation control system. That surge destroyed a surge protector in the control satellite for the 8th hole. With no power to the controller, the hole doesn't get watered. We didn't discover the problem for several days. By then, with high temps and wind, soil moisture became critical and the bentgrass started browning out. This condition is exacerbated by the compacted and overturned soils from our recent renovation. I expect most of the damaged areas to recover with the return of more moderate weather.

Weidenmann deep-tine aerifier loosening up the 7th fairway.

We are currently in the middle of round two for deep-tining all of our fairways this year. We will continue with this practice until the soil compaction is alleviated and the soil structure is where we want it. See diagram for a better visual: deep-tine heave action

Always fun when you pickup a hitchhiker!

In addition, we added a wetting agent program to our fairway maintenance program this year. These products are suppose to minimize LDS outbreaks. Needless to say, I am somewhat disappointed with the results. On the other hand, this incident may show just how much soil work we have ahead of us.


This was the scene west of the 12th green 10 days ago. A three inch feeder pipe pulled out of the isolation valve causing quite a mess. The fix required applying joint restraints on both sides of the valve. We are hoping this won't be a reoccurring situation at other green sites.

3 inch irrigation pipe separated from the isolation valve at 12 green.

The native prairie plantings on the golf course are looking FABULOUS! Thank you to all golfers who are abiding by the "no entrance" rule. We appreciate your cooperation as do all the pollinators!
Pollinators love Keller GC!!!

Bumble Bee on Monarda (Bee Balm)

Bumble Bee on Oxeye (Early Sunflower)

16 tee surrounds.

Foot Print Follies

As populations of the Minnesota State bird begin to bulk up, now is a good time for the annual reminder regarding mosquito sprays. Please stand on a cart path or in deep rough when applying bug spray to your lower extremities. Certain ingredients in these sprays are toxic to short cut playing surfaces, e.g., greens, tees, and fairways.

Not a pretty sight but completely avoidable.

Another issue involving feet belongs to the golfer dedicated to putting practice. Often times you will see golfers performing repetition drills on the practice green standing in one spot for extended periods of time. The spikes and soles of their golf shoes combined with summer heat can cause undue stress on grass plants cut at a 1/10th of an inch.

Keller practice green, June 2016

There is a way to prevent this damage as demonstrated below by PGA Touring Pro Ryo Ishikawa.

Stand on a towel when your feet don't move for extended periods of time.

Catching Up

The month of May is always a busy month for golf course maintenance in the northern climates. Optimum temperatures along with timely rain usually cause an explosion of growth on our grassed playing surfaces. Our rough mower is usually playing catch-up all month, even when we add an additional mower to the process.

To counter this excessive growth, we use Plant Growth Regulators (PGRs) on greens, tees and fairways. These products cause the plant to slow its top growth and put that energy into roots and lateral growth. This makes for a healthier bentgrass plant and much reduced clippings on the fairways.

The particular PGR we use favors bentgrass while putting the hurt on annual bluegrass (poa annua). We have a substantial population of  'poa' in our playing surfaces that established during grow-in. From an agronomic point of view, it is in our best interests to limit the spread of this weed and, over time, reduce the populations.



The yellow grass on one of our tee surfaces is PGR stunted poa annua.

This spring, we upgraded our Toro 300 gallon sprayer with a GPS computer controller and a higher capacity pump. The golf industry is a little late to the party as the Ag Industry has used GPS technology for many years. How does GPS control improve spray applications on the golf course?

In simplified terms, the GPS controller mounted on the sprayer uses satellites orbiting the Earth to determine its exact (sub-meter accuracy) location on the ground. The margins of the fairways to be sprayed are entered into the computer. This allows the controller to determine what to spray and what not to spray. The sprayer operator simply drives over fairways back and forth and the controller turns the individual boom nozzles on and off as the fairway margins are crossed.

This system saves 10-15% product by eliminating overlaps and over sprays into the rough. In addition, the sprayer can now spray at 8-9 mph, twice as fast as the old system! Isn't technology great?

Asst. Superintendent Brett Wenzel at the wheel of the newly upgraded Toro 5700 sprayer.

Nozzles can operate in single or dual mode depending on demand call from the computer.

 

GPS computer screen shows what has been sprayed (white) and what is unsprayed (green).

                           

 

 

 

 

 

2015 Recap

Keller GC is a busy place and 2015 was no exception. In addition to 32,000 golfing rounds, a variety of visitors descended upon the property to learn about our environmental programming. I know some of you reading this have witnessed a long string of golf cars traversing about the course and wondered, "what's going on?" Below are a few of the groups that visited.

The "2015 Clean Water Tour" was organized by the Ramsey Conservation District (RCD). This tour included RCD staff, state legislators, county commissioners and other agency officials. This stop was the shoreline restoration on the 15th hole.

This large tour of 50 participants was the "Exceptional LEAP Tour" (Landscape Ecology Awards Program) organized by the Ramsey Washington Metro Watershed District. Most participants were Ramsey County residents with more than a few Master Gardeners thrown in for good measure. It was by far and away our most popular and well-received tour to date.

 

 

 

Bill Bartodjiez and Simba Blood of the RWMWD speaking to the LEAP tour.

 

 

Last fall we hosted a biodiversity class from the University of Minnesota.

One of our resident red-tail hawks on the lookout for dinner. Our 26 acres of restored habitat on the property are home to a HUGE population of rodents. This would explain the increased raptor traffic we have witnessed in the past year.

The underside of a piece of sod from the edge of a fairway. Note the white healthy roots emerging from that aerification hole in the soil. Oxygen is the key to healthy roots and healthy turfgrass. Ongoing aerification is full speed ahead in 2016.