The Heat Refuses To Leave Us

The heat is continuing to raise havoc on the golf course with no relief in sight.  The long range forecast is for continued +90 degree temps and no rain is expected. Our irrigation system has allowed us to keep up with the daily evaporation which has been about 2.5/10ths per day. The greens, tees and fairways are still looking pretty good, but areas that do not receive irrigation have gone into summer dormancy.  Once we receive some rain our roughs will again come back to life.  Kentucky Bluegrass can survive about six weeks without water, but beyond that plants will begin to die. We have been moving portable sprinklers around in the rough just to moisten the roots and crown so it will survive. We are not trying to bring the rough out of dormancy, we are only keeping it alive.




Cart Stress To Already Stressed Turf


Dr. Derek Settle from the CDGA has commented on his observations from around the district in his weekly newsletter.  Take a look, there is some very good information included.

CDGA Newsletter

Hot Hot Hot = Stress

We have been hand watering Localized Dry Spots (LDS) on greens daily to help the turf survive this drought.  Despite all of the watering we have reached a point where we have to do more to relieve the stress our greens are experiencing.  Today (Friday) we did not mow greens and have raised the height of cut until we receive some relief from this stress.  By raising the height of cut we are leaving more leaf tissue for the plant to utilize its natural cooling defence mechanism "transpiration". When the heat stress  is over we will go back to the normal height of cut and resume topdressing, verti-cutting and other cultural practices that are on hold for now. In the meantime we will continue hand watering and syringing to keep the turf cool.  You may also see us out with the aerifier using small needle tines making extremely small holes so water and oxygen can penetrate the green surface and allow for toxic gasses to escape.

Thank you for your understanding during this heat stress period.