Always a challenge...

Matt Crowther, CGCS, Mink Meadows Golf Club, Martha's Vineyard, MA:

"We managed to get the aerifying done that we planned this week. No small task with the remnants of a hurricane bearing down on us. The contractor we use for the deep tine aerifying could not get a boat reservation until late morning. My plan was to topdress first and have him punch holes right through the sand. Never tried it but have heard of success stories. A few showers in the morning killed that idea and made our solid tine aerifying of the collars and approaches more enjoyable. Did not seem to bother Bert a bunch as he napped right through them.

It was just another tribute day to ole Mr. Murphy and his law of "if it can go wrong it will". Started with Will mowing up the rope used for the driving range with the rotary mower, victim of the lack of daylight. It was coiled up in the rough next to the tee. Continued with the new Deere trim mower breaking, the tractor getting stuck in reverse, two heads being aerified with one needing immediate attention... and this was all before 10 am. The mower is still down waiting for a cable, the tractor was an easy fix and went on to break the sprinkler mentioned above and the rest of the day seemed dull by comparison. We have been fighting with the utility vehicles lately which are stalling and slowing down production so that was expected.

Broken equipment stacking up early.

Salt damage on hydrangea.

Aside from some abuse to the collars due to apparent lack of roots and a few greens having too much sand on them it turned out to be a good day. I applied a wetting agent, which will help the sand into the turf, along with some calcium and micro nutrients to help flush salts. We watered them in light, 10 min, and hoped for the natural rains predicted from former hurricane Issac. Woke up to a dry deck and had to water the greens heavy, 45 min. Tested the water mid-cycle and it was pretty salty at 1.6 microsiemens. Not as bad as it tested over the weekend at 2 ms and still not as bad as the 4.3 ms we registered in July, but bad enough to not want to use it.

Just to add insult to injury it rained hard for 2 minutes, dropping .08" towards the tail end of the irrigation cycle. As the mainland was getting pummeled with 2 inches per hour in spots we dried up enough to blow off some excess sand and then after another .03 dried up again enough to brush the greens and blow them again. So today they look pretty good and when they dry enough we will continue to blow and possibly brush more sand around and hopefully roll them."

Visit Matt's blog at minkmeadows.blogspot.com.

Wildlife, and Coyotes Damaging #5 Green...

Paul Sabino, The Farms Country Club, Wallingford, CT:

"The maintenance staff and I have the opportunity to start our day, basically, on a wildlife preserve. Most players never get to see what we see every morning, every evening and every day. Deer, foxes, coyotes, hawks, eagles, muskrats, bobcats (I still say I saw a mountain lion), every kind of bird from bluebirds to cedar waxwings, etc. The list is much longer.

I love the mornings and hearing the staff talk on the radio about the family of turkeys on #7, or the fawn they just saw on #2, or the mating snapping turtles in #6 pond...again, the list goes on.

As beautiful as it is, there are instances that create problems for us. We have a family of coyotes we've been watching daily this year. Our best estimate is that there are five or six pups. They are always around five green and six tee in the pre-dawn hours. They will stay until one of the mowers or carts drive by, then they are spooked for the day. We have truly enjoyed watching them mature all season!

"Spooked" coyote pups watching me from off #5 green.

Holes on #5 Sunday, August 26th

The problem now is the coyote family has decided to start digging up the fifth green! I don't know why. The first day was Saturday, August 25th. The damage was minimal. We fixed it easily. This kind of thing happens all the time... animals dig a small hole, deer make rutted footprints, etc. Sunday the 26th was much worse. They went right back to the same spot on #5 green and started digging deeper holes and more of them.

Sunday's damage was bad. I decided that it would be a green we would aerify first. An environmental change might make the spot undesirable for the coyotes. It didn't work out as good as I had hoped, but it was better.

We made our planned fertilizer and wetting agent applications after topdressing was completed. Our simple physical changes and fertilization techniques seem to have made the coyotes want to find a new place to practice digging. As much as it was an inconvenience and it caused us more work, it was awesome to be a part of a positive and mutually beneficial environmental change! Can you say symbiosis?"

Visit Paul's blog at farmsccsuperintendent.blogspot.com.

Bentgrass Eradication Update

Peter Wendt, CGCS, Kinloch Golf Club, Manakin-Sabot, VA:

"As of today, we have sprayed two applications of Tenacity herbicide on our ryegrass intermediate cut to eliminate bentgrass contamination. Monday morning we will begin seeding all of the intermediate cut to perennial ryegrass. The ryegrass will germinate within a week and in a couple of weeks we will begin mowing it and grooming the intermediates back to our desired heights. Once we have mowed the intermediate cut a few times we will spray it again to clean up the remaining bentgrass. Temperatures look great next week for this project!"

Visit Pete's blog at kinlochgcm.blogspot.com.

Bermuda crawl...

Trey Anderson, Hickory Ridge Golf Course, Carbondale, IL:

"All would agree that Bermuda is the most aggressive when it comes to coverage in the south and transition zone but this runner pulled out of a new bentgrass collar shows that during the right conditions, Zoysia can give it a run for its money. This was pulled out of a collar that was seeded less than a year ago."

Visit Trey's blog at hrgcturf.blogspot.com.

Food for turf...

Steve Cook, CGCS MG, Oakland Hills Country Club, Bloomfield Hills, MI:

"In anticipation of the mechanical stress that comes with core aerification, we fertilize greens in advance to get them healthy and growing. Providing a little food just prior and also just after aerification helps expedite recovery.We fertilized greens earlier this week and will do the same at the end of the day, next Tuesday, the day we aerify the South greens."

Visit Steve's blog at http://ohccturf.blogspot.com

Aerification 2012 (in photos)...

Chris McKernan, Rivercrest Golf Club and Preserve, Phoenixville, PA:

Visit Chris's blog at rivercrestgolfclub.blogspot.com.

50 Miles!

Chris Titabaugh, Northland Country Club, Duluth, MN:

"On Sunday morning Sept 9, Assistant Superintendent Jake Ryan will be running a 50 mile ultra trail-marathon on the Superior Hiking Trail from Finland to Lutsen. The Jake who will run the race is much different than the Jake who came to Northland on September 4th of 2007. I do not think Jake himself would take any issue with me describing the old Jake as "short and squat". Five years and about 50 pounds later the new Jake will run a race that most of us cannot fathom.

If you are in the golf business you know how hard it can be to even think about working out during the long summer days. Well, Jake did much more than work out; he has prepared himself for this ultimate challenge. Regardless of how the race turns out Jake deserves our heartfelt congratulations for the time and efforts he has put forth in order to run the 50 miler tomorrow.

Help me wish Jake best of luck and congrats on a great accomplishment. If you want to send him a tweet and wish him luck his twitter handle is @jakeryan311."

Visit the Northland blog at northlandgrounds.blogspot.com.