weekly happenings and guest blogger

Just another week on the course. Could not get a great picture of the ring necked pheasant who has been hanging out with a flock of turkeys. He is a handsome fellow for sure. My guess is he is seeking safety in numbers with the two hens and their chicks which are about his size right now. The humidity is up and down and after last week and the dew points of 76 and 77 the highest in the state one day, any break is a relief. There are a couple of high humidity fungal pathogens that require specific weather to grow. High repeated night time temps as well as high humidity and no air movement. We had all the right factors over the weekend. Luckily we only had an outbreak on the third approach and it was Brown Patch and not Pythium which can wipe out entire fairways in no time.



ring necked pheasant hanging with the chicks, photo by G. Balco



Classic Rhizoctonia Solani or Brown Patch

no real special weather needed for Dollar Spot,

We also had some break downs in the last week: new sprayer right after I finished, thank goodness, and an irrigation leak under a green. Only thing worse than a live pipe under a green is a broken pipe under a green. I found this odd looking spot in the front left corner of nine while mowing. Looked like the grass was scalped, cut too short. When I investigated it was soup. After a test bore with a cup cutter i found a repair coupling and knew I had to dig it up.

Will pulling starter out of sprayer

price you pay trying to enlarge a green without moving the irrigation

hopefully the next repair coupling lasts a bit longer

classic scalp on three green

The humidity also can make the grass mis-behave. The picture above is just bentgrass getting puffy and the mower tearing it up instead of cutting smooth. Nothing a little good weather, aerifying and topdressing won't cure.
I was also asked to be a guest blogger for one of the Chemical companies. I was interviewed and then the post was sent for review. It went live this week check it out here