Summer is coming

To eliminate the island silhouette in my former blog cover I asked Peter McCormick of Turfnet to "work me up a new one", since he created the last one. He also created a new badge to promote membership in Turfnet that I wanted installed. So we have yet another new face to the blog. I hope you like it.
We now have all boat cleat markers and the confusion is rampant. I thought it would be clear but apparently some people are struggling with the theme of carrying the front side color to the back and having it be a split marker instead of two separate colors. It may take a few weeks until everyone has played the course and then it should be smooth sailing. The concept of a short forward course and a middle set of tees is getting rave reviews. The last of the tees will be opened next week. Just in time for the kick off to summer, Memorial Day.

back nine tees in action

left over tee spray used on first fairway: something to that iron

Setting up for participation in a study by UMass

The fairways have been white for two weeks with Poa seed heads. I had some spray leftover from our first tee and approach application so I used it on the first fairway and within a day it was so noticeable it forced me to make a ferrous sulfate application to mask it. I had wanted to make this application for days anyway so it all worked out in the end. Iron plays a very important role in the plant and produces a brilliant green color when sprayed on turf.  If sprayed at a high enough rate it will kill moss and can actually turn the grass black for a short time. The fairways look much better although the streaks in between the spray pattern are now making me crazy. May need to lower the rate on the next application or switch to using the booms and the foam marker.
We also had a couple of visits from the University of Massachusetts this week. We are taking part in an interesting study on soil bacteria and fungi with two other courses on the island. This study has been done in potatoes but never in turf so it should be interesting to see the results. The location of samples was laid out the first day and then the samples were taken the next, They will return in the Fall to do another round of samples.
The course and crew are taking shape and even the weather has made a welcomed appearance or two this week. Let's hope for continued fair winds and a good week of work to prep for our first member's tourney next weekend. Enjoy the new tee set up.