Mink Meadows Turf Maintenance Department: Light Switch

Just like that it is summer. July 4th has come and gone and the course is packed. We had people on the practice tee and putting green before the shop even opened this morning. That is welcome news from a business standpoint. The weather has not been very conducive to golf as of late. We are at peak season so it should not seem abnormal but it was easy to get lulled to sleep this year.
The disease pressure has been high with all this humidity and wet soils. Luckily it has been breezy most days so that helps cool things off and dry the surface which helps a lot for fungus growth. The main disease we fight is the Dollar Spot fungi or Sclerotinia Homoeocarpa. This fungus grows in small dime to dollar coin size spots, hence the name and when they coalesce it can affect large sections of turf. I am hearing of major issues with this disease right now and this is from the people that spray synthetic chemicals preventatively. We have an odd break through on the areas we treat this way also but the fairways are getting hit pretty hard. This is no surprise as we use a biological approach spraying a bacteria instead of a synthetic pesticide. the last time I applied one of those on a fairway was September 1997. We battle this disease every year and so far we have been able to win. The conditions may not be perfect but that is a trade off we are willing to accept to be as environmentally conscience as possible. As the weather breaks and the disease pressure subsides the turf will recover and the blemishes will go away. Or so has been the case for the last 15 years.

"The conditions may not be perfect but that is a trade off we are willing to accept to be as environmentally conscience as possible."

Our crabgrass preventative spray has held up so far, please don't jinx it by typing that, as I have seen very little of it germinating. The place I have seen it are areas where we did not apply the barrier. Let's hope it stays that way. I am sick of dealing with that pest and killing more good grass to try and control it.
We have managed through some tough labor issues with a couple of key staff being off and hopefully no one noticed a difference in playing conditions. We have added yet another new employee, Max Santos to help fill the void when Barry Lopes leaves us in the next few days. Barry has been with us for many years and is capable of many tasks so it will not be easy to replace that seasoned employee. Max is the youngest son of Dr George Santos, Jr and his wife Marion. George Sr was a caddy in the 30's here and Jr in the 70's but unfortunately we no longer have caddies so to keep the tradition alive as best we can we now have the third generation on the greens crew. By the time we get Max all trained he will head back to school but hopefully we can steal him after school or on weekends through the fall season.