Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Season is Near!

The rainfall that inundated the golf course in September finally subsided. Historically the average precipitation in September is a little over 8". This year Olde Florida received in excess of 17"! With drier conditions now in place the staff has been busy making a big push to have the course in terrific condition for the upcoming winter golf season.

After a productive summer of performing the necessary cultural practices (aerification, vertical mowing, top dressing, etc.) the turfgrass needed nutrition. This month two "wall to wall" fertilizer applications have been applied to the golf course to improve health and the plants ability to recuperate from the increased winter traffic.

A 5-4-0 fertilizer blend containing all-organic nitrogen is loaded into a spreader for application

In addition, the staff installed a truck load (7,000 sq. ft.) of Celebration bermudagrass along the perimeter of some golf holes. The areas that were converted to Celebration bermudagrass were high traffic, shady areas. Celebration is a deep blue-green bermudagrass that has performed extremely well in university research studies. While certainly not a miracle grass, Celebration is touted for its wear tolerance and recovery, drought resistance, and shade tolerance. 

# 17 (near the green) after the existing, weak turfgrass was removed 



Celebration bermudagrass being watered after installation

Finally, all of the larger, maintained "native" areas have received an application of pinestraw. Prior to the application, the cabbage palm and oak trees in these areas were trimmed.