Instrata

With a break in the weather, this gives us a perfect opportunity to get out and spray greens with their final application for the year. Pictured above is our Assistant Golf Course Superintendent, Steven Blais on his trusty Toro spray rig. As I said before, this final application will need to get us through the remainder of winter and all she brings with her. The fungicide choice of many, Instrata, combines the three active ingredients (ai) found in Banner MAXX, Medalion, and Daconil,(Chlorothalonil, Propiconazole, and Fludioxonil). Put down at a rate of 9.6 oz/m, this fungide will keep our greens disease free until spring. Comparing this picture from previous posts, you can really see how November's weather has affected the turfs color. Having been one of the coldest since I can remember, the turfgrass has entered into a deep state of dormancy and is shutting the door on 2009. While it is our hope to be open for play this weekend, the last snow storm has provided the golf course with some much needed reprieve from this year's traffic. To all our members and guests, Happy Thanksgiving and here's to a blessed holiday season!

Irrigation Blow Out

As we enter into the winter months, our attention must focus on shutting the golf course down for the blistery months ahead. Although most of our irrigation pipes are buried deep enough into the ground to escape the frost layer, Colorado weather has proven that this process should not be omitted. Unfortunately, water readily freezes in the pipes and heads and are susceptible to cracking and breaking, thus creating time-consuming and expensive repairs in the spring. Because we want to limit the amount of winter desiccation, this practice will continue to be aggresively pushed to the limits of our local weather patterns. By doing this, we are able to irrigate the turf longer into the year and keep the crown hydrated longer into the season.

Pink Snow mold

You wouldn't normally think of winter months being a high-stress time period for the turfgrass by way of diseases, and for the most part, you'd be right. While most pathogens use heat and humidity to infect the turf, snow molds play by a different set of rules. Pink snow mold or (Fusarium patch) pictured, favors cold and wet conditions to wreak its havoc and does not require snow cover to be active. On the other hand, Gray Snow Mold, or (Typhula Blight), does require snow cover to cause symptoms and is most severe when snow cover lasts 90 days or more. Because of the weather fluctuations we have here in Colorado during winter months, the golf course is rarely closed due to snow cover for more than a month. Due to these temperate inconsistencies, it's not cost effective to treat the entire golf course with a fungicide application to ward off these pests. To get us through our 'Pink Snow Mold season', an application of Banner MAXX was made to all 30 greens at a rate of 2 ounces per thousand square feet, or 2oz/m, the second week of October. This application will protect the plant from Pink Snow Mold until a second application can be made around Thanksgiving. This second fungicide application will be a more compound chemistry to protect the plant from both molds for a much longer time period in case the winter weather continues to throw us curve balls.

A change in scenery

This last weekends snow storm brought us more accumulation than I can remember in the last few years, and has stuck around all week. Although we only received 4-5 inches of snow on the golf course, we had over an inch in total precipitation after checking the gauges throughout the course. With daytime highs in the 50 degree range and lows in the 20's, needless to say, the golf course is still closed to golfers. Once the golf course is clear, we will be spraying a preventative snow mold application to all 30 greens. An anti-desiccant will also be applied to tees and fairways to prevent turf loss over the winter months. Once this is done, our topdressing regiment will begin. Stay tuned for live updates and commentary on the process and be sure to left-click on the pictures to get a better detailed look.

If you don't like the weather in Colorado.....

.......just wait five minutes, or a month. November, for the most part, has been quite different than usual by way of local weather. Last week we enjoyed temperatures 10-20 degrees higher than average for this time of year with highs in the upper 70's and lows hovering in the mid-40's. This has been quite a change from the snow and ice storms we received in October. With these warmer-than-average temperatures, the turf hasn't quite hardened off into dormancy and will require that we continue to water the golf course as needed. As we move into our winter season, our tee times have been pushed back to 9:00am. Please be sure to check in with the pro-shop staff on course availability and frost delays.