Root Pruning #9 green

I began to notice some major decline of the collar on number 9.  When I got here in February, this area was bare so we sodded it from the sod that was on the existing nursery green before we rebuilt the nursery green 2 months later.  With the temperatures being so hot we were on a regiment of watering greens with overheads in the evening and mornings consisted of watering spots and collars then light cool down runs in afternoon.  We have been doing this process for the last 3 months and this area kept declining.  I decided to see if it was a problem under the turf.  I dug a small hole right next to the collar and noticed 3, 1 inch sized roots about 3 inches below ground.  This finding lead me to believe that the 2 trees that are near the green was stealing the water before the turf could take it in.  Here are some photos of the spot in decline and the 2 trees by the green.

We borrowed a walk behind trencher and proceed to root prone about a quarter of the way around the green.  What this process will do is sever the roots that are into the green and in about 2 days those roots will stop taking water from the green.  We have noticed that some of the spots on the green are starting to bounce back after this process.

Digging the trench around the green to sever any roots that are into the green.

The open trench we found a lot of surface roots and rock.  The roots started about 2 inches below the surface.

In the process of filling the trench back in and then replacing the sod back on it.

Finished Product

Tenacity spray on 13 fairway and cool season tees

About 3 weeks ago we sprayed a product called Tenacity on our cool season tees and 13 fairway to control the goose grass and crabgrass in our turf.  What this product does is shuts down the plants HPPD an enzyme in the biosynthesis of carotenoids.  This enzyme protects the chlorophyll, the pigment in plants responsible for photosynthesis from too much light energy.  Without carotenoids, light destroys chlorophyll causing new growth to turn white resulting in death of plant.  As we mow the white becomes less and less visible as it kills the grassy weeds Here are some links to information on Tenacity:

Active Ingredient
Whitening of Weeds

 Crabgrass Whitening off on Cool Season Tee

New irrigation controller installation

As you can see from my previous post we have installed all 110 heads that service the greens and have proceeded to move onto new controllers to replace the old SBM 1230 pin and dials with new Par plus digital controllers.  We currently have 5 completed out of 9 and are hoping to finish those within the next month.

 

 New Pad for new irrigation Controllers

 Splice box where old controllers were located and the new controller on pedestal.

Pile of concrete from old controller pads.  Concrete was 14 inches thick and had to use jackhammer to get out.

Old controllers and new pad location

Finished product before back filling of soil