Equipment to Speed Up Recovery

With the greens not being great this season due to the desiccation and snow mold damage, we were happy to try any other equipment to help speed up the process of recovery.

Slit Seeder

We demoed the Turfco Triwave slit seeder on our worst green, #14. This machine worked very well. It creates a slit in the ground and then drops the seed into it. Following the seed being dropped, there are rollers on the back which push the soil back together afterwards. The slits could've been closed a little more by using a greens roller afterwards, but we left them and it worked. 

Turfco Triwave in Action

Slit seeder rows growing in

Sweep N Fill Brush

Another piece of equipment we demoed (and eventually bought) was the Sweep N Fill brush. This brush rotates while you pull it, flicking the turf. 

Equipment Maintenance

The past few weeks have been busy with the greens recovery. But while that is all going on, I have to remember to do any equipment maintenance that is needed, since we don't have a mechanic. 

Backlapping Reels

At The Nursery we don't have a spin grinder or a bed knife grinder, just an old foley 388 relief grinder. This means we sharpen our reels in the winter, then backlap throughout the season to keep the reels in good shape. It would be nice to have a spin and bed knife grinder, but our budget does not allow that. On top of that, you need a person to grind the reels in the summer, as I would not have much time with our small crew. Backlapping works well in our situation. 

1. Set up the bed knife to reel contact to a light contact. 
2. Adjust the reels into the backlapping mode (usually under the seat)
3. Turn the speed knob to the slowest setting. (usually under the seat)
4. Engage reels and apply backlapping material with a paintbrush
5. Backlap the reels for roughly 10 minutes
6. Wash off the grit and check the quality of cut
7. Set the height of cut.

Backlapping Fairway Mower

Applying Backlap grit to the reels

Changing Bearings in Rollers 

Rollers are always turning at a rapid pace and they hold a lot of weight, whether it be on a greens mower to a sidewinder. All rollers are the same. Rollers have end caps, bearings, and seals. I like to keep bearings and seals on hand in the summer so that the down time of the machine is limited, if a bearing is to fail.

Remove end caps on rollers

Remove the bearing and seal

Remove the shaft

Air Filters

Air filters should always be checked often. They filter the air before it enters the engine. You want to keep these clean so the engine does not starve for air. If the air filter looks pretty black and dirty, you can blow it out with some air, but sometimes that does not do the trick. I always keep air filters on hand for every machine. They work in dirty environments full of dirt, dust, and grass clippings.

Air filter on the fairway mower after
a week of poplar fuzz

New Engine

As mentioned in a previous post, we like to keep machines as long as possible, due to the prohibitive cost of new ones. This past week we had a Toro 3150 triplex bog down often while operating. I looked at the air filter and it was full of oil. I tried to keep the oil level at half and see if that helped, but it didn't. Sadly it was time for a new engine on this unit. A lot of courses would buy a new triplex before a new engine, but for us, this option was the way to go. 

Installing the new engine was a great learning opportunity. It was all done in house with the GM and myself. We took 2 days to remove the old engine and to install the new one. We had to remove the hydraulic tank to loosen what was necessary under it.

Hydraulic Tank Removed

Preparing to Remove the Old Engine

More wear and tear...or is it?

We had an issue with a Toro Sidewinder spewing hydraulic fluid out of the muffler. This was confusing to me at first, but upon inspection, it showed that the hydraulic line was rubbing against the muffler. This created a hole in the muffler and then was shooting out the hydraulic fluid when it was running.

Hydraulic line rubbing against the muffler

I called the local toro dealer and they came and took a look. This model is the 3500-D. The "D" stands for diesel. According to the Toro mechanic, the muffler that was on this machine was actually for the gas model of sidewinder. The gas model has a different routing of hydraulic lines. The local Toro dealer came in the next couple days with the proper parts and carried out the repair, as it was still under warranty.

Opening Day!

April 9th. Opening Day. 11 green.

Brady Ambler (Asst Super) setting the first pin of the year on 11 green

Today is the opening day at The Nursery. As the snow has melted, more and more greens looked desiccated, and damaged by snow mold. Not a great start to my first year as Superintendent, but on a positive note, it's good to get my most difficult year in the first year.

I have received information from the consultant who was in charge of the grounds the year before I arrived. In an email the consultant sent, the greens were put to bed with a moisture percentage of 10-12%. While the greens are push up greens, they should be in the range of 16-20% daily. So unfortunately they went into the winter with insufficient moisture. This lead to desiccation on a lot of greens, in conjunction with the snow mold.

Snow is Melting! Not looking good...

The snow is starting to melt, and today I went out to look at the greens again, and to say the least, it's not looking good. I have no information on how the greens went to bed from the previous consultant as of yet, but this doesn't look good. Looks like snow mold has made its way on the green during the winter and there was a lot of areas with it. 

Snow Mold on 1 green

While I was looking at greens, some had some standing water, so I grabbed the squeegees to push as much as I could off. See video below.

The green on 5 is the only green that is tarped, and I asked the GM why they did that. The answer is that 5 green is out in the wind, and quite exposed, so they tarped it to help keep it from becoming desiccated. 

5 Green showing the effects of the Evergreen tarp

In With The New, Out With The Old

Today I spent the day putting in new barrels for our 2 sets of Toro 3150 reels. The old reels were past their wear limit, so it was time for new ones. New barrels are cheaper than getting a new machine, and in our case, we like to run the machines as long as they can go.

New 11 blade 3150 reel

It took me a while to figure out how these new barrels went in, but upon reading the parts diagram and seeing how the old ones came out, I figured it out.

Old, worn out 3150 reels

Winter Machine Maintenance

It's still my first month as Superintendent, and my focus is on learning how to grind the reels and getting them all done. After bringing in the Jacobsen Eclipse 322 triplex, I took the reel motors off to get the reels off the machine. When I removed the motors, I noticed there was a chipped drive motor, on not only 1 motor, but all 3!

Chipped drive shaft on left, key on right

This is not what I wanted. This is the first time I have ever had a machine have something broken and I have to deal with it. There is no mechanic at The Nursery, so I am not only a Superintendent, but a mechanic as well. Coming into this, I am not mechanically inclined at all. This is going to be a great learning opportunity. I am lucky to have an owner who is very mechanically inclined. 

After seeing this part that was broken, I contacted the Jacobsen dealer to see what they could do as the machine only has 804 hours. They were able to send new motors as part of the warranty. Thank goodness, because each motor costs around $800. 

First Month as Superintendent

Well...I never thought this would happen. At the age of 21, I have my first Superintendent job.

I took a job as Superintendent of The Nursery Golf and Country Club over the summer, to begin in January. It's all who you know. My Superintendent at Shadow Mountain, Brad Pasula, used to work at The Nursery, and the owners asked if he knew of anyone that would be interested. When Brad came and asked me if I wanted to be a Superintendent, I was shocked. I replied, "I think you're crazy". I then thought about it more and thought I should consider the job. We went to Lacombe for a course tour and to meet the owners of the course. It was a great trip and after looking at everything (not that I knew what I was looking for at the time), and having an interview with the owners, I took the job.

It has been a learning curve already. There are no documents left from the year before, so I am unsure how the course was put to bed, besides the information that the GM has. From what I can see on the greens, they look to be alright with no ice. I have been commuting from Olds College on the weekends to start getting the reels ground.

Sunset view from the shop