Ice on Greens

Over the weekend, it snowed roughly 8 inches, and then rained 9mm on top of it. The rain mixed with the snow to create an ice layer on some greens. The reason that ice is bad on grass, is that it limits the "breathing" of the plant, causing a Carbon Dioxide buildup.

The greens have 2 types of turf species in them. Creeping Bentgrass and Annual Bluegrass. Bentgrass can last 60 - 90 (sometimes 120) days before it starts to die from the buildup of gas. Annual bluegrass can only last about 30 days. Since the bentgrass is more tolerable than the annual bluegrass, if the annual bluegrass dies, it would be beneficial to help promote more bentgrass. 

The two types of ice that can form are porous (or popcorn) ice, and solid ice. The porous ice has some air bubbles in it which usually allows the turf to last longer underneath as it can breathe.

Porous Ice (Popcorn Ice)

Clear Ice

I examined all the greens and decided to clear the greens with the most snow on them, since it would take longer for the ice to melt with the snow on it. The first step was to snowblow the affected greens on the course. As the snow was removed, we checked to see if there was ice. On every green we cleared there was ice, so I am glad we did that.

After the greens were cleared of snow, we then started applying dark green sand to help aid in the melting of ice. The dark colour of the sand pulls in the heat from the sun, and won't damage the turf, unlike ice melting salts for example. 

Applying dark green sand

Dark green sand on #8 green

We then let the sand sit on the ice and snow to melt the ice and make it easier to break up and remove. Once the sand had sat there for a while with the sun hitting it, we then started the manual labour to break up the ice. We used ice chippers and shovels to remove as much as we could. It was a great workout. We did this for 3 days in a row with everyone that we had available to help out. The owners, the assistant superintendent, and general manager. 

All hands on deck to remove the ice and snow

As the ice melted, there was a considerable amount of water being left on the turf, which could freeze into ice again. We used the squeegees to push as much of it off as we could. 

Pushing water off #4 green

On the last day we brought out the aerator to help, as the manual chipping was taking a long time. The aerator worked okay. It made holes in the ice which is a good thing. It will allow the carbon dioxide to be released and for the turf to start breathing again. Some areas worked better than others, but it was all we had to do the job. The main goal was to just remove as much ice as we could. 

The result on #1 green after the aerator went
over it

A few other things we tried were using the tractor with the box scraper to push as much snow as we could off the green. We won't know if it's beneficial or not until the spring. Another strategy that we came up with was applying a regular greens grade granular app on the green. Fertilizer is a salt, and salt melts ice. As long as you don't go above the recommended rate on the bag, you should be fine. Let's hope for positive results in the spring!

Refinishing Benches

This fall has been a very snowy one in central Alberta. We have lost a lot of days in September and october. For the past week, we have been busy working on refinishing the benches so that they will look better for the upcoming season. This was done in house with my assistant, one full time employee, and myself. 

Before

The benches were sanded down outside, to keep the dust down in the shop. Once they were sanded down, we wiped them down with a damp rag and used the air blower to remove any dust. Once that was completed we then painted the wood, as well as the metal legs. 

After

It's the little things that make a difference out there.

Blowout 2018

It never seems to fail that we receive snow around irrigation blowout time. The snow would be fine if we had an electronic irrigation system, but because it is all manual (turning on heads and valves), the snow makes it more difficult to find them. We marked a majority of the heads before the snow came, as the forecast was calling for some.

Snow on the course before blowout

We did not get them all done unfortunately. That's where the buffalo turbine comes in handy. We knew a general area where the heads were, so clearing them was a breeze.

The following day, once it snowed more, we went out in the morning to blow around the heads and valves so that we could start blowout. Blowout takes 2 days if done properly.

Blowing around flagged heads

Hole 11, Par 6 Tees Renovation

The longest hole in Canada, the par 6, 11th hole had its par 6 tees reconstructed this fall. During the summer we installed our new RV park, and a majority of the dirt that was excavated out of the former driving range, was brought to 11 tee. This tee was not very nice before. It was small and would get run down quite easily. If hole 11 is our signature hole, let's make it signature and be of good quality.

Once all the dirt that could be dumped there was, we then had the owner come in with his large farm John Deere tractor. He rototilled it all so that it was smooth and shaped them into tee boxes. HIs tractor is much larger than ours, and the power from the pro was able to break up all the big sod chunks.

Rototilled soil

We don't have any fancy laser levelling box scarper or anything like that. We make do with the equipment and resources we have on hand, unless absolutely necessary to rent something.

Once the soil was rototilled, it was then packed down using the tractor by driving on it, and pulling a set of harrows behind it to remove any clumps. This worked pretty well. Again, not as great as some of the fancier equipment that can be used, but it worked for us. The next step was installing irrigation lines and heads.

We began by using our 3 point hitch, hydraulic excavator to dig the trench for the lines. We soon found out that this was taking way too long. It is not the fastest piece of equipment. It took about 4 hours to dig less than 80 ft.

3pt hitch excavator

This was one of those times when it was worth it to rent a piece of equipment to improve efficiency. We rented a ride on ditch witch trencher. This machine cost roughly $150 for half the day.

Ditch Witch trencher

With it being a ride on, we finished this 500ft irrigation line in about half an hour. We rented it for half a day, so we trenched a few more things that needed to be done on the course. This was a win for sure. We weren't wasting labour hours to sit on the excavator for couple days. This was well worth the money, and completing other projects with it was great.

Once the lines were trenched, it was time to lay the pipe. We did not do a loop system in this particular area, as it would not work. It was a straight line with 5 heads on it. All 5 heads would not run at once, as we are a manual irrigation control. Once everything was installed, we backfilled the trench and seeded it. This was a fall seeding, so we are waiting to see in the spring how it turns out.

Sand Holding Area

Today we received 31 cement "lego" blocks from a cement company in town that was moving to a new location, so we got a good deal on them. Currently the sand goes in a staff parking area, and it is not ideal as it takes up space. With these blocks, they will be created into a rectangle sand holding area. We did not put down concrete under it, although it would be nice. The costs are too much at the current time. The ground that it there currently will work just fine.

Once the 2 flatbed trucks arrived with the blocks, they were put into place using a crane.

Crane picking up 2 blocks at once

It took about an hour and a half to have everything placed properly, but once it was finished it looked really good.

Finished product

This is nice to have, as we now have somewhere to put our sand.