Fertilizer Mix Station

Over the past few years we have used a regular spray program of fertilizer and primo on our fairways throughout the growing season.  The mix is usually equal parts of 15-0-0 with 6% iron and 16-0-6 liquid fertilizer. The amount of primo used depends on the time of the year. We sprayed this mix for the first time this year and up until this point mixing up has always been a little bit of a chore.  That is because over 20 gallons of each fertilizer must go into each tank that is sprayed and it usually takes 3 full tanks to spray all of our fairways and perimeters.  A five gallon bucket was used to measure then pour the fertilizer into the sprayers. However, over the winter we installed a flow meter to the tanks that hold the fertilizer and ran it through the wall into our mix pit. We can now turn on the transfer pump and move exactly just how much we need into our mix tank, mix all of the fertilizer, primo, and water in there and then pump it into the sprayer.  Here are a few pictures of the system.  Most of the work seen was done by Chris Frame a member of our crew. We still have a small pipe with a valve on it in case we only need a few gallons, like when spraying tees or greens.

Re-sodding greens collars

Over the last few weeks we have been re-sodding some of our bad collars. So far we have just been doing the worst areas on the course and replacing them.  The areas that we are doing first are the spots that are just completely bare around the greens.  The topdressing throughout the winter, wear from mowers, and traffic from golfers can all be attributed towards the turf loss in these areas.  We did a few of these areas last summer and found that if we just strip enough of the old sod off and replace it with new it would end up too high, most likely from the mat of roots from the old turf. After we figured this out we began to set our sod cutter much deeper to take out about 2 inches of material.  We then come back thru and add a layer of sand to the areas, pack the sand and lay the new sod on top of the sand. This process seems to be working much better. It is slow, tedious work to level and cut the sod to just the right height and curve of the green.  Here are a few pictures of the work being done. The sod that we are laying is not the best looking stuff right now due to the cold spring we have had all over the state, but with a little TLC we will have it looking great in no time.

 The new sod that is going down is Tifgrand. It can tolerate much lower mowing heights than the 419 that is in our fairways and perimeters.

Master's Week

It is Master's week and we have been as busy as ever here at Great Waters. We have done almost 800 rounds since this past Saturday (around 200 per day), and the rest of the week looks the same.  The Dogwood's and Azalea's are in bloom and it really looks like Master's week. The rough is still lagging behind a little due to the cool spring we have had so far, but the greens and fairways are looking great. Here are a few pictures that we have taken over the past few days.