Covid Practice Plans (Green Building -- please tell me I'm not nuts!)

[Lock170]

10 hours ago, DShepley said:

Nice! Looks great.  Where are you in Western NY? I used to work for a feed company and spent a bunch of time at one of our mills near East Aurora. Beautiful town! @dcrocketman comments on this thread from time to time and is a great help. He's in Buffalo if I recall.

I'm up in Niagara County. East Aurora is great, love Bar Bill for wings 

[DShepley]

Just now, Lock170 said:

I'm up in Niagara County. East Aurora is great, love Bar Bill for wings 

Yes, and the Beef on Weck!  It's been 6 years or so, but there was a craft beer store a couple doors down as well that was pretty outstanding.  The morning glory muffins from The Bakery were also killer and a short walk from my room at The Roycroft.

[dcrocketman]

pins are in 

east Amherst here

 

[DShepley]

Well, we went from wet and cold weather into a heat wave and very dry over the past couple weeks. Ground temps were still pretty low so the green hadn't perked up from winter completely. I came out one morning to find some significant stress. 

 

After consulting with my super intendent friend, and a couple DMs to dcrocketman, it was suspected that I had a dry root zone and hydrophobic soil. My super intendent friend hooked me up with some wetting agent and I set about watering. Yesterday I applied Hydretain, (my neighbours likely thought I was crazy spraying my green in the rain), and today we got a steady rain all morning. It dried up enough to mow this afternoon and I'm happy to say that things are looking much better.

 

[DLiver]

That's amazing

[dcrocketman]

Awesome recovery!

 

[sprcoop]

Is it too soon to use the term "Green Whisperer"? 

 

That really is an amazing turn around.

[DShepley]

7 minutes ago, sprcoop said:

Is it too soon to use the term "Green Whisperer"? 

 

That really is an amazing turn around.

I think I'm still riding a wave of luck at this point.

[DShepley]

Confidence from this range makes up for a lot of swing faults, at least in my opinion.

[DLiver]

Love the ball washer

[DShepley]

Another Golffice upgrade.  I finally got my two new Masters posters back from the framer and found a spot on the wall.

 

[DShepley]

Nice night for some maintenance.

[DLiver]

What, no craft beer? 😉

[DShepley]

Some much needed rain over the past couple days, (pretty close to an inch and a half).  I was able to get some Urea, (Nitrogen), down ahead of the rain and also applied another treatment of Hydretain.  The green has reacted very well to the nitrogen.  Here are some fresh stripes after a cut and roll this afternoon.  I'll hit some putts on it before my round of golf today and decide if I need to reduce my height of cut.  It's not as fast as last year, but it is playing very close to the speed of the greens at my home course and is healthy so for now that's probably good enough.  I had a few spongey spots, so I'm due for a top dressing once I find some kiln dried sand.

[Ty_Webb]

How often do you change your holes? I'm curious how much traffic impacts the need to do so. If it's just you out there, that's got to be a lot less than the putting green at a course would see.

[DShepley]

2 minutes ago, Ty_Webb said:

How often do you change your holes? I'm curious how much traffic impacts the need to do so. If it's just you out there, that's got to be a lot less than the putting green at a course would see.

Not as often as I probably should.  The grass around them doesn't get beat up because it's just me and friends putting around.  The grass however, does start to grow into the hole and they get rather ragged with rounded edges.  I try to change them out every couple weeks but this past week was the first time I changed them this season.  

[DShepley]

Today in 'If it ain't one thing, it's another'! (First world problems...I know)

 

Birds, (Robins I expect), seem to love digging for worms in my green...It's not the end of the world except the surface takes time to heal and gets a bit bumpy.  Any ideas how to deter them?

 

Also....ants! Damn ants!  Two problems here, the mounds they leave kill the grass and, the sand dulls the knives on the mower reel.  

[bbjr]

@DShepley  What a great thread!  I've read through it twice now, and I am starting to get the itch.  I have a few questions, if you have some time:

1) About how much time per week during the season, on average, are you spending on maintenance?

2) About how much cost per month for chemicals?

3) Anything that you would have done differently, if you were to do it again?

[DShepley]

14 minutes ago, bbjr said:

@DShepley  What a great thread!  I've read through it twice now, and I am starting to get the itch.  I have a few questions, if you have some time:

1) About how much time per week during the season, on average, are you spending on maintenance?

2) About how much cost per month for chemicals?

3) Anything that you would have done differently, if you were to do it again?

Thanks for following along.

 

1)  I spend anywhere from 3-5 hours per week on maintenance roughly.  The lower end if I am just cutting / watering / feeding nitrogen, the higher end if I need to topdress.

2) Chemicals....I live in Ontario Canada which makes chemicals a bit hard to come by.  For nitrogen feeding, I bought a 25kg bag of Urea last season that I'm not even halfway through yet, my Hydretain cost about $100 CAD for a gallon that should last for a couple years.  Pesticides / Fungicides I do my best to get by without (wink wink).  My best guess is that with access to this stuff in the USA you should expect to spend about $500-$1000 per season.

3) Good question!  For starters, I would have made the green bigger by about half had I have known it would turn out a success.  I also could have added more sand to my base.  What I have now is working fine but I have to cut my hole plugs in two pieces because I get into soil and it's hard to extract the plug from the hole cutter.  When I first started, I only had one mower and a fairway wasn't a thought apart from trimming as low as I could with a rotary mower.  My next project might be a fairway reno, possibly stripping what's there and reseeding with bentgrass or a monostand of KBG.

[bbjr]

13 minutes ago, DShepley said:

Thanks for following along.

 

1)  I spend anywhere from 3-5 hours per week on maintenance roughly.  The lower end if I am just cutting / watering / feeding nitrogen, the higher end if I need to topdress.

2) Chemicals....I live in Ontario Canada which makes chemicals a bit hard to come by.  For nitrogen feeding, I bought a 25kg bag of Urea last season that I'm not even halfway through yet, my Hydretain cost about $100 CAD for a gallon that should last for a couple years.  Pesticides / Fungicides I do my best to get by without (wink wink).  My best guess is that with access to this stuff in the USA you should expect to spend about $500-$1000 per season.

3) Good question!  For starters, I would have made the green bigger by about half had I have known it would turn out a success.  I also could have added more sand to my base.  What I have now is working fine but I have to cut my hole plugs in two pieces because I get into soil and it's hard to extract the plug from the hole cutter.  When I first started, I only had one mower and a fairway wasn't a thought apart from trimming as low as I could with a rotary mower.  My next project might be a fairway reno, possibly stripping what's there and reseeding with bentgrass or a monostand of KBG.

Great info, and thanks again for your contributions!

[Curmudg3on]

12 hours ago, DShepley said:

Today in 'If it ain't one thing, it's another'! (First world problems...I know)

 

Birds, (Robins I expect), seem to love digging for worms in my green...It's not the end of the world except the surface takes time to heal and gets a bit bumpy.  Any ideas how to deter them?

 

Also....ants! Damn ants!  Two problems here, the mounds they leave kill the grass and, the sand dulls the knives on the mower reel.  

 

I'm not a greens keeper, just a home owner.   Check out diatomaceous earth for ants.   It works very well around the house.   I'm not sure the consequences for your green.   Try to find an owl to place around the green.   Birds are rumored to be wary of them.

[DShepley]

Exciting day in the Golffice. I've managed to rent this Golden Tee 2005 machine from a friend. I'm hoping I can convince my wife that it's more of a 'try before you buy' scenario. Anyway....if there was ever an excuse for buddies to not leave!

[betarhoalphadelta]

8 minutes ago, DShepley said:

Anyway....if there was ever an excuse for buddies to not leave!

 

I want you to know that I've always considered you a close friend. 

 

What time should I be over? 

[DShepley]

Smooth move van de Velde........(I'm over it already, just thought you should share my misery)!

[CSagan]

I feel so sorry for you man. May you go sulk in your man cave and drink the finest spirits of the land.

 

Haha..rough triple. Love the golden tee. I was once top 100 in the world lol. -30 on Oak Hollow once. Fun days

[DShepley]

12 minutes ago, CSagan said:

I feel so sorry for you man. May you go sulk in your man cave and drink the finest spirits of the land.

 

Haha..rough triple. Love the golden tee. I was once top 100 in the world lol. -30 on Oak Hollow once. Fun days

The golden tee is fun but it tends to empty the fridge if you know what I mean! Don't feel sorry for me, I haven't been that low deep in a round for quite a while, so I'll barf on my shirt a few times before I get comfortable again.  The good news is that my game is trending and my last 8 rounds are all counters towards my handicap.  The game is fun again and for a pretty good while it seemed like a slog.

[betarhoalphadelta]

Aww, you only broke par by 1 stroke. You poor thing. 

 

 

 

[DShepley]

Took a break from greens maintenance today for a 36 hole day. First round at a decent away course followed by a local cash game. Happy and lucky enough to pick up my fourth hole in one.  Kind of let things go on the back nine a bit but reeled it in to finish with a birdie like Jack. 

Edited August 19, 2022 by DShepley

[sprcoop]

Well done!!!  Now quit goofing off and get back to that green maintenance.

[dcrocketman]