What's up Charlie "BROWN"?

The short story way too long about the brown on the course is that in early Oct the course was lush and green, which meant I was mowing a lot. In and effort to save labor on mowing and use it somewhere else I decided to spray the fairways with a growth regulator to slow them down, a very normal program. With the grass not growing as much, I would be able to use the labor to concentrate on finishing projects like mulching tree beds. Since I was going to spray the fairways anyway, I also decided to add a nutritional package into the mix. This is also a very common practice, the proverbial two birds and one stone concept. Sounds redundant, but with the grass not growing towards the sky all of the growth is in the roots...this is a good thing. We sprayed, the next day immediately noticed what is call tip burn. Tip burn is similar to a chemical burn on your skin. The only problem is, not only did the plant get the burn...the growth regulator kicked in and did its job of slowing the grass growth. So now the grass isn't growing up which would allow me to mow off the brown-ish parts.

When I noticed the burn I immediately called the vendor of the fertilizer product and had him come test the material used. Turns out there was a manufacturing problem with the fertilizer and the chemistry was all out of whack. The good news is that the growth regulator should be wearing out soon, which mean the grass will grow out so I can mow off the brown parts. To get ready for the growth regulator's demise in the plant, last week the entire course was fertilized and will be again next week. When this cold snap is over with there will be plenty of food to push the plant growth again.

In addition to the fertilizer, all of the higher ridge contours between drains on the course will be sprayed tomorrow with a wetting agent to get the irrigation water to penetrate the higher areas before it runs off toward the drain. This is the byproduct of the fast and firm concept. The dry areas are called "localized dry spot" or LDS. If you ever see a golf course that doesn't have any LDS, you can bet the farm they are over watering. Our goal with the wetting agents is to try and unify the soil moisture content, or in basic term keep the high spots wet and the low spots dry.....not an east task on a golf course.

We'll be back to normal shortly and in the meantime, enjoy the extra roll.