The small Maple by the shop is in Full Fall color

This usually means peak color for the other trees is only two weeks away.  

A great question was asked Wednesday morning during our MGC board meeting.  

What are those black spots on some of the greens?

Those black spots are the die back of Moss.  I have been using a product called Quicksilver this season to burn down the moss and give the creeping bentgrass the advantage.  Many of you never notice the moss in the turf canopy when it is green and health but you will notice it when its black or when the patches grow larger with time and become a detriment to your putting surfaces.  Now is the time to control this pest.  There is not a one and done product for moss control, I will have to continue the multiple low doses applications yearly to keep this bryophyte in check.  Quicksilver is unique in that it is a contact herbicide and is not taken up and translocated within the plant.  The advantage is it has zero effect on the creeping bentgrass greens maintained at 1/8".  

 Moss die back

 Close up of Moss die back

You will also notice the effects of Quicksilver on other weeds growing on our putting surface.  It will take out tiny mouse-ear chicweed and it also bleaches out pearlwort patches, as seen below.  

 Pearlwort bleaching out

Close up of Pearlwort bleaching out.  

I had a few hours this morning before the Senior scramble to complete some repairs to #15 Green on Greywalls.  It was the worst ice damaged area from last winter.  

I moved 32 hex plugs from our Nursery on the Heritage to this low spot location.  Because this spot is located in a shaded area and is on the clean-up pass the recovery has been zero.  

We overseeded all the damaged areas 5 times so far this years and most have had adequate recovery; considering their location on 1/8" putting greens all in full play everyday.  

 Hex plug

 Area being repaired

 Close up

Finished for now

We finished up the solid tine aerification on the Heritage Fairways today.  The used Toro Procore 864 we purchased this season has been fantastic!!  We not only got all the fairways completed but now we have time to go back and poke the worst ones another time.  We are very pleased with the performance of this unit.
Game changer for us :)

The vertical mowing on the Heritage went very well on Monday.  We did a double zing on the greens and a single zing on the Approaches.  We used 2 mm carbide blades to do the job.  Organic matter or thatch control is key to long term health and proper play-ability of our most valuable playing surfaces.  Frequent sand topdressing and vertical mowing are the two best methods of achieving superb surfaces.  

The Heritage Tees will be completed Tomorrow.  

Dollar Spot continues to thrive on the Fairways.  The mega drop in temperatures tomorrow will put an end to this pathogens fun days.  :)

We completed 10.5 hours of nonstop vertical mowing yesterday on the greens and approaches of Greywalls.  They look fantastic.  We will do the Greywalls tees tomorrow.  

The Heritage course is scheduled for a vertical mowing next week.  

Our second fairway lime application on the Heritage is being completed today and tomorrow.  

Chalk up another lost drain found by 'the crew' today.  This one is a drain blow out in the heavy cart traffic area on #5 Greywalls.  Now that it is located we will make another repair to this area (topsoil and seed) before the fall.
Gold star for the day goes to Mike Hamel (aka Skywalker) for this find!

I have received several questions about this plant which is starting to take a strong hold in some of our Natural areas on Greywalls.
It goes by the common name of Birdsfoot trefoil
This low growing, heavily stoloniferious plant swallows golf balls and is almost impossible to play out of. It can thrive in low fertility, drought prone soils which is why it loves our natural areas.
We will make an attempt to control this pest in areas of frequent play.
Consider it on our hit list!