While cutting cups this morning, I must have hit a spot on 3 green that put the cup cutter perfectly on the center of one of our aeration holes from last fall. After the pulling the plug out of the green, I couldn't help but to notice what was hanging out the bottom. That is bentgrass, mowed at about 1/8 inch, with roots down 7 or 8 inches. The new aeration holes we just punches this week will also start to fill up with fresh, deep bentgrass roots as they dive deep into the ground looking for water and nutrients. This is extremely important, because as we get into the heat and stress of summer, the roots on the greens will actually start to decline and die. The more roots we can grow now, the longer the greens will stay healthy this summer. Come August, almost all of the roots on the greens will have shriveled up into only the top inch or two of the soil before temperatures start to cool down in the fall and growing conditions become more favorable again.
On a side note, with what looks like a cool and wet period coming up in the forecast, Andy and I tore apart our pumpstation on Friday to replace a failed backflow prevention valve. What we found was not only a blown seal on the valve, but a roll pin was missing out of the electronic butterfly valve that controls the flow coming out of pump 2. I have no idea how long this pin has been missing inside the piping, but needless to say, the valve was certainly not operating as normal. We managed to get everything repaired and put back together by the end of the day, and in doing so increased the flow and efficiency of our pumping system by atleast 10%-20%.
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| Pumpstation disassembled |
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