Naperville Country Club Green Department

All seasons seemed to be moved up about 3 weeks this year. Spring came early. Summer was hotter and sooner than normal. August temperatures cooled like September temperatures normally do. We will see if winter comes earlier. The tree are ready before they normally are. Here are some comparisons.

October 28, 2012

October 31, 2011

October 28, 2012

October 31, 2011

The downside to this is less recovery time for the turf from a very stressful summer. The course is in good shape going into the winter and we are not anticipating any extra growth this year.

Tree Leaves Largely Down: 70s Felt Nice, Needed Rain Continues, Dollar Spot Went Crazy and Tim's Dollar Spot Susceptibility of Bentgrass in Fall

Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle -

In a simple week of time, big change occured. I was gone for part of the week (Cincinnati) and then I came back. Upon return, I was surprised to find most tree leaves were suddenly down. In particular the oaks, Quercus spp., would catch my attention because they had let me down? You see, I was readying myself to write about oaks in their flourish of fall leaf color. Well, in a season of interesting temperature from start to finish I can now say... oak tree leaves fell early during a week that saw highs in the 70s. Obviously our attention continued to be more holistic as far as the landscape was concerned - it's not just turf after all. We continue to wrap things up this growing season and that is a good feeling.

Back to turf. The meeting I attended was all about something called C-5 (aka Turfgrass Division of the Crop Science Society of America). A little digging and I found Division C-5 objectives to share. "A) To provide a common forum for the exchange of turfgrass research and educational information... B) To advance scientific research and promote practices that will improve the utility, culture, and performance of turfgrass. C) To further the professional development of its members and to promote and recognize quality research and teaching of Turfgrass Science as a profession. D) To maintain liaison and to cooperate with other scientific or educational organizations, national or international, whose programs are allied to Turfgrass Science." Those four Turf Science objectives sound good to me!

Click here to view the October 26, 2012 Scouting Report.

Have a good weekend though light jackets no more since our forecast says 40s/30s (highs/lows).

Derek Settle, PhD
Director of Turfgrass Program
(630) 685-2307
dsettle@cdga.org
Weather Blog

Timothy A. Sibicky, MS
Manager of Turfgrass Research
(630) 685-2310
tsibicky@cdga.org
Research Blog

Needed Rain Arrives: A Mild Week Of Temperature, Very Few Issues, Dollar Spot Is Active Again, Meanwhile Tim Says Fall Fungicides AND Dollar Spot

Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle -

This week was a temperature zig zag, so to speak. Best of all, it was in the right direction of up! Following our coldest period since spring which ended annual flowers in the landscape, Mother Nature relented. Instead she delivered a reprieve in a big way and our high temperatures climbed considerably. For example, on one day we touched 70° with two other days coming pretty darn close to that mark as well. Meanwhile, nights also jumped and all 7 were without freezing. Few if any issues are now troubling turf, although dollar spot has continued to nag - redeveloping on creeping bentgrass surfaces for golf. Biting our nails, dancing for rain and going to church finally paid off... needed rain fell with 1.7 inches this week's tally on Sunshine Course in Lemont.

The main feature of the landscape continues to be excellent fall color of trees. Never mind it follows an otherwise difficult growing season and that some individuals had speculated this summer that 2012 wouldn't see much fall color. Shew, it turns out they were wrong. Our most recent splash of color over the past week or two has been spectacular and not surprisingly some have enjoyed more attention than others - luminescent orange sugar maples. Not to be outdone, ginkos American elms, and lindens began to peak with golden color. This week in a nutshell? The return of rain, few issues and spectacular fall color. As you might expect, there are few complaints.

Click here to view the October 19, 2012 Scouting Report.

Have a good weekend and enjoy THAT fall color.

Derek Settle, PhD
Director of Turfgrass Program
(630) 685-2307
dsettle@cdga.org
Weather Blog

Timothy A. Sibicky, MS
Manager of Turfgrass Research
(630) 685-2310
tsibicky@cdga.org
Research Blog

One of the major sod projects we are working on this fall involves removing bentgrass from the bluegrass roughs on green and tee banks. Bentgrass from the greens and tees has made its way to the roughs and is unsightly when mowed at the height of the roughs. There are many ways that this can happen, but the easiest way to fix it is with new sod. The tee bank on 3 tee (left) was nearly all bentgrass. The entire bank was stripped and new sod installed.

Roughs immediately adjacent to the tee boxes are the most prominent areas of bentrgrass invasion. These areas will be done throughout the course this fall. When doing this, the tee box is measured and squared if it needs to be, and the edges straightened.

The tee bank on 4 tee had bentgrass on it, but it was also the victim of the bluegrass billbug larvae, and grubs.

Many of the tee edges will be done this fall, but these are the 2 largest areas of sod to be laid.

We make several references on the blog about trafficed areas. These are the areas that receive a disproportionately large amount of cart traffic or foot traffic. Traffic on the course packs the soil and removes air from the soil. Roots can only grow in air pores that exist in the soil, the more the air is pushed out of the soil from traffic, the less space there is for roots to grow. This results in thin, weak turf that is more vulnerable to unideal growing environments (hot and dry weather this summer).

Though these areas may show thin turf on the surface, the problem exists underneath the surface. We fix this by adding more air space in the soil through the removal of a plug during aeration. This was done yesterday around the bunker edges in the fairways.

In other areas across the course, the cart traffic is spread enough for the compaction to be relieved through our regular aeration and the freeze and thaw cycles through the winter. Here is a picture of Torres deep tining the fairways. This started yesterday and should be completed today. We will do this as many times as we can before the ground freezes. The more air we can get into the soil the better the turf will be.

It Feels Like Fall: Light Jackets Can't Cut It, Few Issues, Residual Dollar Spot, Rust Is Mild So Far and Tim Teaches Turf Students About Research

Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle -

We were feeling 20s early on Monday, October 8 and it meant the coldest temperatures since April had come true as forecast. At this point we had to accept our flowers and vegetable gardens were no more. On the turf-side, the grass is still green (or maybe a purple-green) but its use has also tapered - cool temperatures and shortened daylength naturally slows the game of golf, but not greens! We saw the fewest numbers of golfers playing the game in a season that otherwise had a lot (a warm, long lasting, dry season was 2012). Still, we don't quite want to accept it, the end of a growing season. Some even continued a tendency of going outdoors unprepared (from experience...my light jacket thing).

Meanwhile, some good news this week. The landscape did pick up some needed rain, but the bad news is that it still wasn't near enough in a season who's current total is half of normal. And so irrigation and necessary handwatering were still required in an otherwise low water demand period for turf. And golf courses still saw other activity. They saw numerous projects either finished or in their final stretch prior to winter. They saw more tree leaves had senesced, now finding a place among the blades of grass, streams of water, lakes and paths. They saw a golden glow of shagbark hickory, honeylocust, green ash, basswood, elm and maples begin their orange. They saw a most beautiful sky. They saw an exclamation mark in the landscape, the peak purple-red leaf color of white ashes. Man oh man, fall in Illinois is sure nice.

Click here to view the October 12, 2012 Scouting Report.

Enjoy your weekend and those fantastic fall colors.

Derek Settle, PhD
Director of Turfgrass Program
(630) 685-2307
dsettle@cdga.org
Weather Blog

Timothy A. Sibicky, MS
Manager of Turfgrass Research
(630) 685-2310
tsibicky@cdga.org
Research Blog

The first two drainage projects of the fall were completed this week. Both areas exhibited the same problem. They were areas where irrigation water and rain ran down the path and collected on the edge. We put in a basin at the edge of the cart path and connected it to another nearby basin.

One of the areas was between 16 and 18 green. The basin at this location had already been installed, the crew just needed to trench a line for the pipe. The other area was by the chipping green. The next area where a similar project will be done is at 4 tee.

We were able to get the greens aerated on schedule yesterday. A frost delay forced us to start late, but they were aerated, cleaned and topdressed. The greens are playable now, but the process is not completed. We will return to the greens with another topdressing later this week to fill a few remaining open holes. Rolling will continue throughout the week to smooth them again. We will attempt to do this work in the afternoon when the surface is dry. Doing this in the mornings when the sand is wet from dew usually creates more of a mess that when we start.

We did start some aeration in the first cut of rough yesterday as well. You will notice the plugs sitting in the rough along the fairway edges. This machine is living on borrowed time and we are trying to squeeze the last remains of usefulness it possesses. Cesar was able to get a little more than half the fairways done before it broke once more yesterday. We have not looked at the machine yet to estimate repairs.

Some sodding, and additional aeration will continue through the fall. Tees may be aerated again depending on weather. Fairways will be aerated again with a solid tine in conjunction with a topdressing. As always check back for regular updates and course conditions.

Fall Color Says Pow, Pow, Pow: Coldest Night in 7 Months, Chicago's Turf Very Healthy, Dollar Spot Fires Up (briefly) and Tim talks Poa Control?

Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle -

Wait a minute, how did THAT happen so fast? It's October. Well it happened and just to show you...on Thursday of this week we lost something like 27 degrees in 6 hours - from 80° at 2 pm to near 50° by 8 pm. Friday morning it hit me when I found myself in Naperville at a couple of courses unprepared - two light jackets didn't cut it. This growing season suddenly seems striking in it's contrast of 'degrees' in just a few months. As far as pest 'issues' and things of plant health, very few now exist given nighttime lows are rhythmically falling to the 40s. The bigger issue at hand is a realization that we continue to be way behind on annual rainfall and current lake level information is the perfect illustrator. Versus the same time a year ago, the Great Lakes tell the 2012 story of drought (Superior -2", Ontario -11", Huron -13", Michigan -13" and Erie -17"). Besides Lake Michigan being down 13 inches from a year ago, drought is serious because it also effects needed soil moisture reserves for crops and the landscape and this can last into the next growing season (e.g., the severe drought of 1988 meant 1989's growing season was also negatively affected).

Currently we are holding our heads up more and more. Not just because we did a good job in season 2012. Ha! Mainly it is because the canopy of the landscape has begun to change rapidly. Talk about nice fall color. White ashes are a reddish burgundy purple and green ashes are golden. A group of honeylocusts today... I found myself forming the word "electric".

Click here to view the October 5, 2012 Scouting Report.

Have a good weekend and don't forget to put on your 'good' jacket!

Derek Settle, PhD
Director of Turfgrass Program
(630) 685-2307
dsettle@cdga.org
Weather Blog

Timothy A. Sibicky, MS
Manager of Turfgrass Research
(630) 685-2310
tsibicky@cdga.org
Research Blog

I looks like a chilly weekend ahead, but sunny. Frost delays are likely for both days this weekend. Come early anyway, a breakfast buffet will be available in the Member's Grill.

Another item on our list of fall projects involves leveling areas that have settled through the years. Drainage lines and irrigation heads are the most common offenders. This picture shows the drainage lines in 11 fairway that were installed last year (Drainage Project in 11 Fairway, Back To Work On 11 Fairway). Through the year the soil underneath has settled, which was expected, and it is now time to start topdressing them heavy to level them again. We will put a heavy layer of sand on and brush it in until the area is level.

Many of the areas are around irrigation heads. These areas are being dug up, the heads leveled with the surface, and the areas around the head leveled as well. Making the surface as level as possible with allow for a more uniform look, and a more even mowing cut.

This week we started a more involved aeration in some fairway locations. Our usual aeration in the fairways involves only a solid tine. (Due to our fairway topdressing program, we do not want to bring up the heavy soil underneath and mix it with the sand that has been applied on top). However, some areas that receive heavy cart traffic are too compacted for the regular solid tine to keep up. This fall we will pull a core in these areas, remove the plugs, and refill the holes with sand.

These areas are concentrated around bunker edges in the fairways. These spots funnel the cart traffic through a smaller area resulting in a higher concentration of cart traffic. Heavily compacted soil results in less pore space for water, air and roots to move through the soil. A poorer growing environment will lead to less than ideal conditions in these areas.

On Monday we completed the areas near the green in 5 fairway, and around the bunker in 6 fairway. Many of the edges of the fairway bunkers will be done this fall.

Fall Color Begins: First Real Frost, Other Than Grubs...Few Issues, Ryder Cup Sees Perfect Weather and Tim says Fairway Creeping Bentgrass

Chicago/Northern Illinois Update: Derek Settle -

And on the fourth week of September, the Ryder Cup came to Chicago - nice weather would be on tap! After all it is fall, and we had just recorded our first two frost events. In other words the weather was perfect with tree color appearing in the landscape early, some of our deciduous trees like maples and honeylocusts already had turned gold to orange. For cool season turf things just line up nicely in the fall. For example, the natural growth of turf begins to slow and soil temperatures are at optimal levels for root growth (60s). Also this scouting report gets kinda brief - as we cool there are fewer and fewer pest issues in the landscape. For creeping bentgrass golfing surfaces it means perfection personified - good health both above and belowground.

Ahh September. By September we have reclaimed quite a bit of our lost roots due to summer's heat (all-time record heat that is). By September, if you manage turf, you can now look back on a season and her lessons to better prepare for next season. By September you have more time to volunteer on the grounds crew for things like the Ryder Cup! And so we remember the 2012 season for all its challenges present during regular day to day play as well as during numerous tournaments and events. At the end of each growing season it's hard not to be in awe...especially in 2012 when you find yourself working with a team at Medinah under Curtis Tyrrell. Go USA!

Click here to view the September 28, 2012 Scouting Report.

Have a good weekend and... if you can't be in Chicago this weekend, enjoy the Ryder Cup at Medinah on TV!

Derek Settle, PhD
Director of Turfgrass Program
(630) 685-2307
dsettle@cdga.org
Weather Blog

Timothy A. Sibicky, MS
Manager of Turfgrass Research
(630) 685-2310
tsibicky@cdga.org
Research Blog

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