A real mixed bag weather wise this week.  Autumn is definitely here and the course will now slip slowly into winter mode as the month draws on.  However course is still in good shape with the warmer weather surfaces have filled in well following a long dry summer so will enter winter in a good state.
  This week Abbotts tees have been hollow-tined to open up the surface and early next week they will receive a slow release fertilizer.  This is a coated fertilizer that releases nutrients according to the weather.

Hollow-tining the 1st Tee

It allows us to have a steady stream of Nutrient available to the plant throughout the winter but only if temperature and moisture levels go above 'X' giving us control.  Tees and approaches are already in good shape so this approach should see them last well into the winter months.

In the sunshine and showers on Friday we took some great pictures of rainbows across the 13th green on Abbotts.

 Greens will have the height raised during the month which will increase leaf tissue thus aiding photosynthesis with less available light.  The plan is to solid-tine Abbotts greens this or next week down to 2 inches just to open up the surfaces with a deep tine 8-10 inches scheduled early December. Abbotts will be ready for a 2nd preventative spray for disease this week to keep clean surfaces.  

  Priors greens are only sprayed for Fusarium when we spot disease and you can see the pitfalls of this strategy clearly at the moment.  After a warm damp weekend the disease developed rapidly and by Monday was clearly out of control.  Sprayed on Monday and 3 days of good growth have seen excellent recovery but it highlights the aggressive nature of this disease as you can see below

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Close up of fungal Mycelium

Disease has killing a patch of grass

As we pan out we can see the extent of the damage

 

 Fairways on the Abbotts are looking much better after the intensive work of the last few weeks.  The fertilizer and iron together with the good weather has forced them on well.  The seed has yet to come through and believe it or not us greenkeepers now need some rain to help this process along.

 Greens on both courses have been given a light granular feed to help fill in some of the smaller indentations, with a light dusting of topdressing due next week.

  Below is the new information board outside the Pro-shop.  This will be used as your first point of call for things happening on the maintenance of the course.  Each day as needed we will display important information such as Buggies off, or Aeration on an area of the course.  This will give you a better idea of daily works likely to effect your round

  

Next week all being well tees on the Abbotts are being hollow-tined and then feed with a slow release(to last all winter) fertilizer.