Earthworms Are Out in Force

It is that time of the year again, late September when soil temperatures and air temperatures cool down and earthworms begin coming to the surface.  While earthworm activity is very beneficial to the soil as it is like free aerification, the castings they leave become a playability and maintenance issue.  First, the castings are mounded up organic matter (probably one of the best soils for growing any plants), which when driven over or mowed over, create a flat dirt spot, the size of a quarter or bigger.  Also, once these mounds are flattened, they suffocate the turf underneath, which can lead to poa infestation.  Another problem is the mowers are dulled when they cut up the mounds and this reduces the life of the reel and the bedknife, which can become costly to replace.  We are proactive in keeping them in the soil, but it is expensive to continue to do so all fall.  Also, the more the soil stays moist, the more they will stay near the surface.  In the summer, when the soil temps are high, the worms go down deep where it is cool, which is why we rarely see them all summer.

Rough Improvements

The top picture shows our typical rough grasses, ryegrass, bentgrass and poa .  We know, bentgrass and poa are mostly found in fairways, greens and tees and when mowed at 3" do not offer a consistent rough to play out of.  Often times, the balls nestle down into the grass creating a difficult shot.  Another problem we face with this type of grass mix, is that during hot weather, we need to spray the roughs to keep these grasses healthy and this is a costly undertaking.   While we do make several spray applications to our roughs per year, we would need several more to prevent turf loss from occurring.  The bottom photo shows our trial of converting our rough over to more heat and drought tolerant grasses (tall fescue and gray leaf spot resistant ryegrass).  In front of the 12th and 16th tees, we scalped the roughs down to 1", sprayed a growth regulator and over seeded with the better variety grasses.  This will take several weeks to start to fill in, but in the long run we will see a much improved rough.  Once we measure the success of this trial, we will hopefully address the rest of the golf course next year.

Irrigation Addition to the 8th Hole

We are adding new irrigation to the rough between the 8th and 15th green and fairway.  This area has been unirrigated and we would have to put a portable sprinkler out during the summer months.  This will definitely improve this area.