Ukiah Valley Golf Course Newsletter

September Maintenance Update

September 27 and 28: Aeration of our greens.

It usually takes a golf course two weeks to recover from properly done golf course aeration. Once the grass grows back through the aeration holes to a healthy level, the mowers and rollers come back and greens will improve over the course of a few weeks. Instead of the normal green aeration, we have decided to do a process called hydrojecting.

This process injects high-pressure water into the surface making a hole every few centimeters. The great benefit of this is you don’t have any heave from a tine being pulled back out which can cause an uneven surface. The Hydroject machine is connected via a hose to an irrigation valve; these are found around the course and usually close to greens. Once connected, the water is turned on to build up pressure in the machine. Building up the correct pressure allows the water to be injected at different depths into the profile.

Once we’re happy with the pressure, a speed is selected to determine the hole depth and then we slowly work back and forth over the turf. It’s quite a slow process but we will be able to complete all the greens in two days. The best part is that the greens will heal in about 3 days and be ready to mow and play in that time.

Like all tasks we complete on the course, we are always looking for minimal disruption to playing conditions with the maximum benefit for the health of the plant. This practice is a great example of that and highlights the benefit of advanced technology in our industry.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

Eradication of some unwanted weeds in our greens.

During the week of September 20th, we will start a process to remove an unwanted weed in our greens. Matricaria matricariodes commonly referred to as (Pineapple weed) behaves as either a summer or winter annual and it is commonly found throughout the United States. It is a weed of both high- and low-maintenance turf grass lawns, golf course tees and greens. Its ability to tolerate low mowing heights and highly compacted soils allow pineapple weed to compete with other grasses.

We will start the process of removal and it will take about 1 month to remove. This will not affect the roll of the green. You will see a slight discoloration of the plant as we remove it.

Thank you for all your support and look forward to seeing all of you on the course this month.