Green Surround Irrigation Upgrade

We are in the process of adding irrigation heads to our green surrounds throughout the golf course. Most of our green surrounds do not have seperate irrigation heads that will only water the rough areas or green surrounds around the greens in addition to having irrigation heads that are intended irrigate only the greens.  This is important because the amount of water required for bentgrass/poa annua greens is different from that of bluegrass/ryegrass roughs are.  

Most newer irrigation systems on golf courses have what we call "in's and out's" for irrigation heads around the putting green complexes. The "in's" are to primarily water the putting surface where as the "out's" only water the green surrounds. We have now added "out's" that will only water the green surround rough in a 180 to 240 degree angles away from the putting surface. This will allow us to better micro manage the amount of water that each area is receiving when it is needed. 

Our old way of watering the green surround areas was very "primitive" so to say and not the most efficient way to water but it worked as best as it could.  The way we had to water was to manually use a quick coupler key with an impact sprinkler head on the top. With only four of these available to use at one time it would take us a considerable amount of time to effectively water the green surrounds. With the new heads being installed we have more up to date technology that will provide better water distribution to the green surrounds which will in turn allow us to provide much better turf quality around the greens. We will also have the ability to water more green surrounds at one time. 

The new irrigation heads we are installing will not be connected to the automatic irrigation system like the rest of our irrigation heads are at this time. We will have the ability to pull electric wires to these heads at a later time so they can be connected into the automated system.  But for the time being this is a step in the right direction to provide better playing conditions and turf quality. As we install these new irrigation heads around the greens, please be patient and bear with us as we have the ground disturbed and are working very close to the putting surface. We are trying our best to minimize the impacts of our work to the membership and the guests.

Below are some pictures of the old and new irrigation as referenced above.

Adding the new irrigation head to the existing piping

Install almost complete

Green surround irrigation installed and watering on #1 green

Old quick coupler with impact head used for watering the green surrounds

GenNext Complete A&B 4th application

We have made our 4th and final trial application of the GenNext Complete A&B to the two acres of putting greens this past Thursday April 9th.  We are currently at 1.05# N/m applied to the "GenNext sprayed" greens and to the "non GenNext" greens that were given a liquid 7-0-0 ammonium sulfate.  At this point in time and in the past couple of weeks we have noticed any difference in color between the greens.  Growth has been the same also.  We had originally seen some differences with new growth in the silvery thread moss spots we have on some of our greens but looking at the areas today they all seem to be the same in and outside of the check plot areas.  On April 29th we had sent out a tissue sample to Tournament Turf Laboratories as part of our greens testing program.  We were not able to get a sample out prior to making the GenNext applications to the greens but we did compare two greens that had three applications made and two greens with the 7-0-0 ammonium sulfate applied.  Greens 2 and 6 had the GenNext Complete A&B and greens 11 and 13 had the 7-0-0.  At the time of the tissue sampling .925# N/m had been applied to all of the greens.  Here are the results from the tissue samples.

Key Findings: Tissue Analysis Results/Greens:  2, 6, 11, & 13

MAJOR NUTRIENTS:

NITROGEN, N:                     SLIGHTLY LOW (2, 6, 11, 13)

PHOSPHORUS, P                 ADEQUATE (6, 13), SLIGHTLY LOW (2, 11)

POTASSIUM, K:                   SLIGHTLY LOW (6), LOW (2, 11, 13)

MACRONUTRIENTS:

CALCIUM, Ca:                      ADEQUATE (2, 11, 13), SLIGHTLY LOW (6)

MAGNESIUM, Mg:              ADEQUATE (2, 11, 14), SLIGHTLY LOW (6)

SULFUR, S                            ADEQUATE (2, 6, 11, 13)

MICRONUTRIENTS:

BORON, B:                            SLIGHTLY LOW (2, 11, 13), LOW (6)

COPPER, Cu:                         ADEQUATE (2, 6, 11, 13)

ZINC, Zn:                               ADEQUATE (2, 6, 11, 13)

MANGANESE, Mn:              ADEQUATE (2, 6, 11, 13)

IRON, Fe:                              ADEQUATE (2, 11, 13), SLIGHTLY LOW (6)

SODIUM, Na:                        ACCEPTABLE LOW LEVEL (2, 6, 11, 13)

Moss areas on 2 green

3 Green--Small box area is the check plot area

3 Green--Small box area is the check plot area

7 Green looking at the check plot area to the right of the picture

7 Green up-close on the check plot area from center of picture to the right, bentgrass looks the same in  and out of check plot area