EPGCC Week in Review



It seems the heat we've experienced over the last few days combined with the wet weather we received earlier in the month made a perfect recipe for mosquitoes. Please remember that bug spray will damage any grass that it is sprayed on. Wherever possible, please spray yourself on the cart path to avoid any unsightly damage. If you cannot locate a nearby cart path and must spray, please make your way into the longer rough areas to avoid damaging playable areas of the golf course.

This week has been a week of preparation for the member-guest tournaments next week. We have started the new tee deck yardage plate installation and are nearly finished the front nine. Next time you're on the course, make a point to look for the tee deck yardage plates. They are a big change from the triangular blocks that were in use.

We are also topdressing, brushing, cutting and rolling greens this week in order to provide a consistent playing surface for next week. To maintain a consistent surface we monitor green speeds and roll on a daily basis and change our maintenance practices to reflect the information we collect. In a regular week we generally double cut greens Monday and Friday and roll greens Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. All of these processes are subject to change depending on weather; irrigation; equipment; fertilization; spray applications; and amount of play just to list a few.

Questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.

Golf Course Damage

5 Tee

In the last two weeks there have been a number of incidences of damage to the golf course. The first issue we experienced was a golfer using the course and the fairways as a practice facility. There were a number of divots taken from the same place much like the driving range tee. This also occurred on a few of the par 3 tee boxes. This picture shows an example of the damage that has been filled with the divot mix by the tee maintenance crew.

14 Green

Also, last week there was a divot taken from the edge of 14 green. This picture shows the divot on the margin between the green and the collar. This divot was repaired with a cup cutter plug from the nursery.



19 Green



This morning, these two divots were discovered in the middle of 19 green. One divot has been replaced and the second has been left open. This damage was repaired with a hexagonal patch from the nursery.

Playing surfaces with damage like this become unplayable for golfers that follow after it occurs. It is important to remember that an accidental divot or chunk can be repaired quickly if brought to the attention of the golf shop. Damage that occurs through carelessness or recklessness should not be tolerated. Please follow proper golf course etiquette and ensure any guests do the same.

Questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.

11th Annual Open House

Please join the Maintenance Department at their 11th Annual Open House on June 16th. This is an opportunity to tour the maintenance facility, meet members of the maintenance team and enjoy a refreshment at the same time. There will also be some greenhouse giveaways from Julie and the Horticulture Department!

Questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop. See you Saturday!

Recent Events Update

The first half of May has been busy at EPGCC as I'm sure it has at many Edmonton and area courses. After opening, our regular maintenance schedules have been in full swing.

Walk boom on 2 green

You may have seen our walk boom sprayer out on the greens if you play early in the morning. We use the walk boom to distribute liquid products on the greens without the weight of a full sprayer tank. The tank is parked off the green and a hose is stretched across the green to feed the boom and nozzles. In this picture, we are applying a foliar fertilizer application designed to provide the plant with nutrients directly to the leaf. This method is often useful early in the season when the roots of the plant are not fully functional.

The newly sodded greens are all progressing well. This picture is from 11 green which was sodded from our own greens sod nursery. The sod has  developed roots that extend past the original thickness of the sod and into the root zone on 11. This plug has large, healthy, white roots that are in excess of 8 cm long. A healthy root system is an integral part of having healthy turf and seeing these long healthy roots from the new sod is definitely encouraging.

Spring means new growth in the turf and also in the wildlife on the golf course. A few of our nesting pairs of Canada Geese have had goslings. There are six goslings in the centre of this picture and the Maintenance Team has seen as many as twelve more in other areas of the course. Please remember that Canada Geese can be extremely aggressive when protecting their goslings. If you encounter a pair with goslings, please exercise extreme caution and try not to disturb them. For the most part, they will make their way into a pond and avoid conflict but if they are startled or feel threatened by you they can hiss, snap and in some cases, aggressively pursue you. To avoid injury and stress to you and to the geese, the best solution is usually to avoid any confrontations with them and allow them adequate space to herd the goslings into the pond.

Early season is also a time when mornings are cold and often clear and frost delays are common. The Maintenance Team is in constant communication with the golf shop team during frost delays and they golf shop is usually able to answer any questions you may have. We also use our Twitter  account to give updates regarding frost delays as early as we can. If you use Twitter , you can check for information on frost delays before you head to the course if you are concerned about a delay. Occasionally, frost is not visible at the first tee or at the practice green but is present in the fairway or green surround. If you have questions about frost or about a specific delay that the golf shop is unable to answer, please ask to speak with the maintenance team or contact us directly at the shop.

6 Green: Cold but sunny

Questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.

Meet the Maintenance Department: Part One

This is the first in a series of blog posts introducing our team members. These are the individuals that exhibit the "Pete Club Pride" that EPGCC promotes. These Maintenance Team members have agreed to introduce themselves to the membership and all followers of our blog. Our team is a tight-knit group that all have great senses of humour and it shows in their autobiographical blog contributions. These submissions are compiled from the team member's own answers to some general questions about their time at EPGCC.

Kelsey Ferguson is in her fifth season with the EPGCC Maintenance Department. Her favourite jobs include mowing fairways and greens. Kelsey explains that her most memorable moment at EPGCC is of the one-ton tank watering truck in low gear driving down Winterburn Road to the gate at the south end of the property. When Paul wildly motioned for Kelsey to change gears, she struggled but when she did find 2nd gear, the truck took off down the road with water splashing out the top of the tank, Kelsey along for the ride and Paul trailing behind, in a fit of laughter. Kelsey is finished university and will be teaching in the fall.

Matt Duncan is back with the Maintenance Department after a year hiatus, making this his second complete season. Matt is proud of the hard work that went into the new maintenance building and all the work that is completed on the golf course. His most memorable golf course moment involves the creation of a geyser beside 18 green, not on purpose. Matt is in university.

Craig Ferguson has been with EPGCC for six seasons. His favourite task on the golf course is rolling greens. Craig is most proud of the new lunchroom and staff facility at the shop. He is also proud of all of the tasks he completes. On Wednesdays, you can often see Craig sporting a pair of overalls.

Wesley DeWit has been with the Maintenance Department for five seasons and he also enjoys rolling greens. He has numerous memorable moments but he also shares Matt's memory of the impromptu geyser beside 18 green. Wes is in university and is nearly finished his Bachelor of Science in Nursing. While away from the course he enjoys sailing and has hiked the West Coast Trail.

Matt, Craig, Kelsey, Wes



Open with an abundance of ball marks

The golf course opened on May 1st and has been busy ever since. It is good to see golfers on the course again and to see familiar faces among the first tee times.

In the maintenance department, our routines are in full swing. We are already on our regular mowing schedules and we have also already started our aeration program on the tees. On May 7th and 8th we completed a tee aeration and topdressing. These processes are necessary to maintain healthy turf and encourage root growth in the spring. In general, topdressing provides a number of major benefits to the turf. Topdressing smooths the surface of the turf. Both foot traffic as well as equipment traffic can leave indentations in the turf surface and topdressing helps to smooth those imperfections out. Topdressing also provides a cushion that helps the turf to withstand high traffic and remain firm. A firm surface also encourages proper drainage from the turf and promotes a healthier stand of turf.

During early season play, often the greens are not as firm as they are mid summer. This often results in a high incidence of ball marks on the putting surface. Both Keith and I, as well as many of the greens mowers have commented on the high number of ball marks that are not being repaired. A shot that wouldn't normally leave a ball mark is likely going to mark the green during the early season. At this time of the season, almost every shot that lands on the green will leave a ball mark. Please repair your ball mark and others that you see. A ball mark that is not repaired can take more than two weeks and regular topdressing to heal properly. While the unrepaired ball mark heals it leaves an uneven putting surface and an unsightly mark on the turf. Repairing a ball mark takes less than a minute and can usually be putted over immediately. These marks take significantly less time to heal and do not leave an uneven surface for players behind you. Proper ball mark repair technique is illustrated here as outlined by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.

Questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.

 

Team Orientation

New and returning team memeber orientations are both complete and were successful.
Returning team members attend a review of the employee manual that includes any changes and the completion of any employment forms; they receive their uniform for the season; we express any changes we would like to see and; they have the chance to express any questions or concerns they may have. This orientation was on April 14th and saw more than twenty returning team members in attendance.

New team members attended orientation on April 21st and participate in an in-depth explanation of the employee manual and completion of any employment forms; they watch and discuss a number of training and safety videos and; it is an opportunity for them to meet each other. New team member orientation was attended by twelve team members and we are excited to get each of them out on the golf course.

Sodding Project Complete

The last two weeks have been very productive. The sodding of the four greens that suffered ice damage is complete; all the greens have received a fertilizer application; they new sod has been topdressed; the irrigation system is up and running and; all the greens have received irrigation.

We are pleased with the results of the sodding. Our Maintenance Team worked a lot of hours to finish the project and their hard work and pride in their job certainly shows in the results.

The sod from Eagle Lake arrived on April 19th. Part of that sod (5000sqft) was completed that day on 18 green and the other part (7000sqft) was completed the next day on 3 green.

Questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.

Ice Removal Results

If you've been following our blog for long, you'll recall the ice issues we identified with some of our Poa annua greens in early January. We tried numerous mechanical removal techniques as well as a large scale melting technique to remove the ice from the turf surface. With temperatures peaking well into the mid 10s, the turf is becoming active, affording us an opportunity to evaluate the extent of the damage our turf suffered from the ice cover.

If you recall, we concentrated our efforts on three Poa annua greens (9, 11 and 18) that had >50% ice cover more than 3-4mm thick. These greens experienced ice cover before Christmas and the ice remained there through the extreme cold snap we had in early January before we attempted removal of the ice in mid- to late January. Although removing the ice was of paramount importance to even give the turf the chance at survival, Poa annua is extremely susceptible to ice damage and some studies show severe damage can occur in as little as 30 days. As we evaluate the results of our numerous removal strategies, we are seeing ice damage that likely occurred within the first 30 days of ice cover. We have seen turf loss in areas that we removed ice from as well as in areas that were left untouched as a control. We are also seeing damage on two other greens (3 and the practice green) that were left completely untouched from any ice removal at all due, in part, to their location and the access to our large scale ice melt strategies. We have monitored the condition of these greens very closely leading up to this week and have noticed very little progress. We removed a number of plugs from each green (3, 9, 11 and 18) and placed them inside to evaluate the turf after it has completely come out of dormancy and those plugs show very few signs of healthy turf. We also removed plugs from a Poa annua green (8) that remained snow covered for the entire winter and a bentgrass green (19) that has an almost identical location as one of the trouble Poa greens as a comparison. These two comparisons show obvious signs of healthy turf and very little, if any, winter injury. This is clearly shown in the picture by the two plugs that are obviously much greener in colour than the other eight plugs. This only fortifies the point that both the location and type of grass on our trouble greens are cause for worry not only this winter but in subsequent winters.

Given the circumstances and the amount of lost or severely damaged turf, the decision has been made to go ahead with the re-grassing of the four Poa annua greens (3, 9, 11 and 18) that experienced ice cover. We view this as a perfect opportunity to alleviate one of the factors that influence spring conditions at the EPGCC and re-grass these Poa greens with bentgrass, a much hardier cool-season turf species. We are fortunate enough to be able to use our nursery for more than 50% of the sod. The recent winter storm event has delayed the sodding by a couple of days, but the maintenance department continues to work through the snow and into this week ensuring that we stay on schedule and complete the process as soon as possible. Please stay tuned for updates from the sodding crew this week. We will post pictures and updates on our blog next week but for instant and more frequent updates, please look at our Twitter account.

Questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.

Spring Clean Up

Following the completion of the excavation of the ponds, the clean up has begun. The parking lot haul road is covered with mud from the rock truck tires and as the parking lot dries, we continue to sweep the dirt and dust off the parking lot in preparation for it to be washed.

We are also continuing with snow removal along our service road on the golf course, as well as some cartpaths to gain access to the greens along the south side of the property. There is still significant snow cover in places on the course and snow removal in these areas will take a majority of the week. The warmer temperatures in the forecast are putting thoughts of spring in our heads and we are looking forward to getting back out on the course.

Questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.

Main Irrigation Pond Excavation in 1 Minute!

As promised, our time-lapse video of the main irrigation pond excavation. The video shows the excavation from start to finish in one minute!

Questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.

March Melts

Spring temperatures bring more spring melting. The snow we accumulated in February is quickly disappearing. We have started clearing the snow from the greens we cleared ice off of in January. We will pull the tarps off of them in the warm temperatures and evaluate the quality of the turf as they start to come out of dormancy. Ideally, the turf under the tarps will have suffered little to no damage from the ice or the removal techniques. More likely, the turf under the tarps will exhibit damage and in some cases, could be lost all together. The Poa annua greens that we were concerned about in January could have been damaged by ice cover before we cleared the ice at all. Poa annua is so sensitive to ice cover and most long-term solutions include the re-grassing of Poa annua greens to bentgrass. We will evaluate the results of the ice removal techniques we experimented with and a report on those result will follow in one of our subsequent blog posts.

Questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.

March Already!

This week brought back the warm temperatures and sunshine! Along with those comes the runoff from the snow melt and the muddy mess left in the wake of the rock trucks that drive through the parking lot every ten minutes. The parking lot currently resembles an extremely oversized mud puddle that only exists in the dreams of kids everywhere. The main gate entrance remains closed as the contractor finishes the last of the three ponds and continues to haul north across the parking lot and along the east edge of the driving range. Visitors are reminded to use the maintenance gate and follow the road through the parking lot, outlined by the barricades and caution tape, and to observe the posted traffic signs. Please keep in mind the haul trucks are very large and when loaded can weigh in excess of 30 tons. The operators use extremem caution travelling through the parking lot but the weight of these trucks make them difficult to stop quickly.

The end of February always signals a change in staffing levels. Ed and Paul have both started and are working on some shop organization projects. Ed is also completing some tree removal. Julie is on holidays and has charged me with watering and tending the greenhouse in her absence. Hopefully all will be well with the remainder of her plants when she returns. The end of this month also marks the end of Mike’s position as Assistant Superintendent. He has made the decision to stay at home with his son and will definitely be missed in the maintenance department.

Questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.

Social Media at the EPGCC: Part Two

The second part of this two part post addresses the use of our Facebook page and our Twitter account in the EPGCC Maintenance Department.

Our Facebook page is primarily still in the development stage and changes regularly as we see more traffic on it. This page is simply another way for us to pass on information. We primarily use the page to link our blog and our Twitter account together and as a simple way to provide smaller amounts of information without creating a new blog entry. Our Twitter account is the fastest form of communication we use. We can write a tweet that is published on our account and can be read almost instantly. Our goal is to be able to tweet changes to the course conditions and pictures of the course instantly to the membership. These changes may include things like irrigation breaks, cart traffic changes, drainage renovations or even frost delays. We also use Twitter to quickly communicate information to other industry professionals. Many other Superintendents, Assistant Superintendents and other turfgrass professionals use Twitter. We follow a number of industry people and receive their tweets directly. As well, a number of industry people follow us and receive our tweets directly.

Overall, we hope to continue to add content to our blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts on a regular basis. We also aim to provide content based on feedback we receive regarding current content, or on topics you would like to see information about. For more information on using Facebook or Twitter please contact us and we can provide some basic instructions.

Questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.

Social Media at the EPGCC: Part One

The use of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter has become a part of many people's everyday lives. In the turf industry, social media has become a tool that many industry members use to enhance any forms of communication they already use. Many courses across Canada utilize a blog or Facebook page to communicate club information with their membership as an environmentally sensitive alternative to the paper copy newsletter. Some courses have social media sites dedicated to each of their individual departments (Proshop, Food and Beverage, Maintenance) while other courses have one centrally controlled site that individuals from all departments contribute to. In whatever capacity they choose to use it, social media is quickly becoming an important tool for many golf courses across the country.

At the EPGCC, we have a centrally controlled website that each department contributes to and is compiled in the office. The maintenance department also communicates by using this blog, a Facebook page and a Twitter account. We feel that the more tools we use to communicate with the membership the more effective that communication becomes. We are also easily reachable through each of these tools and make regular updates to all of them. Our goal is for the membership to be able to access any information we share easily and as quickly as they require.

This post will be Part One of a two part post explaining the use of social media at EPGCC. This specific post will explain our use of this blog as a communication tool.

Because you are already reading this, you have obviously discovered our blog. Whether it is your first visit or if you visit regularly, we always appreciate feedback regarding content already posted or about content you would like to see posted. This blog is public and can be viewed by anyone so our goal is to provide information that is not only important to the members but can provide some information to any member of the public reading it. While the majority of our visits are from Canada, we regularly get views from the USA, Germany, France, the UK, and Russia to list a few. We use the blog as an avenue to communicate larger amounts of information along with pictures and video.

Our goals for this blog include the hope that a majority of our membership become regular readers. We feel it is a simple and easy to use forum for us to convey information regarding the EPGCC Maintenance Department. Another goal is for us to provide information to any member of the public that would like to learn more about the operations that occur on and around a golf course. We encourage comments, questions and concerns regarding any of this information to be directed to the Maintenance Department so we can address them.

Part Two of this post will be about the use of our Facebook page and Twitter account as other tools we use. As always, questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.

Pond Excavation Progress

Pond renovation is progressing and the crew has moved on to the pond at 11 green. Here is a short video showing the activity over three days. The camera is looking north toward 11 green from the south end of the pond.



Questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.

Algae Growth and Pond Excavation

A number of days in a row of cold weather is exactly what the contractors that are completing our pond renovation wanted. The cold weather helped to freeze the ground and allow them to get their heavy equipment in and out of the ponds. They have made significant progress on the pond on 11, completing the culvert extension and continuing on the excavation. This pond was an average of 1.5m (5 feet) deep and following the excavation will be 4.5m (15 feet) deep. This not only allows us to store more water but it allows us to use a better quality of water on the golf course.

Water quality is directly related to the health of the golf course turf. Water quality influences a broad range of factors in the growth of healthy turf, ranging from exposure to nutrients and toxins to soil properties. Generally, when ponds are not deep enough (<1.5m) sunlight can penetrate to the bottom and these ponds are at greater risk of algal blooms and higher water temperatures. Pumping irrigation water with high algae populations through irrigation systems can cause issues with clogged filters and even damaged pumps. The algae is also distributed over the areas of the golf course that are irrigated and can contribute to the growth of algae in those areas. Algae is generally very competitive and can sometimes out-compete a grass species for the nutrients it requires. Deeper ponds often discourage algal blooms and can prevent issues associated with the algae.

Questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.

Greenhouse Updates!

Our fearless horticulturalist, Julie, has been busy in her greenhouse this winter. She hosted a wreath building workshop for the members before Christmas that was well attended. The workshop included instruction and materials to build a live wreath as well as lunch and company. There were three seperate sessions over three days and Julie was happy with the results.

During the cold snap in January that saw temperatures as low as -35C at the course, the radiant heater in the greenhouse malfunctioned and lost heat. Julie discovered it as soon as she arrived in the morning but the temperature in the greenhouse had already dropped below 0C and was still falling with temperatures outside close to -30C. After some quick heater assembling, some smaller sources of heat were placed in the greenhouse but they were only enough to keep the temperature from dropping further. The serviceman arrived to repair the heater but that process also took a considerable amount of time. The heater was finally up and running by 8:00PM that night. Eventhough the repairs were made as quickly as possible, the greenhouse has still suffered tremendous loss. Julie is still surveying the damage but estimates that she lost up to 70% of her plant material because of the rapid temperature drop.

Any of you that have seen the greenhouse know that this picture shows an extreme lack of plant material as Julie has been clearing out the material that she lost.

Julie can address any questions or concerns directly or she can be reached through our Twitter account or our Facebook page.

Ice Removal

We have added a new ice removal technique to our list of experiments. We rented two glycol heating units that use diesel burners to heat glycol that is circulated through long rubber hoses. The concept is not unlike in-floor heating that depends on the even distribution of the heat from the hoses to provide heat over the expanse of the floor. We used insulated construction tarps between the evergreen tarps and the hoses to help the hoses provide more uniform heat over the surface. Two more layers of insulated tarps over the top of the hoses help contain the heat and reduce heat loss to the air. We checked a number of times during the day and melting was seen almost instantly where the hoses were in direct contact with snow or ice but under the insulated tarps, melting was a very slow process. We let the units run overnight and checked the results in the morning.

The morning results were encouraging as far as amount of ice actually melted. In most spots, the hoses had melted approximately 5-8cm on either side and in some spots, depending on the thickness of the ice, the melt was even more. In most cases the ice was 5-8mm thick but ranged up to 10-20mm and was dense and clear.

To speed the melting process we removed the insulated tarp from under the hoses and tripled the insulation on top of the hoses. We found that ice melt results similar to the ones we saw overnight could be achieved in approximately 3 hours.

Finally, we placed the hoses directly on the turf with three layers of insulation over them and saw the most ice melt. In this spot we had the thickest ice cover, approximately 50-60mm. This thick ice cover was in the middle of the picture where you can see the large chunks easily removed with the shovel.

Until the spring, it is impossible to say if this technique is worth the time and money it requires. There are concerns associated with heating the ground to remove ice and the turf will show us results, either positive or negative, in the spring. This method is very useful to remove ice cover but the effect on the turf is yet unknown.

Questions concerning any of the information here can be directed to the EPGCC Maintenance Department through our Twitter account, our Facebook page, or contact us directly at the shop.

Pond Excavation and Renovation

During the fall AGM the membership voted to proceed with a much needed pond renovation project to three existing ponds. Each pond will be dredged and deepened as well as having its rip rap walls rebuilt. One of the ponds undergoing renovation is the main irrigation pond which will also receive renovations to the wet-well intake for the irrigation pump house. The other two ponds are connected to the main irrigation pond and serve as reservoirs for the irrigation system.

Work on the renovations started in the early fall with the excavation of the existing wet-well and intake at the pump house. As you can see in these pictures, the wet-well extends almost twenty feet below the surface of the ground and to expose the bottom of it the contractors removed a significant amount of material. As the wet-well was exposed it also became apparent that wooden pilings were used in the construction of the pump house. The warm temperatures combined with the infiltration of ground water created some significant delays as the contractors waited for the ground to freeze before undertaking the bulk of the digging.

Warm temperatures continue to be a problem in the excavation of the ponds as well. Without the cold temperatures to freeze the ground as they excavate, the contractors focus their time on other parts of the project. The river pumps are both on order and should arrive in the next few weeks. One will be installed when it arrives which will give us access to water to fill the ponds as the project is completed. Also, the renovation of the wet-well and the installation of the new intake is complete until the rest of the pond renovation is completed.

With colder temperatures this week, pond excavation work is in full swing. Stay tuned for updates and pictures. Regular updates and pictures are often posted on our Twitter account as well as our Facebook page. Any questions or comments may be directed to the Maintenance Department.

Ice Cover

The weather before the Christmas season can sometimes be a cause for concern among turf managers. If we get a cool fall and temperatures gradually dip to below freezing and stay there, the grass generally has ample opportunity to acclimate itself and harden off. The fall in Edmonton was a good fall for hardening off and we did get a decent snow cover but at the end of November and through December, the mild temperatures caused most of this snow cover to melt. Because the ground was already frozen, much of this melt water must run off instead of draining through the soil profile. As a result, some of the melt water sits in low spots or remains in areas that do not have sufficient surface drainage. When the temperatures finally did fall into the -10C to -20C range, this left-over water froze on the surface and in the case of some of the green surfaces, created ice cover or ice encasement.

The Petroleum Club has two varieties of grass on the putting surfaces; Poa annua and bentgrass. Of these, Poa annua is much more susceptible to ice damage. In some university studies bentgrass has been shown to survive up to 120 days of continuous ice cover. Poa annua is considerably less suffering injury after as little as 60 days and severe loss in 75 days (Beard, J.B. 1964. Effects of ice, snow and water covers on Kentucky bluegrass, annual bluegrass and creeping bentgrass. Crop Science 4: 638-640). Most commonly, this damage is due to the buildup of toxic gases (CO2) and the development of an anaerobic environment beneath the ice. At the time of this blog we are experiencing ice cover on both types of grass on our putting surfaces. The constant mild temperatures and freezing rain are both contributing to the ice cover we can see. The potential exists that the ice cover on the Poa annua greens may cause significant damage by the time the ice cover melts in the warmer spring temperatures.

Because of the risk of damage, we have experimented with a few ice removal techniques and will see the results in the spring. We have tried a shallow aeration to shatter the ice cover which resulted in a high number of small holes in the cover but did not appear to shatter the ice. We also attempted to use a small scale tent to melt the layer of ice and remove the water but this method required an extended amount of time to heat the tent so the temperature at the ice was high enough to melt it. There are no foolproof ice removal methods and what works in some situations rarely works in others depending on location and topography of the green among other factors. It is therefore important to continuously monitor our greens through the winter as well as ensure that we maintain a healthy nursery to replace turf if we do experience loss in the spring.

Winter conditions are constantly changing from one year to the next and spring course conditions vary accordingly. Ideally, we hope to have a healthy, hardy grass plant, covered and protected by snow and temperatures that remain consistent and relatively cold to avoid and winter melting events. Alberta winters are at best unpredictable and provide us with a near infinite number of reasons we must continuously monitor course conditions through the off-season.

As always, any questions can be directed to the Maintenance Department at the Petroleum Club.