Bowling green irrigation is one of the areas of bowling green maintenance that raises the most questions. On the face of it, this appears to be a simple subject; install sprinklers (watering systems), switch them on when it’s dry and the green gets evenly watered and everybody’s happy! In reality it is a minefield of …
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Investing in Irrigation-can you afford not to?
Irrigation: cost or investment? Previously we talked about some of the reasons commonly put forward for not watering bowling greens. I also shared with you, my amusement that so many clubs fail to mention irrigation or lack of it when looking for an explanation for the poor quality or condition of their greens; even though …
Getting Bowls Green Irrigation Right
Bowls clubs are often divided on whether to water the green or not. When I visit clubs to advise on this, they are generally under-watering their greens. This results in poor surfaces, especially when a green is still within the renovation phase as described in my book Performance Bowling Greens. You can think of Soil …
Irrigation, how much is enough?
Irrigation is on everyone’s mind at the moment, but how much is enough? As a general rule greens lose approximately 3-4mm of moisture per dry day to evapo-transpiration, although this can vary with conditions; that’s approximately 25mm or 1 inch per week. Again a very general rule is that many of the more popular automatic …
Irrigation Running Costs and Bowls Club Success
A funny time of year to be talking about irrigation but it is a surprisingly popular search term for the site. So what are the costs of running irrigation on your green? Well as you would imagine this can easily turn into a “how long is a piece of string?” type of debate. That’s due …
Irrigation for Bowls Greens
Further to my previous post a lot of clubs have been in touch recently to ask for advice about irrigation systems; mainly about the cost of installing them. Readers of my ebook Performance Bowling Greens a practical guide will know that I am not a big fan of the industry accepted standard for bowling green …
Opening Day Preparation: Getting the mower ready.
Getting the mower ready is often seen as someone else's responsibility during the close season, but great care should be taken to make sure you are not falling foul of tradition again. Relief grinding and back lapping have become an unfortunate norm in cylinder mower set up, but can be more damaging to the turf and the mower than you might expect. John Quinn explains the theory and suggests a solution that will ensure your mower gives you trouble free service and impressive results all season long.
Mycorrhizal fungi and turf health, better bowling greens rely on us understanding this.
Mycorrhizal fungi and turf health go hand in hand. The symbiotic relationships that exist between our turf grass plants and soil fungi are critical to producing a high performance, perennial grass dominated sward. Here we look at the benefits of mycorrhizal relationships in turf and the techniques greenkeepers can employ to encourage them.
The Great Top-Dressing Debate
At its most basic, the answer is that excessive use of sand on bowling greens causes the under lying soil to become inert; lacking life or the complex web of interactions that go to make healthy, high performance turf. The natural balance of the soil/turf ecosystem is upset and the green will never be capable of consistent high performance for as long as the folly of top dressing is allowed to continue.
How to Water a Bowls Green
During dry and hot weather the need to water your green properly can't be over emphasised. Although it can be tempting to let the green burn to achieve speed, this can turn to disaster and cause the green to fail later in the season.