Over-seeding is a common element of autumn renovations. Costs for having the work done will be around £300-£500 depending on seed type, application rate and method used, but is this value for money?
In the vast majority of cases the answer is sadly…no! Why?
There are many reasons why over-seeding can turn into an expensive and in-effective luxury. First of all it’s an easy sell for contractors; after all what’s not to like about it? It’s non-disruptive, relatively cheap and promises a surface free of bare patches and populated with fresh new vigorous grass next year.
Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that.
First of all the new seedlings are up against very stiff competition from the existing, mature sward. Sure, you will see an almost 100% success rate at around 14 days after seeding in a lot of cases and your contractor will be quick to point this out to you. However, at this point the seedlings are Read more
This week I will again be looking at some club turnaround focussed issues.
I’m going to kick off with a look at what your club can do for the local community without charging!
The readers and members of this site represent the tip of a large pyramid of bowlers. By this I mean that if you are reading this you are among a minority of bowlers and parties interested in the health of the game of bowls that actively engages with others in the online environment and also that you are among the small number of people within the game that are actively looking for solutions to the difficulties the game is experiencing.
As an internet and world wide web user, you can’t have failed to notice the impact the technology has had on Read more
I still get incredulous emails and phone calls about my advice to generally stop top-dressing.
In the last 10 years I have only visited one club where I recommended sand top dressing as part of the renovation program and this was due to total neglect and lack of any real maintenance other than cutting and fertilising for a very long time before that. The club in question unfortunately didn’t get as far as implementing the renovation plan and has now been replaced by 4 new family homes!
The top dressing “tradition” has become so ingrained in bowling greenkeeping that it is very difficult for a lot of people to get their heads around it when someone says “don’t do it”.
Here are my top ten reasons not to top dress:
It makes healthy soil inert and unable to provide plant nutrition
It encourages thatch build up due to low soil microbe populations
Green speed is always a hot topic at this time of year and the most popular methods for achieving increased speed are usually to turn off the water and set the mower down; both of which can cause long term damage to the green.
Mowing the green regularly below 5mm can really start to harm it in terms of sward composition, drought resistance and general turf health. Rooting depth is directly proportionate to the amount of leaf that remains above, so at the very time that the turf needs deeper roots to seek out deeper lying moisture, we restrict its ability to put down roots by shaving the leaf off to within a millimetre of its life! Shaving the green too low can cause irreversible damage to the crown of the grass plants, which causes bare areas or at least areas of weakened turf, which will inevitably be taken over by meadow grass, weeds and/or moss.
The other big mistake that many clubs make is to turn off the water in an effort to induce greater green speed. Although droughting will rarely kill a green off completely, we are seeing some very high temperatures this summer and it is possible that greens will fail if not given enough irrigation. But that’s another story which you can read about here.
So, what can be done to increase green speed without causing damage to the green?
Well, to really get the speed up we need to be thinking about reducing the lateral growth on the green. There are a number of factors that can help to increase green speed and consistency for play and we’ve set them out in our guide which you can find by clicking here.
Today however, I want to concentrate on lateral growth and its affect on green speed. On many greens I visit I am told that the green is being cut at 4mm and that the members are still complaining about the green being heavy! On most occasions when confronted with this, it is possible to take the palm of your hand across the turf and tease some of the grass up to 10 or even 15mm in height!…now think about that for a minute; how “heavy” would the green be if cut at that height?
This phenomenon is due to a problem called lateral (or sideways) growth where the grass plants exhibit a recumbent growth habit and don’t stand up straight, meaning that they are not cut at the required height.
What’s the answer?
To overcome this problem we need to make allowance in our maintenance program for dealing with lateral growth. This can be achieved by several means, in order of importance these are:
regular verti-cutting; I would suggest twice a month between April and September. Verti-cutting does exactly what it says, it cuts vertically through the turf surface to slice up lateral growth and tease up the turf prior to mowing, which is usually carried out straight after a verti-cut operation.
use of groomers on the mower; again a very useful operation to be used sparingly. On many of my visits I see groomers being used as verti-cutters with the blades set well into the turf. You should never do this, as it can cause a lot of turf damage and even greater damage to the mower as it can put it under a lot of strain. Groomers are designed to be set slightly above the height of cut, to simply tease up the lateral growth or “nap” prior to cutting.
brushing the green prior to cutting can improve the green speed also by teasing the grass up from its lateral growth habit prior to cutting.
There are many more tips on green speed in our green speed section here.
Committees are difficult structures with which to run a business, but there can be no doubt in any bowling club official’s mind that the only way for clubs to survive and prosper in the future will be for them to be managed as proper businesses.
In the trying times we find ourselves in, both in relation to the falling uptake of the sport and the general financial climate in the country, the commitment to this approach could quite possibly be the only deciding factor between success and failure for many clubs.
Although the traditional committee structure employed by most clubs can make it difficult to consistently apply the strategic approach needed for long term business growth and improvement, this can be eased by the introduction of Read more
Committees are difficult structures with which to run a business, but there can be no doubt in any bowling club official’s mind that the only way for clubs to survive and prosper in the future will be for them to be managed as proper businesses.