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 decisions including; best system design for your green, water storage, watering schedules, when, how and how much to water, green speed, disease, dry patch, thatch etc.
I have assembled some more in-depth information regarding the watering of bowling greens here.
Laser surveying will tell you exactly where discrepancies occur down to about 1cm of change. This can be done on a 1 metre grid so that you end up with a very clear colour coded picture of the green surface.
However, once you have a survey result in front of you, what do you do with it?
Top Dressing?
Well you could embark on a program of localised top-dressing as I have seen some clubs do, but this is a largely futile process, as you simply can’t make a big enough impact in a reasonable timeframe for it to be truly noticeable or beneficial or worth the investment. In to the bargain, as you are doing this the green is changing all of the time.
Rolling?
Heavy rolling should be avoided, but regular light to medium weight rolling with a tru-level type roller is very beneficial.
Spring bowling green renovation should be focussed on 3 main components:
1. the completion of the winter, deep aeration program
2. rejuvenation and aeration of the green surface
3. nutritional corrections
On greens in the non-drought affected areas of the UK, it should still be OK to carry out slit tining.
This is the last time we will get a chance to do this until autumn.
Two final operations with this machine will make all the difference to the greens ability to resist compaction in the early part of the season.
In drier areas, mini solid tining might be preferable and this can be done in addition to the slit tining in other areas.
If you have a thatchy green; identified by spongy turf, disease problems in winter and general poor health; you should scarify the green quite harshly in two directions to remove some of the fibre and mat that has built up over the winter months.
On healthier greens, where over-seeding was carried out last autumn you should avoid heavy scarification.
Lighter verti-cutting can commence once the sward is growing vigorously in May.
A question I get asked a lot is:
“ How much top-dressing should be applied in spring?”
The answer is a resounding “None”
Good luck with your spring bowling green renovation work.
Tomorrow we will have a look at turf nutrition requirements for pre-season
More detailed information on aeration here, thatch here and a range of one page factsheets here
A couple of years ago we were hit by severe snow and ice in some parts of the country and it raised a few questions about how best to deal with severe winter weather on bowling greens. I am re-visiting this today as a timely reminder now that we are in the winter season. Hopefully this will be a good omen and we wont get any snow this year!
The unusually early onset of winter in 2009 and 2010 created a few problems for most of us and seriously curtailed many winter maintenance programs.
We received a lot of enquiries asking for advice on dealing with the snow and ice on bowling greens and the aftermath of deep snow cover.
The main concern during and after snow cover is the potential for the outbreak of fungal diseases such as fusarium patch; and indeed, fusarium might well be encountered after the snow has melted. Although many clubs will have applied a preventative fungicide in the Autumn, this might not have provided total protection, but should have minimised the risk of attack.
When the snow has gone you might well find active areas of Fusarium and this should be treated with a curative fungicide containing the active ingredients iprodione or chlorothalonil applied as per the manufacturer’s advice.
Many of the enquiries we have received have been related to the actual snow cover and clubs have been worried about the prolonged cover of snow and ice on their turf and have asked if they should be pro-active and do something to remove the ice cover. My advice would be to leave it and allow it to melt naturally.
Attempting to remove ice could result in damage to the turf, soil structure and grass plants.
Please also remember that even after the snow and ice has gone the underlying soil could still be frozen and any activity on the green could result in damage to the root system of the green.
Please make sure that the green has completely thawed by probing the soil before commencing (and catching up) with your winter maintenance program.
Any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Already the relatively dry April and start to May has seen bowling greens suffering from Localised Dry Patch (LDP).
As we have discussed many times on this site before, this condition is a major problem for bowling clubs throughout the UK and if your bowling green is aready showing the tell tale signs then you need to take rapid and relentless action to avoid major disruption to your bowling green surface this season.
Meantime for greens already showing signs of the problem here is my Read more
