I received a nice email from a reader yesterday as follows:
"Hi John, I thought I'd share this pic from 8 weeks ago and now following your aeration and no sand advice... must say impressive in such a short time ... thanks. Looking forward to the next task email from yourself" VT
Soil Moisture and Bowls Green Performance are so closely linked that we assume we know everything there is to know about it. More sand will make it better surely? Master Greenkeeper John Quinn has been digging a little deeper than most and putting his students to work on some experiments to get to the root of truly High Performance Bowls Greens.
"Bad rinks", "bad roads on rinks", "straight hands", "off the heads", just some of the multitude of anecdotal evidence for poor bowling green performance. Meantime the real causes of problem greens are not only missed, but are actually being perpetuated by some of the maintenance practice we employ. The Objective Measurement of Bowls Green Performance is long overdue so we can move on and start to work on the real issues.
Common sense greenkeeping doesn't always prevail against the huge pressure piled on greenkeepers and bowls clubs to try new products and techniques. The renovation and maintenance of bowls greens for high performance needn't be so complicated.
Greenkeeping despair is a result of bowling clubs being in a continual quest for the perfect green...overnight. This causes clubs to make the most irrational and expensive decisions on greenkeeping and green development. An endless parade of experts with increasingly outlandish claims and products besets clubs up and down the UK. The answer, on the other hand, is grounded in long lost common sense greenkeeping and consistency of approach.
