CAPEL GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE

With our biennial greens renovation fast approaching I thought I would answer some common questions we receive by players at this time of year. Why Renovate? Without getting technical, there are a number of reasons why we renovate the greens, to relieve compaction, to get air into the profile, reduce any thatch build up and to add soil amendments when the greens are open from coring. To be blunt if we didn’t, the greens would deteriorate in condition and eventually die. Further explanations follow. Why Core ? Like so many things, the quality of a good putting green is more than skin deep. In fact, the condition of a green has a lot to do with what goes on below the surface. In order to keep grass growing at 3mm you have to have deep, healthy roots. Good roots demand oxygen. In good soil, they get the oxygen from tiny pockets of air trapped between soil and sand particles. Over time, the traffic from golfers' feet (as well as heavy mowing equipment) tends to compac

We will be trialling a new liquid fertiliser product for fairways this season. By using liquid rather than soluble fertilisers as we have done in the past to supplement the granular fertiliser applications, we will be able to reduce the time taken for refill as we won’t have to dissolve the fertiliser at mixing. This can take anywhere between 30 minutes to 45 minutes depending on the product used before heading out to continue applying the fertiliser. With only a 600L boom we generally have to refill 6 times to complete the Fairway areas only. This then means we have to spread the application out over 3 mornings as we don’t want to be spraying in the heat of the day or disrupt play. Unlike the soluble products where we need to mix with water and spray the mixture at 300L per hectare due to having to dilute the product, the liquid alternative only requires a maximum 20 to 30L of water per hectare. Therefore, not only do we save time with not having to dissolve the fertiliser at

The last of the sprinklers for additional coverage of green surrounds on the front 9 were installed this week in time for the coming Irrigation season. The areas highlighted last season as requiring extra coverage will not have the problem of drying out as they did and will allow us to further improve the irrigation of greens with more precise amounts applied, rather than having to irrigate the greens for extra time just so the surrounds could get some more water. All the installation was undertaken by course staff, including the Valve in Head sprinklers which required wiring into the system.  The same Toro DT series sprinklers were used with smaller nozzles as the rest of the front 9 with varying circle arcs from 180 to 270 degrees to cover surrounds. Using the same model sprinklers uniformly across the course means less parts need to be on hand.  The installation required cutting into the green line pipe, fittings glued for the Sprinkler take offs, wiring in the decoders to th

We had two surprise visitors yesterday. Two baby ducks strolled into the maintenance shed, unfortunately an hour long search failed to locate the mother. Good news is Geoff is part of the volunteer Wildlife Rescue and took them under his wing (see pic) until they were found a home at the local Vet to be hand reared and release d when they get older. Must have been wildlife day because later a possum was rescued from the skip bin!!!!

The Front Entrance and Driveway improvements are nearing completion, the old overgrown garden beds have been removed, made smaller for ease of maintenance and mulched. New Poles now align the Drive in and give a much better approach to the course. We will turf the now bare area of the old garden bed when the growing season is underway . Cleaned out and mulched Overgrown Poles replaced .