CAPEL GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE

Conditions have been ideal for the rampant spread of 2 diseases over the past 3 to 4 weeks, warm days cool nights, very high humidity, little wind / air movement and heavy morning dew containing leaf exodus (Guttation) rich with nutrients create conditions perfect for disease infection and spread. The degree of humidity and calm winds along with the length of time we have experienced these conditions is unusual for us, while we usually have a few days at a time, the past few weeks have consistently been very Humid with little to no wind, this has contributed to the unusual severity of the disease, namely Dollar Spot in the fairways. Dollar Spot is so named because of the initial dollar size spot, symptoms start as, as these spots enlarge they can coalesce developing into much larger irregular shaped patches, this is what you are seeing in the fairways at the moment, they may look like large dry areas but these straw coloured patches are damage caused by the dollar spot disease. Un

Last time I posted I mentioned the weather changing quickly, and yes March was one of our coolest and wettest for a few years, since 1997 to be exact, Mother nature has had very different ideas since with our Warmest start to April on record, recording summer like 30 degree temps, today as I write we are finally getting wet with 7mm falling so far and hopefully a bit more on the way. I digress, before I start sounding like a channel 7 weather reporter.  The greens have continued to improve since renovations, they would have been slightly slower the week following the Easter Medley as we rested them, applied follow up fertiliser applications and allowed them to "breath" a little after pushing them a little harder than normal for the 3 weeks after renovations in order to have them running reasonably well for the Easter Medley. Normal greens maintenance has resumed this week, double cutting and a slight H.O.C reduction will have them running at a much better pace.   Today we