Turf News - January 2023
18 JAN 2023
Preparation for the 2023 season has begun and we are officially in our 25th year as a club! On our turf team we have only one staff member left who has been here from the very beginning and I am sure you have seen him out there cutting rough and fescue. Bob Peddie is entering season number 25 with us!
We have been back to the shop now for 2 weeks since the break. Before the holidays the very last thing we did was deep clean our shop and paint the floor. 2 weeks in and we are going full force getting our winter service and repairs done on our equipment. The shop no longer looks new! Everything from oil changes, safety checks, and brake jobs to re-building clutches, grinding reels, replacing worn wheel bearings, rebuilding starters, painting equipment for rust control, and anything else that may be dis-functional. We have a large fleet and a lot of equipment to go through! We are lucky to have 2 talented mechanics, Kostas and Grant, to troubleshoot and fix equipment that sometimes seem unfixable!
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January is always IPM month. Integrated Pest Management is a program that ensures environment sustainability and challenges turf managers to minimize the requirement for pesticides. The IPM Council of Canada is part of Environment Canada. In order to keep our license to spray at our golf course, we must submit a large assignment to them every year. Part of the assignment is showing everything we do to manage our turf without the use of pesticides and only when we can not control it culturally, then we spray. Everything from vertical mowing, top dressing, fertilizing, mowing with sharpened blades, weeding, plugging, aerating, and misting/cooling of the turf, all helps the health of the plant and allows it to defend itself against weeds and diseases. One area that we work hard on every year is to try to battle the disease, dollar spot, on fairways with cultural practices. With over 70 acres of fairway alone, that is a lot of pesticide we would use. We are proud to say for the second time ever at RattleSnake we were able to beat dollar spot without the use of fungicides the entire 2022 season! Most courses spray upwards of 3 or 4 times/year. Not only are we keeping our turf healthy, but is better for our personal health, the health of our staff, and the animals that share our space.
The days are getting longer, and we are starting to feel it!
The Turf Team