let it burn/ then and now

This is something that I normally wouldn't like to see at the course, but since we decided to start the native burns this fall, this is a great sight to see.  Torching some of the areas that are severely overgown will allow a better stand of wildflowers popping up next spring.  This area was the little island between 13 and 14 fairways, and if you can remember, there was a pretty decent amount of wildflowers in this area this year.  We will continue to try and burn some more areas to restore some of the wildflowers.  Some areas that we have designated will be between 2 and 3 and between 2 and 6.  These are relatively large areas and require some very careful planning before we start the burn.  We did two smaller areas last Wednesday to "practice" and see how the fire and it's fuel will act so we can better understand how to control it in case of emergency.  The outcome was rather anti-climactic due to the moisture content that is still in some of the native areas.  We were able to light some of the drier, bunch type grasses, but most of the under layer was still actively green and growing, so it didn't burn as well as we wanted.  We will reconsider and try again maybe at the end of November to see what we can get burnt before the snow covers the ground!

This is a 2 part entry, mainly due to the lack of entries ALL SEASON LONG. We had a rough year, mainly due to winterkill and a somewhat under-amazing spring.
     

 

 

Here is a before picture of Number 9 green.  This was a sad sight this spring, and another reason why I take so many pictures to remind me of some of the worst areas and things that should have gone differently.

 

Here is the after picture taken the end of September.  Things change a lot in 6 months, and I sure am glad that they did.  We had so much winter kill that I was wondering all summer what I did wrong the fall before.  I looked back through all my records, and all my measurements were spot on, and the applications were all the same.  This year, we are going to switch to a different nozzle selection to put our fungicide down.  With the differences in nozzle selection, there should be a more uniform coverage of the leaf blade this year.  The reason I used a larger droplet sized nozzle last year was due to the amount of wind that we deal with here at Wildflower.  With the larger droplet size that reduces drift, you compromise the coverage on the leaf tissue due to the fact that the larger droplets will penetrate the leaf canopy and not cover the leaf blade as it needs to be.  With the change to a smaller droplet comes the increased risk of spray drift but the better coverage of the leaf blades.  We will have to spray on a very calm day to be able to get adequate coverage, but that is one of the only reasons I can think of why there was so much superficial damage to the turf. 

 

Thanks to you all for a great year at Wildflower and we will be continuing our fall time projects to improve the aesthetics and playability of the course!!!