Whilst we’re in this wet period and ground conditions aren’t allowing you to get out on the course as much as you’d like – this is a useful exercise to do. Using Google Earth you can check the areas of your playing surfaces. Most courses have a pretty good idea of the area they are… Read More Know your areas
Whilst demonstrating the value of good sprayer set-up and particularly nozzle set-up last week, I had a quick look at the pressure gauge on one of the sprayers at the course I was at. I was a little surprised to how the different pressures were indicated on the dial. I suspect that if the manufacturer… Read More Keep up the Pressure
My last blog got me thinking – when is it normal to start seeing frosts. I’m fortunate enough to have access to some pretty snazzy weather models and one of them can pick out the historical data for predetermined weather criteria. So when have seen more than 4 hours of temperatures below one degree? Winchester… Read More When will it get cold?
We’re reaching that time of year when we start hoping for some decent frosts. A sustained period of cold weather will really help slow the progress of any Microdochium and it generally signals a period of drier weather too. Now assuming you’ve come through this Autumn with clean surfaces so far then cold weather is… Read More First Frost and Microdochium Progress
Talking to turf managers at the moment it’s clear to see that despite having a dry summer they are having to manage some very wet courses. I don’t think this has surprised many turf managers but its has caught a few members by surprise who were playing on very dry and firm surfaces one week… Read More Dry September but Wet Golf Courses
A bit graph heavy this one!!!! Climate change is certainly in the news at the moment but how is it manifesting itself onto turf managers? I spend more time than is good for me studying weather patterns and if I’m honest it’s pretty tricky pulling out obvious changes. Mainly because we only have access to… Read More Climate Change – How is it Impacting Turf Managers?
The Syngenta Pest Tracker shows the 2019 cranefly hatch, as it happens. The last 3 weeks have proved to be the main time frame for Cranefly hatch. PestTracker has its limitations but it’s done a pretty good job of logging the the timings. The hatch window has been fairly tight but clearly seems to have… Read More Cranefly Hatch – September 2019
We are now entering the period when Microdochium Patch will begin to raise it’s head. If I look at the climate near me for this year and last year and compare it to actual disease levels, it is clear that this year, 2019 is a less challenging one. At least it is so far. So… Read More Autumn Turf Disease – When to start?
Lots of talk around the country amongst turf managers about how dry a season it’s been. I find the easiest and quickest way to assess the rainfall in comparison to previous years is by using the Met Office anomaly maps. The below summary images show the rainfall in that area of the country compared to… Read More River Flows – September Update
We’ve had a great response to the Syngenta PestTracker data collection project this year. Everyone who has contributed – Thank you. Whilst it has some limitations: Only enthused turf managers entering data Data concentrated to areas with higher levels of turf managers / Managed turf facilities Accuracy of how many times the data is entered… Read More PestTracker Autumn hatch
