Flush: Rain Bird 900/1100 Series vs Toro R-Series

Do you have Rain Bird Eagle 900 or 1100 Series heads in a Rain Bird Sprinkler Body? Are you tired of ruining your paper uniforms? Toro has a suggestion for you.

 

Golf Course Sustainability Through Rainwater Harvesting

It’s been joked about in environmental circles that a golf course is nature under totalitarian rule. While many people might agree or disagree with this statement, the fact remains that traditionally golf courses have been viewed by environmentalists as not only being huge consumers of resources, but an environmental burden as well. Maintained turfgrass, by nature, requires quite a bit more water than the native vegetation that golf courses replace, especially in dry, arid climates. It’s no wonder why water consumption is perhaps the most heavily criticized aspect of golf course management. In areas that water demands are projected to exceed existing supplies in the coming years, golf courses are going to be forced to cut back on irrigation. Not to mention the current decline of the amount of people golfing due to the slumping economy. Add to that the rising costs of municipal water and it’s enough to make any golf course superintendent quiver in his khakis.

One answer to this dilemma has been found in the practice of rainwater harvesting.

Crop Coefficient for Turfgrass

The Center for Agriculture at UMass Amherst is studying ways to preserve irrigation water on sites such as golf courses, which would reduce leaching rates and protect water supplies from pesticide and other chemical contamination.

BIGGA Video Series: Irrigation

Another great set of educational videos by BIGGA. Irrigation water and the precise use thereof will continue to be one of, if not the greatest, the most important environmental, economic and social issues facing the golf industry. These three videos cover the basics from source protection, to BMP's and technology (circa 2001).

Greg Evans discusses conditioning at Ealing Golf Club

In this video Greg describes the conditioning of the Ealing Golf Club, how he insists on "championship standard, 7 days a week" and the honor of being awarded a Master Greenskeeper Certificate.

PaceTurf: Heat and Drought Recovery Video

From our friends at PaceTurf:
Heat and drought cause serious turfgrass damage every year. If you are experiencing catastrophic turf loss from heat, drought or other sources of extreme stress, this video will provide you with some guidelines for turf recovery.

To learn more about how PACE Turf gets superintendents the answers they need, take our member benefits tour: http://www.paceturf.org/index.php/tour/

Hear from others about the benefits of PACE Turf membership: http://www.paceturf.org/index.php/public/testimonials/

Or sign up today at: http://www.paceturf.org/membership/signup.php

Checking Moisture = Saving Money at Northland Country Club

This post was originally posted in 2010.


My name is Chris Tritabaugh and I am the Golf Course Superintendent at Northland Country Club in Duluth, MN. A few weeks ago Scott emailed and asked me if I would like to contribute to this fantastic turf management blog; I was honored and was happy to accept the invitation. For the past two and a half years I have maintained the Northland Country Club Turfgrass Management blog to update, inform and educate our membership on the day to day operations of our operation as well as efforts to create a sustainable golf course. Its an honor to contribute to turfhugger.com and wonderful to know Northland's efforts tocreate a sustainable golf course are being noticed by people within the industry. Without further ado; my first contribution to turfhugger.com.

My brother Adam is a little more than two years younger than myself. Growing up he was a classic little brother always wanting to have what I had and do what I did. Earlier this summer Jeff Johnson, good friend and superintendent at The Minikahda Club in Minneapolis let me know he had purchased a TDR 300 soil moisture meter from Spectrum Technologies. Playing the role of little brother and not wanting to be left out, I purchased one for Northland as well. The meter, seen on the left, has two probes that when inserted into the soil give the percent water volume content in of the soil. After purchasing the meter at the beginning of August, its use was pretty much non-existent due to ample rain and at least the thought from myself that taking moisture readings when we were wet was unnecessary. This was until a couple weeks ago when  my "big-brother" in turf management made the post, linked below, on his blog.
  
The Minikahda Club Grounds Department: Collecting Moisture Readings on Greens

Turns out Jeff had started using his meter on a daily basis to record the average moisture readings of his greens. Just like the little brother I ran out and blew a couple months of dust off our meter and started taking our own daily moisture readings on putting surfaces.