Liquid Fertility and Hot Air Balloons...

We finally were able to allow golfers to return to 90 degree cart rule today as the Fairways and Roughs finally dried out. It was also the first day that we were able to mow Fairways and we decided to take advantage of the firmer Fairways and spray a Urea Ammonium Nitrate solution, also called UAN, at a rate of .4 LBS of Nitrogen. This quick release fertility will allow us to push the bermuda grass even though the temperatures are not completely conducive to warm season turf growth. This fertility will typically push the bermuda for approximately 14-21 days depending on the weather and with the anticipated rain this upcoming weekend we are expecting growth for 14 days. With the anticipation of rain we decided to add a Wetting Agent, called Duplex, to the application today. Duplex is known for is ability to allow water to penetrate the soil, which allows for quicker drying times and firmer soils.

With the cloudy, cool, and wet weather that we received since Friday we were not expecting many clippings today, but in case there were clippings or debris from the trees we used our turbine blower to clean of the Fairways prior to the spray application to ensure 100% coverage of the UAN and Duplex. The photo below is taken of #1 Fairway looking toward the Tees and the Toro 6500 Fairway mower and the turbine blower are close to finishing up.

As the blower makes its last pass around the Fairway we begin to spray the Fairway with our John Deere 200 Gallon sprayer. By allowing all tire traffic to leave the Fairway we ensure optimal drying time for the fertilizer thus increasing efficiency. We calibrate our sprayer to spray 40 Gallons per Acre on our Fairway or Rough applications to increase efficiency. Here is a photo of the sprayer making its first pass on #1 Fairway.

Windermere has approximately 23 acres of Fairways and were able to mow, blow, and spray all 23 acres today with 18 man hours. We believe that we are very efficient, but we are always looking to improve. 

As the mowers were making their first few passes on #9 Fairway, we were able to capture these pictures of a few Hot Air Balloons passing over the golf course. Pictures like these are what make waking up at 5:00 AM worth it at the end of the day!

This is taking from #6 Fairway looking back toward the Tees with one of the Hot Air Balloons directly above #3 Fairway.

This photo was taking from the Native Area left off #9 Tees looking towards the Fairway Bunkers.

The last photo we took captured two Hot Air Balloons and the mower making its first pass down the center of #9 Fairway.

Thank you for taking the time to read the Windermere Turf Maintenance blog and please feel free to comment or ask questions.