Ascophyllum nodosum

Or for those that don't know...quite simply Seaweed or "compost of the sea". Yes here at The Minikahda Club we apply seaweed or more specifically seaweed extract to our finer turf species. We have only been making these applications for the past five years. For some reason seaweed extract is not a widely used product in our industry, only over the past few years have I seen interest grow towards the use of this product. Oh sure seaweed extract can be found in a combination of products that include a multitude of other ingredients, but it's almost rare to find a Superintendent making sure that seaweed extract is specifically being applied on a bi-weekly basis to their finer sward of grasses. What makes it so suprising is that more than a century ago this was common practice of greenkeepers in the British Ilses. These guys would cover greens in rotting seaweed for weeks before it was removed and then stacked on a pile of sand for later use to be used as topdressing. Somewhere through the years this practice was almost all but forgotten. Now as many work towards implementing a more organic based fertilizer program, seaweed extract is making its way into many Superintendents programs.

So what are the benefits of seaweed extract and why do we choose to use this natural product? Well to begin with seaweed extract is just that, a natural product that provides a whole host of benefits. Not considered as a fertilizer, as it does not stimulate top growth, it is usually referred to as a biostimulant (a term used for different compounds that help plants with stress). Seaweed is loaded with Antioxidants (which also means it contains vitamins A, C and E) and contains a wealth of trace minerals vital to plant functions and microbial balance in the soils.

There are also two other key components to seaweed extract and they are both natural growth hormones, cytokinins and auxins. The hormone cytokinin helps to boost the plants antioxidant pool to help fight damage by free radicals. Cytokinin also helps the plant to produce more antioxidants. Thus helping the plant to fight the stresses that are continually placed on it. One of the great benefits of auxins, these are the hormones that tell the plant to product more roots. Which is extremely benefical during the most stressful times of the summer and is one of the main reasons why seaweed extract is added to so many products and is one of the main reasons why I love using the product.

Increased drought tolerance, stress tolerance, heat tolerance and cold tolerance as well as increased rooting are all benefits of applying seaweed extract to our finer turf sward. The product which we apply is extremely ecomonical and for the benefits the plants receive in exchange it is well worth every dollar spent.

Bentgrass Conversion Program Statistics

It’s been eleven weeks since we closed the course and covered the greens, now all we can do is sit in anticipation for the next 10 weeks as we wait for the snow to melt and the golf course to reopen. The winter gives us time to reflect on the past season but more importantly it gives us an opportunity to prepare for the upcoming year. Due to the success of our cultural regiment in 2009 we are anxiously awaiting the beginning of the 2010 season.

The golfer in me can’t wait to try and improve on my game and enjoy all the pleasures the game has to offer, but the green keeper in me cannot wait for us to continue where we left off. Last year was the first full season we implemented our bentgrass conversion program. From a golfers perspective most would agree the playing conditions were very good (at least once the weather cooperated). But from an agronomic perspective we were very pleased with the overall results.

Gauging the progress and the success of the program can be somewhat difficult, but overall we know that as our population of bentgrass increases so does our success. In fact with 21 greens to manage each green has its own environment and hurdles to overcome to reach that conversion. Of the 21 greens, when we started the process, 14 greens had 75% or more poa annua as the dominant turf species and of those 14 greens 8 of them had a stand of 90% poa annua.

Let me first tell you that judging the population of a mixed stand of poa annua, creeping bentgrass on greens is a difficult task. None the less we did develop a benchmark for each individual green before the start of the process. Turf species populations were judged three times throughout the season; once in the spring, once in the summer and once in the fall.

Now some of the percent increases might not thrill most of you and they may seem quite small, but what does happen once the transition begins to swing towards a creeping bentgrass stand of turf will become an accumulative affect. We have seen as little as a 5% increase on a few greens such as 1, 3, 5, and 11, which makes sense since these greens were estimated to have 95% poa from the start, but once the stand begins to spread and increase we expect this to easily become 10-20% within the next year.

The majority of the greens did see an increase of 10%-20%. The 10th green had the largest increase and that was 40%. The 10th green now has a stand of creeping bentgrass estimated to be 65%. Although the overall progress does seem small none the less we are heading in the proper direction.

Increasing our bentgrass stand is the major reason for the effort towards the conversion. Through the conversion there come many side benefits. First and foremost overall playing conditions improve. Creeping bentgrass allows us to maintain a firmer and more consistent playing surface. Agronomical and economical benefits include reduced water usage, a reduction in fertilizer inputs and a reduction in pesticide inputs.

Basing our input numbers from the 2009 season compared to the 2007 season we have seen a steady reduction in fertilizer and pesticide usage. Since we are still in a conversion process for the greens we have not seen a reduction in nitrogen based fertilizers but we have been able to reduce pesticide inputs by 55%. Regarding tees and fairways we have seen a reduction in pesticide applications by 55% for tees and 60% for fairways. We have also reduced our fertilizer input on tees by 75% and 60% on fairways. As we transition to bentgrass we will probably see these inputs level off and we will reach an amount that will be very consistent from year to year. The great thing about creeping bentgrass is the fact that it does very well in impoverished soils. Requirements consist mainly of nitrogen and iron, much of the other nutrient up take can efficiently be obtained from what is in the soil. Since our soils are nutrient rich it should be a number of years before we even come close worrying about the depletion our soils.

One must note that this past year was by all accounts a mild summer and disease pressure was extremely low throughout our region. Not every year will allow us these types of reductions of pesticides. But regardless of the weather conditions, we feel strongly that our program allows us to have a healthier plant, a plant that functions efficiently and is given just enough of what it needs to survive.

A Necessary Evil

We can be thankful that here at The Minikahda Club we have a strong caddie program and a large number of members who enjoy walking the course. It also helps that we have a walkers friendly golf course. With 2/3rds of the rounds consisting of members carrying their own clubs or Loopers doing it for them, we still need to manage the other 1/3rd of the rounds that are played using a golf cart.

Let's face it, turf can only withstand so much traffic before it begins to decline. In order for us to combat the rigors associated with cart traffic our first line of defense is cart blocks. We currently have over 400 cart blocks that are positioned throughout course in all of the key areas where turf damage from carts typically occurs. Cart blocks are moved on a regular basis when dictated by cart traffic. Along with the cart blocks the cultural practices that are implemented to reduce, prevent and heal cart traffic damage are increased fertility as well as a solid aeration program.

Of all the accessories that are placed on the golf course, cart blocks are our biggest eye sore. They create clutter on the course. Every year for the Invitational and the Member/Member all of the cart blocks are removed. It is time consuming to bring them all in and then back out again, but for just a few days a year it is so nice to see the golf course without all of the clutter.

Cart blocks also require upkeep and maintenance. Stakes get bent and need to be straightened and of course every year the blocks need to be pressure washed and stained. It's usually about a week long process from start to finish. A process the Assistants Rick Krause and Johnny Jarosz have become quite effecient with.

Grooming Ski Trails

We just added a new piece of equipment to are arsenal for managing and maintaining our cross-country ski trails. We now have a new used snowmobile, a 2007 Ski-doo Expedition. Unlike our old 1989 Yamaha, this sled has plenty of horse-power to climb all of our hills in any snow condition. You can see in the photo the roller groomer that is attached to the snowmobile. We use this to groom the skate track. Unfortunately this attachment only allows us to pack and apply the corduroy groom to the trail, which is fine when we have fresh snow, but does not aid us when we have gone long period between snow fall events. Basically it does not allow us the ability to recondition the trail. By the middle of February we hope to have our new groomer from Yellowstone Track Systems. The new groomer will allow us to recondition the trail for skate skiing as well as set a track for the traditional inline skiing.

For those of you that enjoy snow shoeing we have a packed trail for you as well. We have some new signs marking the trails, so please go out and use them.

Emerald Ash Borer-EAB

One of the most important topics in Minnesota, ranked third by the St. Paul Pioneer Press for this past 2009 year, was the identification of Emerald Ash Borer in a St. Paul neighborhood. It is widely know that this invasive insect, native to Asia, is known for its destruction of millions of Ash trees throughout Michigan and Ontario. First discovered in 2002 after ash trees began dieing by the thousands, they believe the insect had been in the Detroit area for up to 10 years previous to its discovery. Since that time the insect has been located in Pennsylvania, West Virgina, Maryland, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin and now in Minnesota.

There are many reasons why the control of this insect has been so difficutl. For one, controling of insects that feed under the bark has always been difficult. Secondly, ash trees have little natrual resistance to the Emerald Ash Borer and all ash trees are suceptible to the insect. No ash are safe, green, white, blue, black and european ash will also succome to the pest once infestation has occurred. Moutain ash is not the same genus species so it is not succeptible.

So what can be done, can trees be saved and why is it so difficult to find and detect if an ash tree has been infested? First of all this insect is considered very steathly and is difficult to find in or on a tree. The EAB is very small, only about the size of a dime. Secondly, the adults spend most of their time in the top third of a tree. A difficult location to climb to and search for the pest. And lastly signs of infestation do not show in the tree until at least the 3rd year of infestation. By that time it may be too late to save the tree as the infestation might be too far advanced.

There are many insecticide options for controlling EAB in our ash trees. I will not list them all or their method of control, but they have been well researched and univerisities are finding more ways each year to try to gain some leverage over this invasive species. How long does it take for the insect to spread once it is in the area? That is a difficult question. Researchers feel that the majority of the spreading has come from firewood. How else would it make a jump from Chicago to Milwaukee or from Milwaukee to St. Paul, it had to be transported. But for those in the infected area, how long we have until our trees are affected? That is the million dollar question that no one has the anwser to. What the researchers are saying is this, if you are within 15 miles of an infection site, you might want to consider treating your trees.

After attending an day seminar at the Northern Green Expo this year we gained a greater knowledge of the EAB and to what our options are here on the golf course for saving the majority of our ash trees. We have about 130 ash trees here at Minikahda. Thankfully that is all we have. Some golf courses have over 300. Not only can this be very expensive to treat all 300, but if they are ulitmately lost to the insect, removal and replacement become extremely expensive.

With only 130 ash trees on our property, our first priority will be to identify those trees as to their location and then decide based on the health, location and quality of the tree, if it's worth our time and effort to try and save and maintain the tree or are we better severed by removing it and replacing it with another type of tree. My feeling is that it is impossible to believe that we are going to save all 130 trees from EAB and that even if treated we will never lose a tree to the insect. Just as treated American elm trees sometimes lose the battle, this may utimately be the situation with the ash trees. But most importantly, come the beginning of the season, we will have a game plan in place and will act accordingly to recommendations based on sound research and information available.

If you have questions about EAB feel free to give me a call or probably one of the best things you can do is go to this website to educate yourself before you call me. www.emeralcashborer.info