As was documented in my last post, two samples were taken from the 10th and 11th greens. They were brought into the maintenance facility to thaw out and given water. I observed healthy growth coming out of dormancy without any signs of damage. While these samples of 4.25” in diameter do not represent all 160,000ft2 of our greens, it does make me feel optimistic in that any winter damage to this point would me minimal and localized, rather than widespread, based on the weather we have had thus far. See the pictures below for the progress of the samples:
I have taken two more samples from 9 and 18 Greens. With most of the course buried under snow these greens were the easiest to gain access to. With all of the wind and some melting taking place, these greens did not have as much depth of snow as was anticipated, specifically 9. The same process will be in effect for these samples:
With a major shift in the weather coming it will be interesting to see where we stand in a couple of weeks. A major rainfall followed by a massive dip in temperature is never a good thing, we have gone most of the winter without any ice coverage, though recently with some melting that has occurred an inch wide crusty layer of ice was found when I was getting the sample from 9.
Temperatures appear to be trending upward as daytime highs look to between 4 and 8 degrees and night time lows are at or just below freezing will be occurring over the next two weeks. This should be conducive to some rapid melting of snow and ice. The blanket of snow has been nice, but if temperatures are coming up I think that baring off completely would be preferable than having more opportunities for any further ice development durations being extended. More to come..
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