The cold & dry Spring....

Traditionally April would have been a time when Greenkeepers would have been seeking out some help from 'upstairs' for a break in the rain as 2-3 months of wet weather left courses wet but with an increase in temperatures the grass would be growing 'behind the mowers'. This would often lead to constant mowing of the playing surfaces and little time to finish off any outstanding winter projects. This year was a little different as a relatively dry spell through February & March gave way to a very dry & cold April/early May. Now in some regards this proved beneficial as the course was much drier than it had been previously at this time of year but proved problematic as cold & dry doesn't equate to very good grass growing conditions so the recovery from a busy winter schedule on the course was slower. The cool night temperatures that held throughout this spell were also a factor in the lack of growth, this gave slow recovery to disease scars from the previous autumn. In terms of the putting surfaces we carried out some early season maintenance at the beginning of March so the recovery we had on the greens was decent. The continued addition of  sand topdressings to help with drainage & smoothness helps the surface performance but seed we put out was very slow too take.
We continued with some micro tine aeration across some of the playing surfaces to try and encourage some deeper rooting, this was carried out with smaller tines to minimalise disruption & also requires less recovery.Another factor of the cold spell was poor results from granular fertiliser that have been applied to tees, aprons & green surrounds. The result of such poor growth was to use liquid fertiliser that would give us some response but not trigger huge flushes of growth, ultimately at times like these we have to work with nature.
Irrigation was constantly applied to greens & tees were we aim to keep moisture levels to set levels. The amount of water we lose from both the soil surface & grass plant is collectively known as Evapotranspiration(ET). The rate of ET loss is a measure of how much water we have to apply to stop the turf going into drought stress. Another factor during this recent spell was the cold Northerly winds that were also drying out the surfaces quickly. This also affects how efficient the watering can be as windy conditions make targeting areas very difficult. In addition to using the automated sprinklers we also carried out a lot of hand watering. Although much more labour intensive it allows us to target specific dry spots or areas that we cant reach with the sprinklers.  
So all in all a challenging spring but as always the golf continues, hopefully now in slightly warmer conditions.....