An Experiment in Ice Removal

Sorry for the length and delay of this post.  It has been a busy time at the golf course.  Yes, we do get busy in winter!  There are only three of us on staff through the winter and there is a lot to do.  While writing this I also discovered there is need for a few other blog posts relating to why we aerate late in the season, why ice build up on greens is worrisome, and what keeps the Turfcare Department busy in the winter.  But in order to shorten an already long blog post, I will try to get around to these topics in the New Year.

Ice formation on the surface of greens is never good and my collective experience with ice at Greywolf has not been positive.  As I reported previously, we have a thin layer of ice that has formed on our untarped greens (8 of our 19 greens).  The ice layer formed as the result of two rain events in late November and early December.  The ice varies between 3mm and 6mm in thickness.  Although not very thick, I believed ice covers most of the surfaces on our untarped greens.  I believed this because after each rain event we went out and dug snow pits on the greens in order to examine the turf.  We also pulled out a few turf samples to measure the thickness of the ice (See my last two posts).

On December 7^th we undertook an experiment to see if we could clear the ice from the surface of the 10^th green. The goal was to clear the ice and not cause any damage to the turf.  Another goal was to see if our sampling program was correct in predicting the amount of ice coverage on the untarped greens.    

Assistant Superintendent Colin Matheson starting snow removal

Snow Removal on 10

First Look Under Tarps

I am currently optimistic about what we have seen under the snow and tarps.  I always have to remember at this point we still have two and half months of solid snow cover until we reach the middle of April.  I must also say, it took a week and a few phone calls for my optimism to arrive.  Let me explain.

After cutting into the tarps on the practice green, first and twelfth greens on January 27^th  I was surprised by what we found under the tarps.  Each of these greens had ice under the bubble wrap.  This was not expected.  It showed up in different forms on each green.   The practice green and twelfth green showed light ice between the bubbles on the bubble wrap.  The first green had ice covering the majority of the sample area.  This can be seen in the photo below; when the bubble wrap was peeled back a mirror image of the bubble wrap in ice was found on the surface of the green.  We noted the iced to be very light, milky in nature, and not very dense.  It could easily be removed with a finger nail or the edge of a knife.

Ice Under Tarp 1st Green

Ice Was Not Thick - Easily Removed

Even though the ice was light in nature I became very concerned.  I had expected to see no ice and green turf.   Did we have a leak?  I could understand one leak but three leaks in different locations on the golf course?    This seemed highly unlikely.  Was this the result of condensation and respiration?  Had moisture blown under the tarps as a result of venting?  Was there something else we did not understand or take into account? 

Tarps

Prior to the onset of winter, we installed a new tarping system on eleven of our  greens.  These greens where chosen because we have struggled with them in the spring the past two years.  The majority of the spring turf problems have been caused by ice.   The ice has formed from late fall and early winter rains.    There has also been instances of crown hydration in the spring on several of the putting surfaces.  I will try to discuss this condition in future posts.

After looking at several tarping systems and talking to fellow superintendents, we chose to go with Green Jacket tarps.   There are many different options out there, we felt this was the best option for Greywolf.

The easiest way to demonstrate the steps involved in the tarp installation was to create a slide show.  I hope this clearly explains the installation process, the steps involved, and the monitoring of conditions under the tarps.