IrrigationWorld2000


Golf and Turf.
Integrated Water management on golf courses. The Greenkeeper\Manager needs great knowledge and information if he is to produce a consistently high quality golf course and yet be cost effective and environmentally aware.
Compare this with your own root profile!
Turf trials				There is much to learn about how to gro turf, which varieties are best for your climate, which need least maintenance, which can stay in good condition with least water etc etc Contact us for more information and advice: peterwhitewater@irrigationworld2000.com


Dry patch is a major problem for golf courses. This picture shows what is often happening.The surface and top few cm are wet, but below this the soil is hydrophobic and cannot hold any water - hence no roots and no ability to withstand hot dry periods. The wet surface encourages Thatch and this in turn makes the problem worse. What are the answers - email for help and ideas to Peterwhitewater@aol.com Irrigation: When to irrigate? How much to irrigate? What is the quality of the water to be used? How will all this affect the playing surface? Pesticides: When are the pests likely to appear? When to apply which pesticides? How much pesticide? Fertiliser: When to apply fertiliser? Which type of fertiliser? How much? Water quality: What is the quality of the water being used? Can recycled water be used - if so in what mix?
To answer these questions one needs to have monitoring equipment and systems to evaluate and implement their findings. The TurfSCAN is the ideal sub surface moisture monitoring equipment (and there are others) and the following examples are from golf courses using them. This equipment can be inter-linked with the Weather Stations, which can calculate ET figures, calculate disease risk and built up historic weather records. It is possible to have this data displayed 'live' in the clubhouse as well. Watering a golf course using ET calculations. Many golf courses use ET calculations to schedule their irrigation, but unless you know the 'correct' parameters you will not know where to start. For example: · When is your soil really 'full'? If you do not know that then you are guessing from day one. · If you can identify 'full' correctly, how do you know when to start watering? · How can you identify how much to apply? · Even if you are very knowledgeable, what percentage of Et should you work on? · Water use on golf courses can be from .2 to 1+ of ET. You can only water 'correctly' when you can measure what is really happening.
Click to open full size in new window.
Irrigation - far too much being applied as it is reaching 50cm, which is the drainage level. After drainage the top 20cm has only wetted up by 2.4mm, yet at depth the soil is 4.1mm wetter.
Click to open full size in new window.
The layer of soil and drainage stone from 30cm to 50cm - most of the time this layer is way over full
The top 20cm of soil. Click to open full size in new window.
On the 22nd March the soil had dried to about an 8mm deficit. It was decided to start irrigating, but as can be seen, the watering gradually increases the moisture content until the soil is permanently 'full' or overfull, with drainage at each irrigation. This will waste water, leach expensive fertilisers and encourage 'thatch'. Root hairs die when water logged and consequently as the season becomes hotter and demand is higher the grass cannot take up the required water to keep the grass growing 'correctly'
Click to open full size in new window.
Deep rooting not only allows the course manager to keep the surface much drier (by occasional watering only) and prevent damage from footmarks, divot holes rather than dents etc. Another advantage of keeping the course drier is that disease is much less likely to become a problem

[To another page on TurfSCAN.]