It has been a warm April and the course is looking pretty good for this time of year. We are starting to wrap up aerification with fairways and surrounds done. We had planned to do greens this coming week but the weather looks not promising so we will postpone greens aeration until May 1 and 2.
Greens are looking good right now and we have heard some "slow" comments about them. True they are not down to midseason height yet but we like to give them until after aeration before we shave them down. This is for two reasons-- the higher height of cut will help them heal faster from aeration and also aids in root development now. Once we get down to summer height, root development will be limited by less leaf surface. Leaf surface area has a strong correlation to rooting depth. For example a 3 inch high lawn will have about 3X the root mass of a 1 inch lawn. So we use this time in April to build up a root mass to help us through the summer months.
This is a busy time with aerification, fertilizer apps, pre-emergent weed control, and root disease control to do right now. We always consider this time fame in April as the setup window for all the good that is to come this summer. We are excited about where the course is right now and are looking forward to a great season
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