New Creeping Ryegrass Cultivar

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New Creeping Ryegrass Cultivar: Germinal has upgraded a selection of its established landscape and sports turf seed mixtures with the addition of Zurich, a new-for-2018 creeping perennial ryegrass cultivar, which offers increased wear tolerance and fast sward recovery.

Zurich creeping perennial ryegrass provides excellent wear tolerance, persistence and recovery due to its creeping growth habit.  Scoring 6.5 for live ground cover and 6.3 for visual merit, Zurich is one of the best-performing creeping perennial ryegrasses on Table S1 of the BSPB’s Turfgrass Seed 2018 booklet.  It is a fine-leaved variety that also exhibits high resistance to insects and nematode attack due to naturally high endophyte levels.

New Creeping Ryegrass Cultivar

Zurich features as standard in Germinal’s A30 Rapid Sports Renovator Plus* and A20 Creeping Perennial Ryesport** seed mixtures and is a useful addition for long-term pitches ranging from Premiership training grounds to school and municipal pitches.

Zurich has also been added to three of Germinal’s landscaping seed mixtures; A3 Embankments and Droughts, A18 Road Verge & Embankmentsss and A19 All Purpose Landscapingsss.

“A3 has traditionally been the industry’s go-to seed mixture for stabilising embankments due to its high percentage of creeping fescues and bentgrasses which bind the soil together,” explains Richard Brown, Amenity Sales Manager for Germinal.  “The addition of Zurich gives this popular seed mixture the added benefits associated with a perennial ryegrass: speed of establishment, the ability to germinate in colder temperatures, and the ability to rapidly recover from damage caused by excessive wear.  For A18 and A19, the addition of Zurich further enhances the ability of these mixtures to recover from wear with minimal intervention.”

“Zurich exhibits an excellent creeping habit, which not only enables sports pitches to rapidly recover from excessive use, but also binds manufactured soils together quickly and effectively thereby preventing gully erosion and loss of soil.  It’s ability to self-regenerate gives added protection during the winter and slowly helps damaged sports pitches and landscaped green areas to repair themselves with minimal additional physical intervention.  It also makes the improved seed mixtures more effective in cooler temperatures at the beginning and end of the growing season.”

For more information, visit: www.germinal.com

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Notts Hollinwell Goes For Green

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Notts Hollinwell Goes For Green: Currently rated as the UK’s 40th best course by Golf World Top 100 and by National Club Golfer as an England Top 20 course, Notts Golf Club Hollinwell is renowned as one of the country’s finest inland courses, with heather, gorse, bracken and pine in abundance.

It has also been described as “one of the best heathland courses in Britain” by BBC commentator and former Ryder Cup player Ken Brown. The club has continued the course and environmental improvements accomplished over recent years and for the second year running will host a Final Qualifying tournament for The Open, at Carnoustie in July 2018.

Notts Hollinwell Goes For Green

In 2017, Notts (Hollinwell) successfully staged Final Qualifying for The Open at Royal Birkdale. The course was presented in excellent condition and the event ran very smoothly, thanks to the enthusiastic efforts of staff – not least the greenkeeping team led by course manager Phil Stain – members and volunteers.

“The club is always pushing for higher standards and there’s been a lot of investment in the course over the last couple of years, so it’s very satisfying to be recognised at this level,” says Phil. “The course is now being managed more intensively and our bent/fescue overseeding programme is progressing really well, as we try to get the greens back to predominantly fine grasses. Mowing frequency has also been increased, so the reliability of our course machinery continues to be a major requirement.”

Part of the ongoing investment programme has seen the purchase of a new fleet of seven John Deere machines from Nottingham based dealership Henton & Chattell, on a John Deere Financial five-year operating lease. These include four 2500E electric hybrid triplex greens mowers, an 8800A TerrainCut rotary rough mower featuring the programmable TechControl display, and two ProGator heavy-duty utility vehicles.

“The machines were due for replacement, as it’s been five years since the last upgrade,” says Phil. “We’ve been more than happy with our previous John Deere 2500E greens mowers, which were the first ones we bought. They’ve provided the standard of finish and reliability we look for, and the dealer service from Henton & Chattell and sales manager James Robson has been very good.

“We always choose the best machines for the job, in our opinion, so we’re not particularly committed to one individual brand over any other. However, having tried the competition we found the John Deere greens mowers ticked all the boxes, so we had no reason to change – we’ve had virtually no problems with them whatsoever, so there was no need to look elsewhere. All round the 2500E is a very good, reliable machine – our old models still have plenty of life in them and are going back to the dealer in very good condition.

“The 8800A cuts all the semi-rough and provides a massive time saving, as well as a good quality finish, plus it’s also a very reliable mower. The ProGators are new machines for us, as we’ve only had them on demonstration before. The industry feedback I get is that the Gator is one of the most robust machines out there, so I’m very happy to go with the opinions of other greenkeepers that I trust.”

For more information, visit: www.JohnDeere.co.uk

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Aqua-Zorb Eliminates Dry Patch

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Aqua-Zorb Eliminates Dry Patch: Having trialed a range of various wetting agents, Jonathan Smith, Course Manager at Cowdray Park Golf Club in West Sussex, found exactly what he was looking for in Sherriff Amenity’s Aqua-Zorb Liquid.

Golf has been played at Cowdray since 1904. A classic downland layout built on sandy soil, it has spectacular panoramic views of the South Downs. Renowned for being a fair test to all and a true year-round venue, it is a popular destination for visiting golfers. At the heart of the 16,500 acre Cowdray Estate, the golf club echoes the wider vision and values including a long term sustainability plan.

Aqua-Zorb Eliminates Dry Patch

Jonathan Smith has been Course Manager at Cowdray for 17 years and oversees a fully qualified and dedicated team of seven members of staff. As a team they are continuously looking for ways to improve the general condition of the course while keeping the Cowdray Estate’s vision in mind.

Therefore, in the summer of 2016 Jonathan and his team embarked on a series of wetting agent trials in a bid to reduce the carbon footprint without compromising on the overall condition of the beautiful golf course.

“After weeks of hot weather and no rainfall, areas of the course started showing signs of stress and Dry Patch,” said Jonathan. “Even with our fairway irrigation – slopes, high spots and mounds couldn’t hold any moisture – so we trialled various types of wetting agents on our problem areas and Aqua-Zorb Liquid by far had the best results.”

“Within 14 days, the majority of Dry Patch had gone and the turf had almost fully recovered. For the remaining part of the summer, and with equal amounts of irrigation, the non-treated areas remained hydrophobic and stressed. However the Aqua-Zorb treated areas thrived with vigour and general appearance.”

Aqua-Zorb Liquid from Sherriff Amenity is a concentrated non-ionic turf wetting agent that will enable water to move faster and deeper into the soil profile. One application can last all season and it is renowned for treating the cause of Localised Dry Patch. Aqua-Zorb can also improve drainage, alleviate compaction, reduce the quantity of irrigation required, suppress the formation of dew and greatly improve the quality of the sward.

Based on the success of applying Aqua-Zorb in 2016, Jonathan decided to apply it to the entire course in spring last year. In mid-April he applied Aqua-Zorb Liquid at a rate of 50 litres per hectare to the tees, approaches, surrounds and all the fairways. Jonathan applied it on a morning of expected rainfall and sure enough, approximately 4/5mm of rain fell that day, which washed the product in nicely.

Normally, Jonathan and his team would cease to spray wetting agent in September/October, but for maximum results he continued to apply monthly applications of Aqua-Zorb Liquid to the greens at a rate of 20 litres per hectare throughout winter.

“By continuing to apply Aqua-Zorb Liquid throughout winter, it made a remarkable difference because it kept putting surfaces significantly dryer throughout all the excessive rainfall,” he said.

On reflection of his use of Aqua-Zorb Liquid throughout 2017, Jonathan noticed a significant number of benefits.

“With record temperatures throughout June, all of our slopes, high spots and mounds held up perfectly. They would re-wet straight away, giving the course a constant solid green colour. All throughout the season there was no Dry Patch at all. We also noticed an incredible 55% savings on irrigation water when it was required – resulting in huge savings on electric power in the pump station.”

“Aqua-Zorb Liquid is an amazing product and the great feedback from the members and visitors on the overall condition of the course is testament to this.”

For further information, please contact Sherriff Amenity on 01638 721 888 or visit www.sherriffamenity.com

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Toro Cuts Machinery Downtime

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Toro Cuts Machinery Downtime: New customer Padeswood and Buckley Golf Club in Flintshire North Wales has chosen Toro for the first time as it seeks to reduce machinery downtime.

Having spent, last year alone, £20,000 on maintenance and lease equipment due to breakdowns, Padeswood and Buckley has brought in Toro to eliminate these expenses and ensure the smooth running of the course.

Toro Cuts Machinery Downtime

Stuart Mason, who recently took over as head greenkeeper, tells us why Toro is the solution to their downtime dilemma: “I’ve used Toro in the past and it lives up to its reputation for reliability and longevity – you only have to look at the high resale value of Toros to confirm that fact.”

The Toro fleet replaces and upgrades the club’s main line machinery. Joining a new Greensmaster TriFlex 3420-H are three more machines including a Reelmaster 3575-D fairway mower, and Stuart goes into detail about some of the benefits he’s noticing:

“The 3575-D is good because the three wheels are quicker on the turn and kinder on turf than four-wheel machines. One of the main issues we want to avoid is mowers being out on the course when golfers are, and the speed of this mower will help enormously with that.

“The best thing about our Reelmaster 3100-D fairway mower is that the operator is placed safely away from the trickiest of edges, which the sidewinder units can cut accurately. We have recently started working with Durabunker to reconstruct our bunkers across the course by revetting them with artificial turf. The 3100-D mower will be able to keep the turf around the new bunkers neat without causing any damage.”

Stuart is also looking forward to fewer trips to the shed to refill the sprayer thanks to the Workman HDX utility vehicle complete with a Multi Pro sprayer. He explains: “Before we had a 200 litre tank, now we have almost four times that capacity with the 757 litre tank of the Multi Pro. This will make a big difference to our overall spraying routine. Another great thing about the HDX is its versatility – we don’t just operate it as a sprayer but a topdresser and truck too.”

Glyn Hughes of Major Owen advised Stuart on which machines would be the best to help eliminate downtime and ensure the smooth running of the course. Stuart says: “Glyn really helped with our decision, he was at the club so often that he was basically on the payroll! I’ve known him for a long time and it’s great to be working with Major Owen again as we can always trust them to deliver great service.”

With a new Toro fleet, and Major Owen to rely on, Stuart is nothing but positive about the club’s future: “We demonstrated a variety of machines on the market and Toro came out on top for quality and high performance, so I’m confident we’ll be able to rely on the new fleet.

“Reliable, quality machines will make it far easier to maintain the course to a high standard for our members. Already the team is over the moon that there are no more morning jumpstarts! And now downtime is no longer a dilemma, I foresee 2018 being far smoother for the greenkeeping team here at Padeswood.”

For more information, visit: reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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