A very hot week has just passed with the rain so close but just never eventuating.  On Monday morning the radar looked very promising with good size falls in Brisbane and heading south.  The fertiliser spreaders were readied and loaded and out they went.  Unfortunately the rain didn't make it past Southport so I had to rely on irrigation to water it in. 

Speaking of irrigation, the courses are irrigated with treated effluent water from Tweed Shire Councils Banora Point treatment plant in Greenway Drive over past Bunnings and 1.4 megalitres are being pumped down daily and then pumped out on the courses each night.  We are very fortunate to have such a high quality water with the Council having just spent $35 million on an upgrade of the plant.  This link has some more information about the plant; http://www.tweed.nsw.gov.au/Item/269  When you hear of some south east Queensland courses having to truck water in to water greens only we are indeed very fortunate. 

And it must be hot because it generally needs to be to catch a glimpse of the Lace Monitors (aka Goannas) that inhabit the course.  The one below looks like the baby of the 2 metre one that rushed past me near 13 River tee and scared the heavens out of me before it scampered up a tree!

Lace Monitor near 13 River tee

And the heat and humidity of the past weeks and what will be coming in the near future certainly puts a strain on the West Course greens.  The greens are bentgrass and it is known as a cool season variety which means it is very out of place in a sub tropical climate and at this time of year goes under quite a deal of stress and a lot of its problems are accentuated.  Particularly the foreign grass invasion and particularly the foreign couchgrass.  This is not a new problem and below are some excerpts from CTH Board minutes from as long ago as 1980 which also include discussions about replacing the greens.  There is only one product registered to control the invading couchgrass and I use that quite extensively however it is unable to fully control all the different varieties so it really just acts as a suppressant for us.  Hand weeding is carried out continually in an effort to pull the runners but with the resources available I just can't keep up.  The blue and mullumbimby couch and carpetgrass that also invade are either hand weeded or spot sprayed.  The product that is available to control these pests can have quite a detrimental effect on the bentgrass particularly at this time of year when they are under so much climatic stress.  One needs to tread very carefully with application of any products to the greens including water and fertiliser.  Some of the long term members will well remember the annual problems that occurred with the greens  and it was not uncommon for there to be several temporary greens each summer and large areas of extensive turf loss.  That was before my time I might say!  The bentgrass greens do take a lot of work but when the weather cools they provide an excellent putting surface.