The 17 West green planting went to schedule last Tuesday and apart from a hose blow out that caused some damage the green is progressing well.  First sign of roots establishing came on Saturday which is a great start.  A number of people have asked me why there is so much water being put on and it is simply that the pieces of grass (stolons) that are used to plant the green are just that - pieces of grass - with no roots to sustain the plant so it is imperative that they are kept moist until the roots are established.  The water can generally start being backed off after 2 weeks when the roots have established well enough.  The cover on the green serves a number of purposes with the main ones being increasing the air temperature underneath the cover which helps the grass establish faster and more importantly protecting the stolons from being blown away by the wind or washed away by rain.

Rolling stolons in 17W

And on the West greens they are still in very poor health.  A combination of some Nematode damage, root disease and soil temperatures have combined to deliver them an almost lethal blow and all but wiped out their root system.  Once again I have been queried about the amount of water being put on them and simply we have to as the roots are only just regenerating and are up near the surface as you can see in the photo below.

New roots growing