Greens standing up well in the UK drought

We are in the middle of a record heat wave at the moment, seeing temperatures in the UK that are higher than have ever been recorded, and that means one thing for us - a very dry golf course!

While the fairways and rough are left to their own devices, our irrigation has been ramped up keep our greens and tees healthy during these very dry times.

Many of you may remember that we had a Quadrop dosing system installed 18 months ago so that our mains water irrigation could be dosed with a specific solution that puts the natural nutrients that are stripped out of drinking water back in, so it reacts the same way it does to rain water. Quadrop also balances the pH of this area’s notoriously hard water to keep the greens acidity nicely balanced.

On top of this we have implemented a wetting agent program for the last two years which has meant that we have treated the greens from April to September with a wetting agent solution to prevent the rootzone from developing hydrophobia (dry patch).

All of this, coupled with our increased aeration and topdressing “little and often” methods means that we’ve had consistently great greens all year in 2022, and long may it continue!