Bowls Green Maintenance For July is peak season for bowling, the green needs to be consistent, keeping the surfaces fast and smooth. Managing the mowing/ rolling and correct nutrition inputs will help you to achieve your goals.
Tasks for July
Continue to remove the morning dew from the green
Aeration
Cutting
Light verticutting and rolling to smooth out the playing surface
Fertilising/ Wetting Agent
Irrigation
Disease control
Monitor wear patterns
Maintenance Preparation
Dew
Throughout July, continue with brushing off the dew at your earliest convenience to reduce the disease risk. Light brushing will control the grain and improve ball roll.
Aeration
Continue with your monthly light spiking, Sarral roller or a small micro solid tining is the perfect piece of machinery to use if you have one in you shed. This will help alleviate surface compaction and enhance soil aeration. If you have a chance, a light top dressing with sand/soil mix will help maintain smoothness.
Cutting
Your Green should be down to your preferred height (4-5mm) depending on usage and grass health. You want to aim to be mowing your green at least 4-6 times per week, alternate your mowing direction to prevent the grass laying down and to promote upright growth. As you are now using your mower frequently, make sure you keep the mower maintained and the blades sharp and the cutting height on point.
Verticutting/ Rolling the playing surface
Continue with light verticuting to help reduce the lateral growth and get the grass standing up. If you have a light roller then run this over your green, this will smooth out the green and get the green rolling smoother and truer.
Fertilising
Continue with a balanced liquid fertiliser programme to support a steady, healthy growth. We don’t want to use anything with to high N (Nitrogen) as this will encourage big flushes of growth and this will affect the quality of play. You want to be aiming for something like a
12-0-6. It would also benefit adding some seaweed to the mix which will also help improve plant health and reduce plant stress.
Continue with applying you wetting agent monthly, this will optimise soil moisture retention and distribution, ensuring a consistent moisture availability across your green, making the most use out of water applied to.
Irrigation
We are experiencing a long and very warm dry spell, keeping your moisture level where they need to be is vital.
Hand watering any dry patches is a good way to target localised dry areas. If you have a spray gun that can take a wetting agent tablet then use this as this will help the water penetrate the surface.
A light late afternoon/ early morning watering with your irrigation system will help during the hot spell. Avoid soaking the green as this can cause more harm as any thatch that’s in your green will hold the water like a sponge and can get to hot throughout the day and cook your green.
Disease Control
Continue to monitor for any signs of disease. Watch out for dollar spot and anthracnose. Maintain good airflow, avoid watering at night and if needed use a fungicide to control any outbreaks.
Wear Patterns
As the green is now being used more frequently you may start to see wear areas appearing, rotate the direction of play and repair any high traffic areas and allow them to recover.
Keep your ditches trimmed/edged and cleaned to keep the surrounding of your green looking neat and tidy.
Maintenance Preparation
I know we are all enjoying the season as were now in full swing but the end of year maintenance is not to far away. If you use a contractor to carry out your end of year works it may be worth making contact with them and getting your dates booked in with them. A lot of bowls club finish around the same time and all plan to have their works done around the same time so it’s a good idea to get in there early and get your preferred dates booked in. Also start thinking about topdressing/ seed and fertiliser as you will need to have this on site prior to your contractor turning up.
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I hope you found my Bowls Green Maintenance For May of some help by MWTurfcare
