Apologies once again for the confused state of the site over the weekend, it has been one of those times when things seem to stack up against you.
The site first started to look a bit weird on Saturday at lunchtime and thanks to all of you who alerted us to this; this particular problem was related to a software update and was fixed by late afternoon on Saturday.
Then as a consequence of the original problem we were hit by a bandwidth issue (don’t say it, I know what the ???? is that?)
All is fixed, tested and solid now thanks to our excellent hosting company staff who don’t seem to take any time off over the weekend which is just as well.
As a result of the changes we had to make (we had to take the site back a few days) some of the recent site activity was deleted.
Again, though we have now restored all of the posts and we are working on restoring the photos and comments from readers from last week.
Thanks for your patience with this.
Localised dry patch continues to be the major problem this year
Localised Dry Patch (LDP) continues to be the major difficulty in bowling green maintenance. We get a lot of our website visits from people looking for a solution to this issue. Our Localised Dry Patch Factsheet is downloaded from the site more than almost anything else.
There is also a lot of confusion out there about LDP; what it is, what causes it and how you get rid of it. There is also a lot of poor advice about dealing with LDP, some of which seems to show a complete lack of understanding of the problem and its causes.
So, although I’ve written a lot about this subject in my bowling green maintenance advice over the years, here is a fresh recap in bullet point form that you can use to explain the problem to others and hopefully help them to read more…
Irrigation: cost or investment?
Yesterday we talked about some of the reasons commonly put forward for not watering bowling greens. I also shared with you, my amusement that so many clubs fail to mention irrigation or lack of it when looking for an explanation for the poor quality or condition of their greens; even though it’s very obvious. They will use just about every other aspect of bowling green maintenance as a reason for poor performance.
Now we come to the cost of irrigation; and I am not talking about the cost of installing a system, but merely the cost of the water being applied on any given night.
This is another big reason or excuse that I hear a lot about:
“we can’t water any more because it costs a fortune”
Now of course there will be variations (slight) around the country and also from system to system, but here is my 10 second rundown on the cost of water for irrigation:
- As we saw yesterday a typical system will put out 1mm of irrigation water for every 2 minutes of system run time.
- A typical system will also put out 150 litres per minute; so to calculate the cost per mm of irrigation we do this:
- 2 (minutes) X 150 (litres) X 4 (sprinkler heads) = 1200 litres/mm
That’s to achieve 1mm over the whole green.
As 1200 litres is 1.2 m3 you simply have to multiply the irrigation requirement in millimetres by your cost per m3 and then by 1.2
Example:
- Water balance sheet shows we need to replace 15mm of moisture loss.
- Multiply 15 (mm) X 1.2 (m3) X £/m3
- 1.2 (m3) X £0.90 = £1.08/mm of irrigation over entire green.
I’ve used 90p as an average cost, but you can find your own local charge on your water bill or by phoning the water company.
The question is whether you see irrigation as a cost or an investment in the future of your green.
It’s essential for strong teeth and bones; I know that much from school, but where does Calcium fit into a bowling green maintenance program?
When we hear discussion of soil nutrients, it is usually in terms of Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium; the famous NPK, that we see written on fertiliser bags.
However, there are another 3 major nutrients; these are Calcium, Magnesium and Sulphur.
However, the most overlooked macro or major nutrient in bowling green maintenance is Calcium. Calcium is needed by plants to grow and maintain health. It is a key constituent of cell walls.
If calcium availability is low or compromised grass plants can experience a range of difficulties
- Once fixed, calcium is not mobile in the plant. It is an important constituent of cell walls and can only be supplied in the xylem sap. Thus, if the plant runs out of a supply of calcium, it cannot remobilise calcium from older tissues.
- If transpiration is reduced for any reason, the calcium supply to growing tissues will rapidly become inadequate.
Calcium plays a very important role in plant growth and nutrition, as well as in cell wall deposition. The primary roles of calcium are:
- As a soil amendment, calcium helps to maintain chemical balance in the soil, reduces soil salinity, and improves water penetration.
- Calcium plays a critical metabolic role in carbohydrate removal in plants.
- Calcium neutralises cell acids.
Therefore the role of calcium in plants must not be overlooked.
In Performance Bowling Greens, a practical guide I go into this in much more detail.
Irrigation is critical in bowling green maintenance
Well I haven’t experienced a year like this one for problematic bowling green maintenance in a long time. So many greens just aren’t growing.
Of course this is having a big effect on playability; no growth means no recovery from last winter’s damage, bare areas not filling in with new grass, bumps, hollows and all sorts of other problems mostly related to surface smoothness and consistency.
I’ve also heard more than my fair share of strange reasons in bowling green maintenance circles for this lack of growth from clubs and bowlers. These mostly centre on almost every bowling green maintenance practice except the one that matters…why?
Well the one that matters is “Irrigation” and it’s still a big taboo in a lot of clubs and in bowling green maintenance circles; it’s “the elephant in the room” to use one of the most annoying buzz phrases in recent times! However the elephant in the room description is a good one in this case; it’s this big, obvious thing in the room or in the conversation, but nobody mentions it!
One club I met with told me they have an “anti-watering brigade” in their club! Can you believe that, a group of members who are actively against watering the green regardless of how much it needs it?
On a well known bowling forum which shall remain nameless here, a contributor added his tuppence to the discussion on irrigation by “boasting” that they never water their green, as if it was some impressive badge to be worn. Another says that watering 3 times a day is crazy (as suggested by another contributor), even though he has no information to tell him the quantity of water being applied or thinking behind the plan.
We really must get over this folks or there will be a lot of very poor bowling green surfaces next year.
The biggest bowling green maintenance problem at the moment is irrigation or watering of greens during what has been one of the driest spring/early summer periods on record.
Ok so the first thing is to make sure you are applying enough water every week and that means trying as best you can to keep a record of any rainfall and irrigation that is going onto the green.
Making irrigation management a priority in your bowling green maintenance program is crucial because in a typical dry week your green will lose the equivalent of 25mm of moisture through evaporation from the soil and transpiration from the grass plants ; please remember that this varies considerably around the country and will depend on things like read more…
Buy Performance Bowling Greens
The book has become very popular and a lot of you are showing a lot of enthusiasm for getting stuck in to the program.
From the questions we have received relating to the book, a couple of popular themes are forming:
Question 1: What is the Performance Greens readers group and does it cost extra?
Answer: This question has cropped up a lot and the simple answer is this:
After you have purchased the book, you will receive an email from John, care of aweber.com (this is the company we use to manage our email broadcasts), which asks you to confirm your request for information from the performance greens readers group.
This is simply an email list that John is using to deliver coaching emails to all of the readers of the book and it means that you will receive relevant; bite sized coaching emails to help you implement the green maintenance approach that he delivers in the book. You can of course unsubscribe from this list at anytime.
This extra assistance will go on indefinitely and it is of course absolutely FREE. To take advantage of this information you must confirm your request by clicking on the link in the email.
Question 2: What happens if I’ve deleted the email without confirming, will I miss out?
Answer: No, just drop us an email and we will sort it for you.
Question 3: Where can I get access to the specialised materials John mentions in the book?
Answer: We are in the process of setting up a members only website for the Bowls Excellence Network, which will include a shop where you can access all of the materials you need at discounted prices plus a lot more…watch this space!
For those of you who haven’t secured your copy of the book yet you can get it here
Thank you to everyone who has purchased the book recently, your business is much appreciated.
This is an important reminder for all of you who still haven’t confirmed your membership of the book readers list.
Right after you purchased the book you would have received an email from me asking you to confirm your request for information from the performance greens readers group.
To get the maximum benefit from your purchase of the book please click on the confirm link of this email.
This will enable you to receive all of my upcoming emails on implementing the program at your club.
This will include templates, advice and other resources, all free of course that you can use to set your green on course for high performance.
So please check your inbox and confirm that you want to receive this free advice and coaching.
If you are having difficulty finding it or have deleted it already just drop me a line and I will get it back up and running for you.
Regards
John, Author, Performance Bowling Greens, a practical guide
I’ve visited 6 clubs in the last week and all of them are under-watering their greens.
This is resulting in poor surfaces, because all of these greens are still within the renovation phase as described in my book Performance Bowling Greens.
The combination of the harsh winter, followed by a very cold and dry spring in most parts of the UK has left many greens with a significant Soil Moisture Deficit.
You can think of Soil Moisture Deficit in much the same way as a negative balance in your bank account.
Soil Water Balance Management…
…is almost unheard of within bowling circles or certainly the bowling circles I have been involved with but is a critical part of the management program to get right for high performance and deals with the management or read more…
irrigation management is critical but straight forward
Irrigation is on everyone’s mind at the moment, but how much is enough?
As a general rule greens lose approximately 3-4mm of moisture per dry day to evapo-transpiration, although this can vary with conditions; that’s approximately 25mm or 1 inch per week.
Again a very general rule is that many of the more popular automatic sprinkler systems will apply around 1mm of water for every 2 minutes of run time.
So again as a general rule to replace a week’s worth of losses you should be running the sprinklers for around 50 minutes in the week.
Now I will add a qualification or four to that:
- requirements can vary widely depending on location and conditions.
- don’t apply light applications on a nightly basis, try to group these into heavier and less frequent applications for best effect.
- try to move to a water balance sheet type system to manage irrigation more accurately…it will pay off quickly
- don’t rely on a typical bowling green irrigation system to apply water evenly or in sufficient volume…always check and measure what you are doing.
Now this could easily turn into a very long post, so I will end by pointing out that there is a whole section on irrigation management and water balance sheets in my book Performance Bowling Greens.
any questions please ask!