Oopsie on trucks kills greens

[WUTiger]

An assistant pro told me that one of our regional courses had a disaster related to subcontracting out the fall turf spraying.

The greenskeeper brought in two trucks, one to spray greens and one to spray fairways. Well, the two trucks got mixed up on their assignments, and the fairway spray hit the greens and the green spray hit the fairways.

Result: 18 dead greens. (like really serious, a rebuild for each)

More details as they emerge. (The greenskeeper is now unemployed, and the course is keeping its name secret)

[CarlSpackler]

Ugh. I can't think of anything else to say. 

[iacas]

Why would a fairway fertilizer kill the greens? I get that they're different, but they're still grasses. No?

[natureboy]

33 minutes ago, iacas said:

Why would a fairway fertilizer kill the greens? I get that they're different, but they're still grasses. No?

Uneducated guess, but the shorter height made the grass plants (likely different variety) on the green more susceptible to the drying from the more concentrated fertilizer?

Edited September 7, 2016 by natureboy

[Patch]

9 hours ago, natureboy said:

Uneducated guess, but the shorter height made the grass plants (likely different variety) on the green more susceptible to the drying from the more concentrated fertilizer?

My guess is the shorter grass on the greens couldn't handled the extra heat (burning) generated by the different fertilizer.  Just a guess on my part. 

[imsys0042]

Where I caddied as a kid there was a greens keeper who was in the process of spraying something on the greens.   It required watering or the greens would get badly burnt.   He thought it was going to rain the night after they sprayed five greens late in the afternoon.

It didn't rain and he also became unemployed for the damage done to the greens.

[natureboy]

1 hour ago, Patch said:

My guess is the shorter grass on the greens couldn't handled the extra heat (burning) generated by the different fertilizer.  Just a guess on my part. 

Fertilizer 'burn' is from drying / dessication of the grass plants. The high concentration of the fertilizer outside the plants literally 'sucks' the moisture out of the plant cells from osmotic pressure.

[BamaWade]

Couple of years ago, one of the nicest publicly accessible courses in Alabama (and a turf research facility) had staff mix up fertilizer for the greens with an herbicide/ground-clear chemical.  18 high-end greens (mostly bent I think, but various types due to the turf-science nature of the facility) totally destroyed.

I played there last fall and talked for a bit with a staff member (super maybe?).  They had to rebuild the greens completely, going deep (12"-18" I think he said) to get the base as well.  Million+$ mistake with a long closure.  I commented, "I guess that cost some their jobs...maybe even their career".  Amazingly, he replied that they kept everyone, that it was a learning experience, and the fault of the process - in keeping the 2 chemicals in the same maintenance area - and not the person.  They now keep them completely separated in different facilities, with some additional measures to prevent the mistake from ever happening again.

I was taken aback by that response, given the $$$ loss, etc.  Very forgiving and pragmatic way of handling it.  Still, I'd hate to have been the guy responsible, both when it happened, and even still.  Can you imagine how he felt when he realized what had happened?

BTW, the rebuild was a great success and the course & greens are once again in fantastic shape.  A happy ending, I guess.

BamaWade

[WUTiger]

3 hours ago, BamaWade said:

(One course in Alabama) had staff mix up fertilizer for the greens with an herbicide/ground-clear chemical. 18 high-end greens (mostly bent I think, but various types due to the turf-science nature of the facility) totally destroyed.

I suspect the course I wrote about might have had some fertilizer-weed killer confusion. It's hard to say much without knowing what was in truck A and truck B.

Also, moss abatement on the greens can be harsh on the putting turf. A link from Penn State ag school  discusses this. 

[Wally Fairway]

I can't find a link, but there was a course in western Michigan that hosted a Champions tour event for several years. During the prep work for the course for one of the years, they somehow accidentally sprayed the fairways (and maybe rough) with a herbicide instead of fertilizer and killed all the grass about a week before the event. The "solution" was to spray some of that paint grass green right before the event. Essentially playing the course on dead fairways; pretty sure the greenskeeper and/or superintendent were both fired.

Google - Egypt Valley and I can't find it.

[WUTiger]

3 hours ago, Wally Fairway said:

... During the prep work for the course for one of the years, they somehow accidentally sprayed the fairways (and maybe rough) with a herbicide instead of fertilizer and killed all the grass about a week before the event. ...

I found two greenskeeping sites that mentioned accidents involving using industrial-strength herbicide for spraying the turf, rather than a greatly diluted mix to kill certain weeds. Industrial-strength is designed to kill everything in acreage you want to clear out - kind of like a chemical brush-hog.