Over the autumn and winter of 2016/17, Basingstoke’s Test Valley
Golf Club was struck with a serious Fusarium attack which left their greens
weakened and scar damaged.
Course Manager Dave Ross turned to Alex Hawkes of Headland Amenity
to help with the creation of a recovery programme - applied it at the right
time to maximise the results by using the Headland WeatherCheck service.
“Looking back at it now, the greens didn’t go into the period as
strong as they should have been, leaving them vulnerable to disease” explains
Dave, who heads up a team of 4 greenkeepers.
“It was clear the damage from the Fusarium attack was extensive so
I asked Alex for advice to put together a recovery plan, to try and give the
greens a kick start into spring.” Alex recommended C-Complex 5-2-10, an organic
mineral fertiliser capable of working in low temperatures making it an ideal
spring starter.
Alex explains, “I told Dave how C-Complex could provide a burst of
early growth, which could help to grow the disease scars back in. However, to
give it the best chance, I consulted the WeatherCheck service to find the
optimum window of opportunity. As this was February, I was not overly hopeful
however I could see there was an uplift in ‘Growth Potential’ imminent so we
organised a next day delivery of the product for Dave to apply – the products
performance, coupled with the window of increased soil temperatures, delivered
amazing results and gave the greens the kick start they needed moving into the
main playing season.”
“It was a new product to us” says Dave, “but it did exactly what
Alex said it would.” Following this, between April and September they’ve had
success on the greens with a programme of Seamac Ultra Plus, C-Complex and
TeMag Elite. “We’ve also kept an eye on the ‘Evapotranspiration’ module on
WeatherCheck which gives us an idea of when the greens are likely to experience
drought stress. Using this information, we have been using TriCure Granular as
a pre-emptive stress reliever on the driest areas, again to great effect.”
Headland’s WeatherCheck is a customer and postcode weather service
which features a general 7- day forecast, as well as detailed 3-hourly, daily
weather forecasts showing predicted rainfall, expected wind strength and
precipitation probability. It also contains many specific agronomic modules,
facilitating the turf manager to take a proactive, rather than reactive,
approach to programmes and applications.
