OT: Putting Green project update...

[MtNittany]

bye

 

[Cruising Route 66]

...falling behind schedule due to weather. Port St. Lucie has it's own black cloud. We are just sort of stuck on a lot of things until they can dry out. This is from the back to the front - about a 90 yard (no typo) putt.

Forest City Ratner is putting a 135K square foot green roof on the Barclay Center. Did you bid the job?

 

[fairgambit]

...falling behind schedule due to weather. Port St. Lucie has it's own black cloud. We are just sort of stuck on a lot of things until they can dry out. This is from the back to the front - about a 90 yard (no typo) putt.

Lord have mercy!

 

[Carl Spackler]

Finally getting good weather and able to get some sand on the turf. Should wrap this up by the end of the week.

From back left pitching area looking towards the front (everything green still needs to be sanded):

Left side of the green looking towards middle:

Left side of the green looking towards the back:

From the front, looking back:

 

[Carl Spackler]

Good luck with the project! Amazing. What type/size topdressing sand are you using, it is local or bagged and trucked in from afar? Keep up posted. I just completed my 5 acre yard spring treatments for preemergent, broadleaf products and am awaiting an Imidacloprid application somewhere in June for the white grub invasion (we had good snow cover last winter so the larva were not killed and should be ready for a remarkable season) and even added some leaf spot/red thread fungicide for the spring innocolum build up. My neighbors lawns of similar size look like dandelion farms and in three months will be crabgrass nurseries. I have to combat this on three sides. Right now the turf appears to be nearly artificial with a deep green color not using fertilizer since 2010. Happy days, if you can't grow it in May and June you never will in July and August.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I used to use ceramic (tiny microspheres) for the nylon green and sand (20-40 silica) for the lawn. Ceramic became too expensive (probably around $20 for a 50 lb. bag nowadays). I liked ceramic because it was heavier, and that's the real purpose of the infill in this case - to weight this giant carpet down. Now we use 30-65 silica for the green and either 20-40 or even play sand (if it's dry) for the lawn.

We're lucky that we have a silica source right in Riviera Beach. Say the word and they'll bring pallets w/ a piggy back forklift. Probably around $5.50/bag. We can't really use bulk sand (it has to be dry), thus the 50 lb. bag route.

I like using acrylic coated sands for high end projects as well. 85-15 black and green from Black Lab is about the best I've come across, but like the ceramic it's too expensive and the minimums are sometimes high.

Like you said the cost for larger projects becomes prohibitive. They do make some nice stuff these days with uniformity and sizing all working toward stability. I've use many tons of silica sand for topdressing greens over the years. In the western part of PA I used the #1 Dry from Mapleton Depot, Huntingdon. I came dry as dust and was a beautiful product to work with until nematodes began to enjoy the greater porosity a little too much. That is the draw back I saw at two or three sites. In the east I do not remember the sand number but it was similar to the #1 Dry product and came in dry as well. When dry it fills aerifier holes to the top and then we set up a Toro triplex greens unit wiht brushes in the place of the mowing reel and swept them to collect excess sand that would dull our mowers for two weeks if left with the sweeping action.

I know we are talking apples to oranges but it is shop talk for the most part. Good luck in your future projects.