Nursery Green Reestablishment

As you have played the White Nine, many of you have noticed the sizable nursery to the north of the sixth green. The 10,000 ft2 nursery is an important piece to our maintenance plan. The nursery was carefully constructed in 2007 to match the soil characteristics of the putting greens at NSCC. The matching soil properties serve to minimize transplant stress when repairing damaged greens or expanding greens or roll off areas during renovation. Additionally, the golf course maintenance staff utilized the nursery to replace fairway turf which was damaged due to excess water during the wet and hot summer of 2010. Each fall the golf course staff must do all we can to replace the sod that was harvested throughout the season. In order to accomplish this, we harvest the aerification cores from our putting greens. The cores are spread evenly throughout the desired area. Following the application of the cores, a light sand topdressing is applied to level the surface. The area is then seeded, rolled, fertilized, and watered to stimulate rapid growth and recovery. The end product is a variety of turf species which are essentially a clone of our existing greens. The mixture of creeping bentgrasses and annual bluegrasses mimic our putting surfaces making for a smooth transition should the turf be needed for repair or renovation work in the future. The background of the picture illustrates the established nursery, while the foreground depicts the portion of the nursery which has recently been repaired.