Now here is a great specimen of snowmold. We found this on the first green the other day after some melting. It looks like recent activity with the recent warm weather and melting off periods. Only a turf geek like myself can really appreciate this.
Snowmold is a soil borne pathogen that occurs after prolonged periods of snow cover. During recent warm temperatures, it fuels this disease to become more active. Usually snowmold is not a threat to turf loss, moreover a threat to early season playing conditions.
Applying fungicides at this point will only potentially prevent the spread of the disease. Only warmer soil temperatures, aerification, and fertilizer will remedy this situation.
Vail Golf Club has been a snowmold test site for Colorado State University for years now. Every year they research how different chemicals respond to our winters here in Vail and try to come up with the most effective solutions.
Seeing the above picture remind's me that the greens are still only "human". They are a living and breathing environments and constantly need attention. All in all this is like a scrape on the knee and soon will be forgotten, but I welcome the challenge to continue with research and development to further solve this problem.
Thursday through Saturday this week the forecast is for mostly cloudy conditions and possibly a few inches of snow. Here on the course it snowed most of the day yesterday with very little accumulation. We are looking forward to the sunshine come Sunday and Monday.
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