Over 1 inch of Volcanic Ash on the course

[MClutterbuck]

Anybody have experience of what to do with 1 inch of very fine volcanic ash that fell on our course this morning? Bent greens, fescue fairways and tees. It is mid fall, both were still in growth mode until yesterday. This is the second 1 in 400 year event we have had in 4 years... previous one was pre fine shaping. We are not able to do anything today while the air is still too dusty, but trying to figure out priorities.

[Tom_Doak]

Ugh.  I saw the news of the eruption last night and was hoping the wind was blowing away from you.

[john_stiles]

Is not good for a lot of the plants and animals. Hope there is no more ash.

US Geological Services notes on all the issues for plants and animals.

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/ash/agric/

[Randy Thompson]

Marcos,
I will send you an email tonight. In the meantime...is it really fine...much finer than a bunker sand for example? If you could send me a photo of the material on a piece of White paper back ground, it might help me make some recomendation. Mala Leche! I was also hoping this one wouldn´t effect you!

[Marty Bonnar]

If it's sulphurous, it'll lower your pH nicely, so you can grow heather. So you've got that going for you at least!
F.

[Pete_Pittock]

Check with Llao Llao Hotel and Golf. They had the same problem 4 years ago. 

[Tom_Doak]

Check with Llao Llao Hotel and Golf. They had the same problem 4 years ago. 

Pete:

I spent time with the greenkeeper at Llao Llao last month.  They got a lot more than an inch of ash in the last eruption.  Fortunately, it was winter there, and the grass was dormant, so they had time to remove the ash without it killing all the grass.  He said at a different time of year it would have been a do-over.

[Clyde Johnson]

Slightly different, but large areas of 'growing-in' fescue at Tara'Iti would get buried by an inch or so of sand at a fairly frequent intervals (until the native dunes planting had re-established). With immediate attention, and a lot of a man hours removing the sand, the turf came back OK, if a little thinner/weaker than otherwise. On the fairways, the crew would just push the sand into piles with the front-blade and then shovel and brush out - not much fun, and pretty painstaking...

...Good luck!

[Randy Thompson]

Worry about the greens first. If it it fine more like a dust, try to use blowers and then high pressure washing through hoses. If it is coarse material sweep and then high pressure wash. If your fairways are still showing some leaf tip, then your probally be ok and it will be like a heavy topdressing. If you have áreas where no leave tip is showing, then beg, steal or borrow a street sweeper and sweep until you expose some grass tips. I have a break in my schedule from the 30th to the 5th, if you need some help I would be glad to volunteer but not sure if and when there will be air travel to the área. Good luck!

[Daryl David]

Most of the golf courses in Washington State between the Cascades range and Spokane received an inch or more ash when Mt. St. Helens erupted back in the 80s. As I remember it was several years before the ash disappeared from the waste areas and roughs. I remember having to learn the "ash punch" shot. Pretty much like hitting a ball laying in a in pile of all purpose flour.  That said, I don't remember any lasting problems with fairways and greens. 

[MClutterbuck]

Thanks to all. It is really fine ash. Much finer than what we got in Bariloche a few years ago which was sand basically. I believe we got as much depth now as Llao Llao-Bariloche in the last eruption. And as Tom said grass was dormant.

Bariloche today got much less than San Martin so Llao Llao should be ok.

Of course there are no blowers left in San Martin, no flights and roads are closed.

Randy, thanks for your offer

We are thinking of using a front bucket we installed on a sand pro for greens and a box blade on fairways. Hope we get no more eruptions so that we can start work.

[Randy Thompson]

Marcos,
You will still need to high pressure wash the final layer. You probably spent mínimum 20 thousand dollars on each of those greens. If a fine layer of ash caps those greens, you will wish you had used native soil greens. You will start having algae, moss and disease problems. High wáter pressure sprayed on a angle will keep these fines moving forward and then when enough is accumulated remove with shovel or the sand pro shovel. Remove all you can and then I would high pressure straight down to hopeflully flush and see if you can get the small percentage of the remaining fines to flush and migrate down through the coaser sand base material. Drainage is everything and you don´t want to let them get sealed off and lose all your infiltration rates.

[MClutterbuck]

Thanks Randy. Fortunately we have gravity fed irrigation. Pumps would not last a day. We will if the filters work.

Martin, apparently it is sulphurous and not toxic.

[Pat Burke]

Remember, depending on the type of rock/ash spewed, it is very coarse and damaging to lungs.
Eyes too

[MClutterbuck]

Pat, yes, thanks. It is so fine it can be aspirated. Essential to wear masks.

[MClutterbuck]

Not pretty, but less bad than initially feared. Course accessed only today. Starting work on greens. Tip of grass blades on fairways just above the ash.







and same hole before:

[Dan Herrmann]

I'd contact some superintendants in metro Portland, Oregon USA.  In 1980, they had to deal with Mt. St. Helens ash.

If I recall correctly, it shut down some courses for a year, but the recovery was quick and turf health was really great after a year or two.

[Randy Thompson]

Fairways should be ok, flood them when you can and see how good your surface and sub Surface drainage works, Aerify with slicer frequently until the turf goes dormant. You want to make sure the roots have ample air before going to sleep or even semi sleep and make sure the iar is there again in the spring!

[Pete_Pittock]

I'd contact some superintendants in metro Portland, Oregon USA.  In 1980, they had to deal with Mt. St. Helens ash.

If I recall correctly, it shut down some courses for a year, but the recovery was quick and turf health was really great after a year or two.

Portland had only one very light dusting in asubsequent eruption and that was inconsequential. I don't remember any shutdowns in the metro area. Never had to wear a mask. The major plume went ENE towards Ritzville and Ephrata.

[Dan Herrmann]

Pete - I remember playing The Cedars in Battleground, WA in '85, and they told me they had a lot of ash.  The year after ('81, I think), the grass grew like crazy.

[Garland Bayley]

I'd contact some superintendants in metro Portland, Oregon USA.  In 1980, they had to deal with Mt. St. Helens ash.

If I recall correctly, it shut down some courses for a year, but the recovery was quick and turf health was really great after a year or two.

Don't know about the golf courses, but my understanding is that the wheat farmers of Eastern Washington ended up with a bumper crop.

[Cory Brown]

I haven't played there in awhile, but Moses Lake CC had ash waste areas between holes, tough to play out of, but pretty cool. 

Sorry to hear about this. I would guess that if you didn't suffer high temperature kill on contact and can get as much of the ash off of the surface as possible, then follow with good aeration and topdressing practices you should come out ok. Good luck!   

[MClutterbuck]

Huge cleanup effort from dawn to dusk yesterday. Every employee involved. All 9 greens are cleared of ashes and washed with mops. All tees were cleared manually. A box blade behind a tractor was used on fairways and then they were irrigated. The course will be untidy for some time, but we expect a full recovery by Spring IF we have no new eruptions. 

We will be watching the grass carefully and depending on conditions we will fertilize and slice before winter. A picture of 7 yesterday evening. As you can see, we have yet to clean the bunkers.

Thanks to all that helped out with ideas.