What to do with chocolate drops

[Paul Wold]

There is a wonderful Donald Ross golf course ,1921, that has an on-going restoration and the powers that be can not agree on what to do with the numerous chocolate drops. They have tried to grow a wispy fescue but they are finding it difficult to achieve wispy!
This course has wonderful design features and has hardly been screwed with over the years!

Thoughts would be appreciated!

Thank you,

Paul

[Patrick_Mucci]

There is a wonderful Donald Ross golf course ,1921, that has an on-going restoration and the powers that be can not agree on what to do with the numerous chocolate drops. They have tried to grow a wispy fescue but they are finding it difficult to achieve wispy!
This course has wonderful design features and has hardly been screwed with over the years!

Thoughts would be appreciated!


Paul,

Location would be helpful.

I'm familiar with a Ross course in NJ with mounds that are covered in Fescue and they look terrific.

Size/configuration of the mounds is important in terms of maintenance.
Are they small and steep or large and less sloped ?

How many of them are there ? 

[Malcolm Mckinnon]

Paul,

What do you think of these? From a historic North Shore course in MA.

DSCN0176 by macmalc21, on Flickr

And this...

DSCN0197 by macmalc21, on Flickr

[Philip Caccamise]

Those are fantastic Malcolm! I think I know what course that is 

[Quinn Thompson]

…tell the "Powers that be" that they're best at Backgammon…I'd check the irrigation coverage on said mounds; likely too much in that it's too thick…or not enough, in that it just ain't growing…remember though, most of those "chocolate drops" are buried stone piles, meaning the irrigation ain't gonna hold…what you may have is a raised gravel pile….

And remember that it's a mound, that water will tend to run away from it…if it's a problem of getting turf established, it just may need a little hose detail to get it started…

[Paul Wold]

Malcomb
Thank you,!

Paul

[Jon Wiggett]

Paul,

you could strip any rich soil from the mounds and replace this with material taken from below the top soil profile that is nutrient poor. Then either seed lightly with desired grass (does need some patience as it will take several years to establish) or if you can strip sod which has the desired sward then you can do this though you need to take a good 5 to 6 inches of soil with it. I hve done both these methods successfully.

Jon

[Jeff_Brauer]

Paul,

MY experience in the north is similar to Quinns.  Most fescue failures are due to too much irrigation and changing nearby nozzles, heads or even head locations might be the only answer.

[Jon Wiggett]

Paul,

MY experience in the north is similar to Quinns.  Most fescue failures are due to too much irrigation and changing nearby nozzles, heads or even head locations might be the only answer.

Then it is not a failure of the plant but rather a failure of the maintenance programme.