Trial Using Gypsum (Verde-cal G from Aqua-Aid) to See If We Could Help With the Effects of Black Layer

We used the second green at Dunmurry Springs golf club in Kildare Ireland. Prior to starting to use verde-cal G we had been carrying out 2 hollow corings per year removing between 15% and 20% of the greens surface area in total. We applied 210 tonnes of topdressing to the greens per year also. This was to an area of 1.3 hectares. We took photos of the rootzone profile last February before we started on the program.

The photo above was taken on February 25th 2015 from our 2nd green.

We then hollow cored the green as normal in the spring time and filled the holes with a coarse sand. We then topdressed the greens throughout the season but only applied 90 tonnes. At the end of july we hollow cored again and filled the core holes with the same coarse sand as the spring time. We then applied one application of verde-cal G at 50 grams per meter sq to the second green on the second week of august. We repeated this application again in September, October and November. Each time we applied 50 grams per meter and applied it 4 weeks apart. We then looked at the green profile again and took pictures.

This picture was taken on December 4th 2015 and is from the 2nd green once again:

 

Submitted by: Gerard McEvoy Bsc, Golf Course Superintendent
Dunmurry Springs Golf Club, Kildare, Ireland