How to brush away dew disease and worm casts

By Alistair February 23, 2021 07:21 Updated

Ideal for regular brushing over large areas, the wide working width of the SISIS Flexibrush tractor mounted brush consists of three sections with angled brushes that will help brush away dew, drying the sward and reduce the risk of disease to improve the presentation of fairways.

Lawrence Ryan, course manager at Overstone Park Resort, has reported great results from using it for a number of tasks on his fairways. Featuring a 5.35 metre working width, its brush sections ‘float’ to follow ground contours providing maximum efficiency on large areas.

“It’s a great piece of kit which is extremely versatile,” he said. “Primarily we use it prior to cutting which ensures a quality cut every time. In the mornings, we will go out with the Flexibrush to remove the dew from the fairways. Also, because we block cut them, we will use it to stand the grasses up before cutting. We simply run the brush in an opposite direction to the way we block cut which results in a nice and even cut.

“Presentation wise, the Flexibrush provides us with fantastic striping which the members really like and appreciate. We can follow up with it behind the fairway mower, enhancing the presentation. This summer, due to the dry weather we’ve experienced, we’ve reduced the amount of cutting and used the Flexibrush for striping instead. It means we can skip cuts which saves a significant amount of time for the team as it’s quicker than mowing and gives us the presentation that is expected by the members.”

Another who has benefited from adding the SISIS Flexibrush to their maintenance armoury is Gary Barnfield, head greenkeeper at Oswestry Golf Club in Shropshire, who claims it has proved to be an ideal solution for controlling worm casts.

Since taking over as head greenkeeper Gary has implemented a number of changes to the maintenance regimes which has no doubt reinforced the club’s reputation for being in an excellent condition all year round.

However, over recent years Gary claims that he has faced arguably his biggest challenge after a number of chemicals were removed from the turfcare market.

“With the ban of certain chemicals we have not been able to use what was once in our armoury,” he said. “This proved to be problematic, as it no doubt did for every other greenkeeper, but the biggest loss was Carbendazim. Unfortunately the worms came out and more and more casts were appearing so we had to come up with a solution.

“An STRI advisor came to visit us and recommended that we apply some sand to top dress to the areas and also to brush the worm casts and level them off before we cut. We needed to find ourselves a reliable machine that would give the worm casts a rigorous brush and we trialled four brushes from four different brands. The SISIS Flexibrush was the stand out machine.”

“It’s not only great for brushing the worm casts but it also stands the grass up before we cut – which improves the quality of the cut and gives us better presentation,” said Gary.

“In fact, the Flexibrush has got multiple uses because we use it for knocking dew off in the mornings and also in the winter months when the turf is not growing so much we will brush instead of cutting to keep the presentation to a high standard.

“Ultimately, we had to do something about the worm casts and the Flexibrush has done a brilliant job. I think it is a great alternative to spraying the worms and I think more greenkeepers will go down this route.”