Greens Aerification

The weather was perfect for aerifying Lakes and Orchard greens on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Unfortunately, rain showers moved in last night and this morning, delaying the process on Grove.  The weather tomorrow will be much cooler than what we had earlier in the week, but that won't affect us as long as it doesn't rain.  A little moisture is a good thing while aerifying because it provides lubrication for the coring tine to enter the root zone and reduces tearing of the plant.  Moisture is not a good thing when topdressing because the sand needs to be completely dry in order to fill all the aerification holes.  A few greens will need to be brushed again to even out the sand, but overall we're happy with the process and the holes should heal in a couple of weeks as long as the temps don't go too low.

The first step in this process is deep tining.  A contractor uses a machine with 1/2" diameter solid tines to relieve compaction in the root zone to a depth of 10"

The deep tine unit is setup for 2.5" lateral by 3" forward spacing.

Right after the green is deep tined we use our aerifier to remove 3/8" diameter cores up to 4" deep.  The collection box attached to the aerifier dumps the plugs at the edge of the green when the coring head is raised.  The crew then shovels the plugs into a utility vehicle and disposes of them.

This is what the green looks like after it's blown off and rolled.  The tines on our aerifier are setup for 1.5"x1.5" spacing which creates 72 holes per square foot.

Once the greens are cleaned and rolled, we apply enough topdressing sand to evenly cover the entire putting surface and collar.  We use a specially blended sand that conforms to USGA specifications and closely matches the sand that our greens were constructed with to prevent contamination and other long-term issues.  The topdressing sand costs $55 per ton and we will use around 75 tons this fall between all three nines.

This was taken after one brushing.  Most of the holes are filled, but we found brushing again in a different direction will fill all the holes and disperse the sand better.  The greens will be frequently rolled over the next couple of weeks until most of the sand has disappeared.  It doesn't make sense to mow too soon and risk picking up mostly sand.