Fall Aerification

Turning the calendar over to September and finishing the biggest tournament of the year only means 1 thing - cooler temperatures and aerification.  This falls schedule will be as follows:

Sept 8 week - fairways
Sept 15 week - greens, course closed Monday and Tuesday Sept 15 and 16
Sept 22 week - tees and approaches
Sept 29 week -  fairways and practice facility

Aerification is one the most important parts of delivering the playing conditions that we do.  The alleviation of compaction, removal and reduction in organic matter, incorporating sand topdressing, opening up the canopy to allow gas exchange and oxygen to the roots and soil, and creating the vertical sand channels where the roots always grow the deepest.

With aerfication, you have to understand what you are trying to accomplish and that will lead to what method you use.  We use large solid deep tines to go 8" deep creating sand channels that allow water and nutrients to infiltrate, along with deeper roots.  We also use small solid tines set at a 3-4" depth to create numerous holes and incorporate as much sand as possible into that top thatch layer.  These two methods are used in areas where reducing thatch is not our main goal but instead we are diluting the thatch with sand, incorporating the sand into the channels that we create, and reducing compaction.  In areas where we want to reduce thatch, we will be pulling a core with a hallow tine, picking them up, and then applying sand to fill the holes.  Here are some pictures of the different processes.

Deep tining machine, 1" tines 

Green after deep tining

Pulling cores on a green

On a green - deep tining on the left, pulling cores after clean-up on the right

Solid tining greens, sand topdressing down first

Topdressing

Finished product after brushing

The ultimate goal - deep channel sof sand

Fairway aerification - pulling a core

Stay tuned for the next several weeks as we move through each part of the golf course and I will explain in more detail what our methodology is and what our goal is for each area.