Tuesday, April 6, 2010
18 greens in one day
Yesterday, we set a new record by completing aerification on all of our greens in a single day. Normally we would aerify 6 greens on Sunday evening and finish the rest on Monday. We were rained out on Sunday by a solid 3/4 inch of rain. Luckily, Monday's chance of showers never amounted to anything and we were able to work all day long without a hitch.
Our aerifier is set up with 3/8 inch quad tines which are spaced much closer than traditional aerification tines. In the photo below, you can see two rows of tines for every tine-holder resulting in 70 holes per square foot. We switched to this method three years ago and it is here to stay. By using the smaller tines at closer spacing, we can impact a greater amount of surface area and reduce healing time simultaneously. Pretty sweet.
Now for the fun part, we get to clean up the plugs. As always, the staff did a great job clearing the greens so we could continue toward the finish line. I guarantee there are some tired legs working today, I know mine are.
A final preparation before the fertilizer goes down is blowing off the greens with a walking blower. This gets any plugs that were missed and helps to open up the holes so the sand and amendments can filter in.
I only put out two products this year instead of 5 like last time. The main reason is I had to put it out myself and 2 products is plenty for one person. Also, our soil tests have been good and there are many granular fertilizers which water in well and can be applied outside of aerification.
So there you have it. A long day and a long post to explain the process. Most golfers hate aerification because it interferes with play, but trust me, there is no way we would go through all of this trouble if it wasn't necessary.
If you stare at an aerified green for long enough, a picture will develop and it looks like a great big smile. The greens are happy.
A day of aerification involves many steps that must be coordinated to maximize efficiency. The pictures below illustrate many of the steps involved as the day moves along. Eventually, I would like to improve my computer skills and put together an aerification montage, but today isn't the day, so a bunch of pics will have to suffice.
The first thing we need is some decent weather and we definitely had that yesterday. A few storm clouds passed by, but only a handful of drops hit the ground. All in all, a beautiful day at SGCC.
Our aerifier is set up with 3/8 inch quad tines which are spaced much closer than traditional aerification tines. In the photo below, you can see two rows of tines for every tine-holder resulting in 70 holes per square foot. We switched to this method three years ago and it is here to stay. By using the smaller tines at closer spacing, we can impact a greater amount of surface area and reduce healing time simultaneously. Pretty sweet.
Now for the fun part, we get to clean up the plugs. As always, the staff did a great job clearing the greens so we could continue toward the finish line. I guarantee there are some tired legs working today, I know mine are.
A final preparation before the fertilizer goes down is blowing off the greens with a walking blower. This gets any plugs that were missed and helps to open up the holes so the sand and amendments can filter in.
I only put out two products this year instead of 5 like last time. The main reason is I had to put it out myself and 2 products is plenty for one person. Also, our soil tests have been good and there are many granular fertilizers which water in well and can be applied outside of aerification.
Next comes the sand. Izzo helps to supervise the loading of the topdresser, or she's just warming her fat belly. We use kiln dried sand which spreads better and falls into the holes like sugar.
This next picture is a little blurry, thanks to some sand in my pocket, polishing my iPhone. Richard is dropping out some bentgrass seed as Bert finishes up #15 green. Very little of this bentgrass will germinate and what does may not be able to compete with the mature bent and poa. However, it never hurts to encourage an increase in bent population so we normally put a little seed out with each aerification.
After we have the fertilizer, sand, and seed applied, we drag the greens with a broom until nearly all the holes are filled. I always try to leave a little sand on the surface to be broomed again after some irrigation. The next few days we will send two or three staff members to walk the greens with brooms and buckets, filling in open holes and removing any excess sand.
So there you have it. A long day and a long post to explain the process. Most golfers hate aerification because it interferes with play, but trust me, there is no way we would go through all of this trouble if it wasn't necessary.
If you stare at an aerified green for long enough, a picture will develop and it looks like a great big smile. The greens are happy.
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