Greens Aeration Update

We had a very good day Monday with both the weather and equipment all functioning perfectly.  The deep solid tine aeration was accomplished with the help of a contractor.  We followed this process with a very light verticutting that is slightly visible yet not disruptive to putting.  The third step was a traditional spiking with our aerator.  This step is slower than the first two and is now being completed around golf.  We decided to postpone the light topdressing to another day as we could not stay ahead of the big machines and didn't want to put a heavy topdresser on a soft, freshly aerated green.  That was the only tweak to the plan.

The deep holes will hopefully get the roots to move a little further down and alleviate some moisture holding issues in some lower places on greens.  The verticutting was just enough to encourage some more upright growth and clean up some of the longer leaf blades that tend to lay flat. The final step with our aerator is done to help the top two inches breath a little easier.  This step has now been done twice this year and we'll do it as often as we can throughout the summer.  We don't have the luxury of changing out the potting mix like we would in a flower pot.  We can't till the soil like we might do in a garden.  We have to figure out ways to improve the growing medium without screwing up the putting quality.  In the fall we will likely be using our traditional coring tines and backfilling the holes with sand.  We'll make a final call as the season unfolds and we have a better idea of our situation.  The work we just completed should be smoothed out completely by next Monday.