Greens Aeration Plan

Monday we will begin our spring aeration.  We will aerate greens with two different methods this time.  Neither will involve pulling any material out of the ground.  The first step of the process will involve spreading sand across the greens.  The second step will be the deep tine aerator equipped with 1/2" diameter tines set to a depth of roughly 8".   These holes will be roughly 3" apart.  The third step will be our walk behind aerator equipped with 1/2" diameter tines set to a depth of about 3".   These holes will be about 2" apart.  It will take over an hour per green to complete these steps.  The fourth step will be brushing the sand into the holes.  Our goal is to fill all of the shallow holes and hopefully get some into the deeper holes as well.  Lots of rolling, blowing, and brushing will continue until the surfaces are smooth and clean.  

The purpose of the deeper holes is to alleviate the compaction that exists below the rootzone.  We have struggled in recent summers with root depth and health and we think that compaction is a factor.  This is the second season with our deep tine aerator and this will be it's third trip around the course.  

The purpose of the more tightly spaced but shallower holes is to give us some room to add sand into the upper portion of the surface.  The greens are built from sand, but over the course of almost 30 years the rootzone has evolved to consist of too much organic matter.  Sand is a much better growing medium for roots.  It drains better and contains more air porosity than organic matter.  

The remainder of this year will consist of regular light topdressings based on turf growth and conditions.  We will also use the mini core aeration technique that we used twice last fall.  The mini core aerations require no recovery time, but we believe they will help keep the top inch or two functioning better for turf health.  The goal of these changes is to find a recipe that works for our golf calendar and our greens.  On the next rainy day I'll give a more detailed report on the current and future plans for our greens.