The Agronomy Team
successfully completed the 2015 Green's Aerification on Wednesday afternoon.
What a process! The team was able to impact double the surface area compared
to last year. This past spring we shipped greens profile samples to an
independent lab in Kansas OM (organic matter) from 2014, so it was time to get aggressive
with the cultivation. A solid rule of thumb is to impact 15% of the Surface
Area each year and since St Ives decided to interrupt play once per year the
Agronomy Staff gets one chance to get that nasty ole thatch out of the greens. The
program we implements showed that we impacted close to 19% of the Surface Area
(overachievers). This new process was time consuming as it required 3 full days
to complete; we began by edging the greens then we followed up by brushing the
turf canopy to stand up the plant. Once the surface was dry we started a 4 direction
verticut. The team then blew off all the debris that was produced and followed
up with heavy topdressing. The sand would sit on the surface until dry then we
aerified with 1/2" tines on 1.3"x 2.5" spacing. The cores would
then sit on top of the green to bake and dry in the sun. Once dry, a steel drag
mat was drug over the surface to remove the greens mix sand from the thatch.
The thatch was then blown off the green and the sand brushed into the open
holes. At that point we came back and aerified with the same tine setup and
repeated the process.
Recovery: Please
understand that it will take a few weeks to have the greens back to the where
we left off. We have increased our fertilization and with the forecasted
temperatures we should have ideal bermuda grass growing weather. I expect to
see turf improvement in 7-10 days and putting surfaces starting to smooth out
around day 18. We will continue to topdress and fertilize to aid in smoothness
and recovery. If you have any questions please email me at
kmacdonald@valleycrest.com
Enjoy your round!
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