Aeration Update

Its the most hated time of year according to golfers, aeration, but for superintendents and agronomists its one of the most important. The greens were deep aerified and core aerified this past Monday disturbing over 13% of the greens surface area meeting the goals of a combined disruption of over 20% for the season in accordance with our ISTRC testing. The holes were filled with sand, brushed and the greens were rolled. Rolling will continue in the afternoons this week with the first mowing being on Friday afternoon using our old greens mowers. The greens will be sandy, bumpy, slow, and soft this week and into the weekend but the end results will be firmer healthier putting surfaces. The rain today changed our plans slightly moving the tee and approach aeration to Wednesday and Thursday. Next Monday an outside contractor will be performing the core aeration and clean-up on fairways as sub-contracting this process twice a year is much more fiscally responsible then purchasing all of the equipment needed.

Hollow core aeration is the process of removing organic material with cored plugs. Removing organic material and filling the cavities with straight sand reduces the amount of organic material in the upper root zone. In addition, organic material migrates through sand-filled aerification cavities and dissipates into the lower root zone. The goal is to keep the upper root zone organic matter below 2.5%. We are currently at 3.06% as of last fall when our last test was performed.

Deep tine aeration is performed with 3/4 inch diameter 12 inch long solid tines. Deep tine aeration is an excellent tool for relieving compaction and aerifying the lower root zone. The kicking action of these large tines in the lower root zone shatters hard pan and deep layers and it is common to find deep root growth in these channels.

Deep Tine on the left and Core Aeration on Right