Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Core Aerification needed on some putting greens

So far we have experienced just over 20” of rain since June 1st. Many of our areas have been water logged and are suffering in the heat and humidity. We have been very aggressive in our venting of the turf on greens, fairways and intermediate rough. We have gone out numerous times in the last couple of weeks and have solid tine aerified these areas. By doing this we have been successful in creating channels in the soil to help drain the wet areas and allow for oxygen to get into the root zones. This has really helped the turf and the golfer hardly even notices when we have done this style of aerification.

However these extreme conditions that we have been in now are causing us to change our style and we have 3 greens that are suffering and really need to be core aerified to allow the turf to breathe and allow for more oxygen to get into the root zones. The solid tines do not seem to be enough for good plant health.

#4, 5 South and #18 North are greens that have very heavy soils and we are not experiencing turf loss yet but if we aren’t proactive we could loose some turf. So on Thursday, August 4th we will be core aerifying these greens with ¼” coring tines. We will not try to fill the holes with any sand. It is our hope that after a couple of days the turf will cover up these holes and our channels will remain in the soil profile allowing oxygen to help the plant health, then we will topdress with sand to smooth the surface.

As you can see in the attached photo a very black layer of algae has developed below the surface of the turf. This is caused by extreme waterlogged turf and anaerobic conditions. The coring will take care of that and we really should see a lot better plant health in a relatively short period of time.



Thank you

Rick Tegtmeier
rtegtmeier@dmgcc.org