South greens aeration complete

 

This past Monday for aeration week did not start out exactly how we would of liked. Another nationwide long severe thunderstorm rolled through with some serious wind and frigid air behind it. Thankfully less than an inch of rain was observed and not much of it was in the form of hail although we could make out some tiny indentations on the North greens from what may of been a quick hail storm at some point.

One huge oak uprooted right of 11 South and it did some damage to other surrounding oaks as well. In addition to aeration we were also tasked with cleaning up this area.

The North team came over to help out and the main positive is that much more sunlight will be coming through in the afternoon to help keep 11 approach a little drier.

While our kids sat home from school on Monday we ran out and got started with aeration. 6 greens were cored with 3/8" tines and blown off before the storms rolled through. 

The SavATree guys were the only ones that braved the afternoon rain on Monday. With their fertilization process finished all the tree work through the front entrance is complete.

The rain moved on and the cold set in as aeration pressed on. This years smaller holes should heal more quickly and the cleanup process is made easier by using blowers. Blowing plugs off the green eliminates any scraping or damage from shovels or other core collector machines. At a 2"x2" spacing we are still removing enough thatch and organic material to set up a successful season.

With the first set of holes opened up it was time for the dry aeration sand to go down. This sand is slightly more coarse than the sand we use for light periodic topdressing. Brushing this larger diameter sand into the aeration holes helps keep the green surface more firm through the season and creates more air space for gas exchange and water movement. No extra nitrogen is applied to the bentgrass during this process but we were able to put down a variety of micronutrients in front of the sand to be brushed down into the greens profile.

Two more aerators equipped with solid tines come right over top of the sand and punch another set of holes in a different direction than the core aerators. This second set of holes takes the place of the dryject used in the past. Around 100 tons of sand was applied to our 3.5 acres of greens surface.

The greens are brushed with a pull behind brush in two directions and then the roller with its own set of brushes goes over the green to smooth everything out and finish filling up the holes.

Any excess sand is blown off the surface after the holes in the green are filled. With the zoysia greening up we are ok with getting extra sand on the collars as this should help smooth out the tie in from the collar to the green even more. Some of these areas in the collars that never took hold during the re-sodding process last year will be replaced in the next week or two. We will be using sod from onsite to ensure the quality of these high traffic areas.

A 3,000 lb roller from Sunbelt was brought in to finish up smoothing out the surface. 

The final product looks pretty good out there. There will be sand on the surface through the weekend and the dew will most likely make that sand sticky enough where we will not be able to mow or roll these greens again until Monday. Monday we will put a dry cut on the greens and then hopefully be back in to a more normal routine of mowing and taking the dew off. A few rounds on bumpy greens should yield some pretty healthy turf in a few weeks.

While our aeration process was going on our main bridge access to holes 2 through 16 was closed off for resurfacing. New curbs were installed as well and after any bad or broken areas were chipped off the main surface, a 1" layer of specialized concrete was laid down. The cold weather was no help here in getting the concrete to cure but the bridge will be open today for cart traffic. As the concrete finishes curing over the next week we will evaluate the need for a top cote to help with aesthetics.

The paddlewheel dredger has made its way back on property. This process was supposed to start on Monday but due to a broken trailer this crew has just gotten started dredging this Thursday morning. Keeping up with all the leaves and debris that get deposited into our irrigation lake is import but this is a painfully slow process. Next week we plan to set up some hay bales on the south side of the lake so that this machine can just place debris on the lake edge. We will use our own excavator to load the gators and haul the debris to the dump. This should keep the paddleboat more out of the way and allow him to work a little faster.

The North team has stayed busy this week with storm cleanup and checking bunker depths. The first cut on the tees went down Thursday morning in 32 degree temperatures. We may hit 90 this weekend and then back to normal temps in the 40s/60s for next week.

Welcome to spring officially!