Today we needle tined the greens and gave the root zones a breath of fresh air. The main objectives with this form of cultivation are, gas exchange, relieving compaction, and providing a fresh environment for the turfgrass root systems to flourish in. Improving the ability for the root zone to breathe will not only encourage a deeper, more sustainable root system, but also enhance microbial activity to aid in the natural decomposition of organic matter and thatch.
The Toro Pro Core 648 is outfitted with quad tine heads and two different sized tines (1/4" & 3/8" solid tines) placed in an every other pattern on the tine heads. By using two different sized tines, we are able to work more sand into the larger holes while keeping the disruption to the putting surface to a minimum. The larger holes seal off slower but also provide more positive pore space below the surface for oxygen and roots to reside.
Holes are opened up to a depth of 4+ inches on a tight 1.5" X 2" spacing. Topdressing sand is applied prior to punching holes, allowing the aerifier to work sand into the open holes during operation. The remaining sand is blown into the holes with backpack blowers to minimize traffic and bruising from a drag brush or coco mat.
The above picture shows the surface of the green after punching, before the sand has been blown into the open holes and the finished product after rolling. This monthly routine venting process provides excellent results and improves the health of the greens dramatically throughout the stressful summer months.
We recently updated our Toro Flex 21 greens mowers with brushes. Last year we experimented with one mower/brush setup and were very excited with the results on the greens surface. This season we made the decision to adapt all six greens mowers with brushes to allow us to brush more frequently as conditions allow.
The brushes ride out in front of the cutting reel at just the perfect angle and essentially stand up and comb out the grass before it's mowed, similar to combing out your hair before cutting. Brushing helps to eliminate grain, tightening the surface and ultimately improving ball roll distance on the greens.
The addition of brushes to our greens mowers has already been noticed in the overall quality of the putting surface this season and will be a great new tool in our greens management program arsenal.
How do you maintain the bunker edges and lips? We get this question periodically from the membership and want to take this opportunity to show you our weekly process with some pictures taken today.
Sand is moved away from the very edge of the bunkers to better expose for trimming and reclaim places where sand has been pushed up near the grass. The top and inside edges of the bunkers are then trimmed with a string trimmer by staff members with the ultimate precision and steady hands. The goal here is to simply maintain the nice clean inside edge by removing the new growth with a light frequent haircut.
After the bunkers are trimmed, all the clippings are blown out and removed from the surrounding rough. It's very important to keep the bunkers clean and free of contamination throughout the season.
The sand is then moved back against the edges of the bunkers and packed to maintain a nice consistent 2-3" lip on all bunkers. During this process bunker sand depths are also checked and sand is moved around accordingly.
The bunkers are then raked and ready for playing action. This process is very effective for us and maintains very nice, crisp, clean looking bunkers with excellent playability.
Finished product! This process is part of our normal maintenance program and is performed weekly during the high growth times and biweekly during the slower growth periods.
The silver maples sure have started to make a mess all over the golf course this past week, making it a challenge to find your golf ball and mow daily! The dense clusters of samara this season and the recent experienced high winds sure creates a huge mess. The silver maples fruit are samaras, each containing a single seed, and winged in shape, often referred to as helicopters.
The challenge for the grounds team is cleaning all the greens, tees and fairways each morning before we begin our daily mowing routines. We send out 5-6 guys each morning armed with backpack and pro force tow behind blowers to clean off all short grass ahead of the mowers. Blowing helicopters is quite a challenge as they have a tendency to want to "stick" to the ground and only move short distances.
The flowers on Silver Maples are in dense clusters, produced before the leaves in early spring,with the seeds maturing in early summer. The fruit are the largest of any native maple. Although the wings provide for some transport by air, the fruit are heavy and are also transported by water.
The major seed drop seems to be winding down at this time and things will be back to normal very soon. We are working together as a team to cleanup the mess and we will win this fight.
