Greens Aerification Recovery

The greens and collars are breathing a breath of fresh air and recovering very nicely after our annual core aerification two weeks ago! The weather has been absolutely fantastic, providing perfect conditions for the greens healing process. In the below pictures you can see outstanding healing progression in the first two weeks of their recovery. 

After Core Aerification 9-22-14

One Week After Core Aerification 9-29-14

Two Weeks After Core Aerification 10-6-14

Topdressing & Needle Tine Venting

Today we took advantage of the perfect Monday morning before the noon outing, to topdress and needle tine vent the greens. The greens roots received a healthy breath of fresh oxygen and a smooth topping of sand. With nice dry conditions, the machine vibrated/incorporated sand into the holes and turf canopy very nicely, making for excellent results.

Once the greens are punched with the Toro Pro Core 648, backpack blowers are used to blow the remainder of the topdressing sand into the open holes. The greens are then double rolled to smooth the putting surface and close the majority of the holes.

The finished product today looks perfect with most all holes completely closed and topped with a light dressing of sand. All holes will be completely closed tomorrow morning after a double cut and roll, providing a wonderful healthy, firm and fast putting surface.

For more information on needle tine venting Click Here

Needle Tine Benefits

Here is a perfect example of why we needle tine aerify and give the greens a breath of fresh air throughout the summer months. 

These happy and healthy annual bluegrass "Poa" roots are crawling down this open needle tine channel from 3 weeks ago.

For more information on needle tine aeration and it's benefits. Click here

Greens Rooting Depth

With summer in full swing and mother nature beginning to work against the turf, it's a good time to discuss rooting depth and plant stress tolerance on greens. This has been an exceptionally challenging summer so far with more than 8" of rain in the last 6 weeks and saturated turf becoming the norm. The excess water and constant saturated turf conditions, presents many challenges for the grounds staff and the overall health of our greens. We simply have not been able to dry out the rootzones and let the roots breath properly with the continuous rain events and lack of consistent sunshine. The greens remain in fantastic shape this summer, despite the challenging environmental conditions Mother Nature has thrown at us so far. 

The rooting depth of Turfgrass plants in a putting green is very important to their overall health and stress tolerance throughout the summer months. The quality of the root systems below ground ultimately dictates the plants overall health and ability to withstand traffic (golfers, mowing, rolling, etc.) on the surface of the green. We spend the majority of the year preparing the rootzones to withstand the harsh summer months, through Aerification, Deep Tining, DryJect, Needle Tining, Topdressing and providing the plants the correct nutrients at the precise times. 

Poa & Bentgrass Plant Comparison On Green Surface

The greens here at Gull Lake Country Club were renovated back in 1994 by Art Hills, going from an old style "pushup" native soil greens to sand based rootzones. After the renovation, the greens were seeded with bentgrass but over the years annual bluegrass (Poa) has invaded and pretty much taken over. This is a perfectly normal progression for putting greens in Michigan as Poa is extremely invasive and a very opportunistic plant. We currently have about 40% Bentgrass and 60% Poa.

We are forced to manage two different kinds of grass in our putting greens that have two distinctly different growth habits and nutrient requirements. Poa is much less heat/traffic tolerant compared to Bentgrass. Over the years Michigan State along with many others have provided us superintendents with the knowledge and tools to help Poa battle through the stressful summer months.

In the below pictures you will be able to see the impact this summer has already had on the root structure of both types of plants and the difference in rooting depth of plants virtually next to each other in a green.  

Annual Bluegrass (Poa)

The annual bluegrass plants are very tender and fine in texture compared to bentgrass plants as you can see in the above picture. The rooting depth of the Poa is currently 2" - 2.5" on average across the course. While that doesn't seem like much, the root structure that we do have is very white and healthy at this time. During the spring and fall growing season we typically have 3" - 5" roots on all Poa plants and you can really see how the summer stress begins to negatively affect rooting depth.

Bentgrass

Bentgrass thrives in the summer months with very good stress tolerance and fantastic rooting depths. The average rooting depth of bentgrass patches in the greens is between 3" - 4" with beautiful white healthy roots. With the exception of the heat of the summer, bentgrass roots are generally 5+ inches deep. 

Take Home Message

Deeper healthier roots allows us to put more stress on the surface with daily maintenance and cultural practices, ultimately resulting in firmer/faster greens. In the heat of a stressful summer, we are basically managing "sod" with the poa plants lack of roots. Its very important to continue to aggressively remove/dilute organic matter within the rootzone. Annual deep tine aerification and routine needle tine venting during the summer months,allows the soil to breath better and rid itself of excess water. With the lack of roots during the heat of the summer, we are forced to do more syringing and cooling of the greens during the afternoons as the top inch of the greens surface dries out. The greens here at Gull Lake Country Club are in wonderful shape and rolling beautiful. The grounds staff will continue trying to stay ahead of Mother Nature as we finish battling though the heat of summer and a wonderful golfing season.

Greens Needle Tine Aeration

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.

Short Video Showing the Machine In Action

Spring DryJect

The DryJect process is 21st century aerification at it's finest and leaves virtually no trace behind on the playing surface. This is the first season we have used the DryJect technology on our greens and we are very excited about the results this will make throughout the golfing season for us. We plan to use this form of aerification in the spring each season to minimize the disruption to the playing surface, that conventional core aerification typically leaves behind.

The DryJect machines inject kiln dried sand into the greens to a depth of 5-6" on 2X3" spacing with very little disruption. Our target was 1 ton of Sand/Green and we actually did better than that, using 23 tons total on all 19 greens. That's pretty impressive to think about! 

In the above picture you can see the fresh sand channels that have been injected into the profile of the green, providing many benefits for the overall health of the green and playing conditions. This process leaves behind a very small hole on the surface and a large deposit of sand beneath, deluting organic matter, along with promoting more healthy vigorous root systems and providing better water infiltration.

 

Short Video Showing the DryJect Machine In Operation.

The Crew Getting a Lesson On How the Machines Operate

Sand Delivery

Preparing To Fire Up the First Machine and Observe Operation.

Check out this link for more information on the DryJect technology. www.dryject.com/howitworks