Fall Aeration 2014

Usually when I'm scheduled to perform cultural practices on the greens a couple of members joke with me about it. Generally the banter goes along the lines of "the course/greens are perfect right now so it must be time for you to screw them up!" My answer is always that if I was doing it for my benefit, I wouldn't do it as it's a lot of work; ultimately it is so the greens (and course) can be perfect the remainder of the time. The conversations are in good fun but it always reminds me to make sure other people not in the know are informed as to when and why we aerate. 

The course was perfect before we started!

I've covered aeration practices numerous times since I've started the blog so I wanted to do something a little different at the end of this one. But first I wanted to throw out a quick summary of why and when.

Getting started

4 machines (on 9) make quick work of the fairways

  

Why We Aerate and Topdress?

To make the turf better! By making holes in the turf, it speeds up and increases air exchange in the soil and for the roots - which helps rooting, which in turn makes the plant healthier as the roots are the  main driver of plant health. 

It removes thatch - the organic build up of roots and stolons that a turf like creeping bentgrass produces as it grows.

The remnants of a core (ie the thatch) on 8 fway which is what we're after

The Topdressing fills the holes, keeping the pore space open longer which again helps rooting. Topdressing reduces thatch as the sand dilutes the organic material. Reduced thatch means firmer surfaces that putt smooth and true.

Topdressing also smooths the surface, again helping provide faster truer greens.

 Starting the greens topdressing

Why is it done in the middle of August?

The weather is usually pretty good in mid- August so it means that the process can be done in a timely manner. The turf is usually growing well so recovery time is minimized over doing it when the turf is slow to heal. 

Lastly it helps with poa annua control as the turf is healed before poa germinates so there is less potential for the poa to get established in open aeration holes.  Read the USGA article on timing.

For more detailed info on timing, the reasons for and practice of aeration just use the search function to the right and it will bring up the previous discussions.

This was before noon on Monday. The greens were cleaned-up  past 7 and 1 fairway was fully done

So, onto this year!

As with the summer as a whole, the weather was perfect! Last week we got ~1.5" of rain which set the course up nicely in preparation for aeration. The weather was dry and not too hot while we performed all the procedures which meant that everything went to plan and it was a very clean process. Over the last few years we have always struggled with rain at some point or had to rush something to get it done before the rain. By having the dry weather, we were able to leave the greens open for a day before topdressing so they could be watered. This meant that the holes were fully open and the turf had a little time to recover before the topdressing and abrasive brushing. The greens looked fantastic even though the usual amount of sand was applied!

Blowing 9 fway

 Sweeping 9 fway

  

1 tee cleaned and the verticutting on the fairway is finished

For time purposes the fairway aeration is contracted out and this year the fairways were aerated at a closer spacing due to having to skip them in the spring. This slows the process down but Aercore - the contractor -  impressively got it all done in one day. This meant that we were able to verticut the fairways sooner than normal. The verticutting removes more thatch, removes grain and stands the turf up. A side benefit is it also fluffs up any aeration cores that get compacted so once the fairways are blown and swept they are perfectly clean. The fairways were then mown with groomers which made the most of the turf standing up to remove the grain. Although the verticutting pulls out dead material and causes a little scalping which in turn causes brown spots, the fairways looked fantastic and once they are mowed again next week - they will be perfect.

The tee aeration and topdressing went very smooth and the approaches got a much needed heavy topdressing also. 

Grooming 1 fairway (you can clearly see the line where the groomers have cut the standing up turf)

 Verticutting 7 fway - the diagonal cut helps remove the grain

Topdressing Tees

So at writing we are 5 days in and the course looks great. The greens were mowed today and we will work on getting them back up to speed. At the rate things are going I think they will be in good shape by next weekend and should be near perfect the following week. 

It's hard to believe the following two pictures were taken on Thursday afternoon, less than four days from starting

Mowing Greens on Sunday Morning

Due to the perfect weather and the rain, they were a little hairy!

So for the fun bit!

In the previous posts I have shown plenty of pictures of the procedures and what goes on while the course is closed but it doesn't provide a good picture of how much work it actually is.

The following are the 4 days of aeration in numbers:

Number of holes punched: 

Total:                               62,813,520

Greens:                            11,151,360

Tees:                                11,151,360

Fairways:                         39,204,000

DR:                                   1,306,800

Material Removed:

Total:                      1,666 cubic yards

Greens:                      194 cubic yards

Tees:                         322 cubic yards

Fairways:               1,113 cubic yards

DR:                             37 cubic yards

All the material on greens and tees was removed by hand!

Sand Used for Topdressing:

Total:                                 154 tons

Greens:                                66 tons

Tees and Approaches:          88 tons

Man-hours:

Total (for the 4 days)          1,251 hrs

The long range forecast is for a beautiful fall, so once the course heals in a week or so it will make for a perfect end to the season.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions: alan@ledgerockgolf.com

Clean-up Mowing

It's hard to believe August has arrived. As a Superintendent, I always complain about the weather and how it affects what we do on and around the course. This year I have to thank Mother Nature for being very cooperative to this point! The turf has been under a lot less stress than usual this summer. This means turf health has a head start going into Fall because, as I mentioned in an earlier post, the majority of the stress on the turf has abated by Labor Day.  I keep hearing compliments of how consistently good the course has been this year. Not to take anything away from the hard work of the crew but the fact that the 90F days & high humidity stayed away and the rainfall has been just about perfect has meant that the turf can be pushed more than it could in a warmer summer, resulting in fantastic playing surfaces.

I have been asked a few times over the last year why the clean-up along the edge of the greens isn't always cut. There is a very simple answer! This area, along with the collars are high stress areas. The mowing is concentrated in the same pattern all the time so wear marks will start to appear. Also all the traffic on the green crosses that area as the mowers are picked up and roll over it each time the green is mowed.

A 2 day old un-mowed clean-up pass

The collars being mowed higher helps a little with the stress although the higher heights can cause some other issues from heat stress with them from time to time. We use boards on the collars so the mowers don't run over them which greatly reduces stress. 

Lightweight Toro 500 mower on clean-up cut

Since the greens mowers have to cut up to the collar we can't use boards on the edge to reduce stress so other methods have to be used. Skipping the clean-up cut every other day greatly reduces the stress. We also use a different mower that is very light weight and has a fully floating head. The floating head means that the cutting unit is independent of the drive unit so there is no additional weight on the blades and it can float over contours better; both of which greatly reduces stress on the plant. Since adopting this method shortly after the grow-in we have had no issues with wear at the edge of the greens. 

The floating cutting head of a Toro 500 mower. The blade unit hangs from the engine unit which rides on the roller on the very right and the black rollers on the very left.

Fall aeration is scheduled for the week on the 18th and barring a weather delay, everything should be completed during the period the course is closed. We have started prepping for aeration this week by plugging some of the bare spots on greens as the plugs will help the areas heal quicker once they are aerated. 

The plugs on 1 green which are mown higher than the greens turf

The plugs look a little ugly and are a little low but it isn't because we are lazy! The nursery has grown in nicely but the height of cut is not fully down to the greens height. By putting the plugs in a little low it protects them from scalping. Once they are aerated and topdressed they will all be level and will look good once the greens heal. As we get closer to aeration the turf will be fertilized more so that it is primed for growth going in, which reduces the healing time.

Last week we helped the Clubhouse staff prepare for the Soiree in the Sand event. This is how you quickly turn a patio into a beach!

We also built a pallet table from stuff lying around the property.

The finished articles looked great!

Most of the fescue and brush have been cut and over half have been sprayed for weeds, so they will look and play great for the remainder of the season. 

As always, if you have any questions you can e-mail me at alan@ledgerockgolf.com.  

Divot Repair

Over the years I have been asked what is the best method to repair divots. The simple answer is that I like to see the remains of the divot replaced and the divot mix added around the sides if needed. Scott Bordner, now the superintendent at Chicago Golf Club, added a nice post on his blog when he was superintendent at Rivercrest. He followed up a few weeks later with some of the results and it's easy to see which repair method looked better. 

The initial trail at Rivercrest Golf Club

The same area at Rivercrest two weeks later

The weather was ideal for recovery so the seed had popped on the filled ones. Keeping these seedlings alive and viable is very difficult without constant watering, so replacing the 'sod' divot is better. I do not add seed to the divot soil on the carts for a number of reasons: 

• It can germinate in the bottles and once it does so it is not useful for divots as the soil becomes clumpy.
• It ensures that there is no possible way to contaminate the rough if the soil is used there.
• Since LedgeRock is predominantly bentgrass, which creeps, once there is fresh soil available it will cover it over.
• If the seed does germinate, it is very difficult to keep alive, especially during the summer and longer periods of dry weather, so very little of it takes and most of the recovery is from the bentgrass creeping over. 

We add seed to the mix the crew use, mainly as we know it is going on the fairways and since it is used right away, it will not go to waste germinating in the containers.

Some courses add a nurse grass like fine fescue or ryegrass to their divot soil to help get them established quicker. Since the fairways at LedgeRock are pure bentgrass I do not want to add any other grass types to them, even if the possibility of the other grass getting a hold is a long shot. We buy a green sand for the tees but all the fairway soil is made in-house. We use some soil amendments to make the sand more nourishing for the seedling and add a product that helps retain moisture to help any seedlings stay alive. We also have a blend of green turf paint that gives us the color we look for. 

The following shows how we would like the divots at LedgeRock repaired.

 Jarod left me a very nice divot to work with

The divot shattered into three pieces

Patch the pieces back as well as possible

Add the divot soil to bare areas

Remove the excess sand with your foot

This is another sample of a divot that was not replaced and starting to creep over

A lot of times I will see volcanoes of soil like here. This is bad as it does not provide an area for the turf to grow into and it also is not great for the blades on the mowers.

This is how a sand divot should look - the soil should be flush with the surface

Another topic I get questioned on is the best way to repair a ball mark. This video shows how to repair one properly.

The course is still in great shape, especially considering it is the middle of July. We aerated the greens with the Planetair and topdressed on Tuesday and they have recovered beautifully. This is the last big maintenance to them until fall aeration in a little over a month. We have started to mow the brush and fescue so those areas can be sprayed for weeds and so they will be not be too thick to play in the fall. We also had a small hydraulic leak on one of our rollers on 13 green. 

The oil on 13 green right after it happened. Since then the darkness of the oil has faded and it is difficult to see

Luckily it only sprayed the fluid so it was a speckled pattern and now can barely be seen. The heat of the oil kills the plant but the oil can contaminate the soil also if there is a lot. Luckily there was only a small amount on 13 and once we aerate in a month it will be gone. 

As always, if you have any questions, please email me at alan@ledgerockgolf.com.

When Watering Isn't Watering

As a Superintendent I break the summer into three sections: July 4th, fall aeration and Labor Day. July 4th is the point where the initial summer heat has passed and we are about to enter the hottest part of the summer where the turf is under the most stress. Fall aeration helps relieve a lot of this stress and resets everything for the short run to Labor day, at which time the course is healed and the weather is starting to cool, reducing the stresses on the turf. We have reached July 4th without any issues and the course has been playing beautifully and consistently for the last number of weeks. The weather has been beautiful and staying relatively dry; for the most part, the temperatures have not gotten out of hand. At the time of writing we have had 2.5" of rain since Wednesday afternoon and it has greatly softened up the course. However, as has been the case this summer, the forecast is for more dry weather and warmer temperatures so it should dry out and be playing well again over the weekend.

As I have mentioned numerous times before, water management is  the key to healthy turf. The fans by the pocketed greens increase air movement, which in turn, helps dry these areas out by reducing the humidity so the plants can transpire efficiently which cools them down. (It also indirectly helps dry things out as the plant uses more water.) Transpiration is essentially the same as a human sweating, the idea being that the loss of water cools you down. As we know when it is humid out, perspiration is not very effective and it can be very uncomfortable. The same goes for the plants - if there is too much moisture in the air for them to lose their internal water, their cooling mechanism does not work. In this instant greenkeepers syringe the turf. Syringing means a really light watering. The goal is not to wet the plant or the surface but to cool the air temporarily over the plant so that it can start to transpire again and cool itself off. It doesn't take much, but a few degrees can make a big difference. 

Air temperature before syringing

Air temperature during syringing

Surface temperature before syringing

The same surface spot right after syringing

Syringing is also very effective when there is low humidity but for slightly different reasons. In this case the plant is transpiring very rapidly as the low humidity means the water in the plant is easily taken away. The plant however does not know how much water it has so can lose all it's available water or lose water quicker than it can take it in. When this happens the plant wilts. To use the human analogy again, it basically is like a human sweating all day but not replenishing their fluids - they get dehydrated. Syringing in this case helps the plant cool off enough to slow down the loss of water through transpiration and slows/prevents/helps recover wilt.

Lastly there is a point when the plant has plenty of available water (i.e. the soils are saturated) but it can still wilt due to it not being able to take in water quick enough to offset what it is loosing through transpiration. As in the last example syringing helps cool the plant so it briefly stops transpiring, which helps it catch up and take in the water it needs. It can look odd seeing someone 'water' when the ground is saturated but the need is very important and the amount of water actually being put out is minimal since all it it doing is cooling off the plant.

The view from the top of the Cart Barn

Watering heavily and infrequently is usually best for the turf as it encourages deeper rooting which in turn helps the plant manage stress better. This method also favors bentgrasses over poa annua as the bentgrass usually has a deeper root system whereas the poa would require lighter more frequent amounts to keep it's shallower roots happy. 

Here at LedgeRock the greens are watered deep and infrequently as much as possible and as the greens dry down, the drier areas are hit by hand until the green is uniformly dry and requires a deep irrigation again. 

So as you can see, watering isn't just watering and there are a number of different methods to ensure the plants stay healthy during different times of the year. 

So for a quick update on everything else around the course; the weeds are all finally gone and we have sodded some of the little bare areas that have been bothering me. The black tinge to the fairways is from a spray application last week. One of the fungicides caused a little tip burn on the older leaves and once it is mowed on Monday, most, if not all of it will be taken off.

I had some soil physical tests taken this week. These cores are removed from the green and I have them tested every two years to make sure that thatch is under control and the greens continue to mature and perform as they should. More on this when the results come in. 

Another interesting note is the picture below taken from 10 green. The black is black layer in the green which indicates anaerobic conditions in the soil. 10 green is one of the problem greens but overall has been doing well all year. This picture shows that even with constant aeration, topdressing, fans and water management that it is still very difficult to keep the rootzone dry when the environmental conditions do not allow. The good news is that the turf is still healthy for now and our continued work will keep it in check until the fall aeration which will open it up even more and get an abundance of air back into the system. 

Hopefully you are enjoying the conditions and continue to do so as we dry the course out until the next rain event. As always contact me if you have any questions: alan@ledgerockgolf.com.  Enjoy the holiday weekend!