Day Three

Finally! A day where everything went as planned! The sunny dry weather made for perfect conditions to complete all the clean-up. The greens topdressing went very well also, with all the greens being completed by early afternoon. 

Rolling the greens after topdressing

A change for this years aeration is to add a deep aeration on greens. Considering they are nearly ten years old, they are performing very well. Our last physical soil tests reported that they are maturing better than expected and that organic matter (OM) in being kept in check. The top few inches is where the bulk of the roots reside and where the mat (thatch and topdressing mix) is. This layer is the slowest draining in any green due to the higher OM content blocking pore spaces. Regular hollow core aeration machines are capable of aerating to approx three inches. In order to break through this layer and go deeper a vertidrain type machine is needed. This helps break through the top layer and provides air and water channels to encourage deeper rooting. 

The Wiedenmann on greens aerating to eight inches

Up until now the regular depths have been sufficient but deep aerating now, will preempt future issues by keep the mat layer in flux. It is essential to ensure the channels are filled with sand; if not, the roots will fill the channel, potentially creating a big OM problem through the entire profile. The best way to ensure the channels are filled is to use dry sand and big holes, so it can flow down them. Based on a trial run this spring I found that aerating and topdressing the greens as normal and then following that with the deep tine worked best. We started late this afternoon to make sure all our settings were correct. The three greens that were done looked great and the remainder will be finished tomorrow.

The fairways needed to be verticut which we started today also. Verticutting stands the plants up and removes excess organic material (thatch). It also is a nice way to finish cleaning up after aerating as it helps loosen up any compacted cores or clumps of soil. Once the fairways are verticut, we blow and collect the debris. The fairways are then mowed with the groomers turned on. The groomers are basically small verticutters that sit in front of the reel and stand the grass up for a better cut. The turf on the finished fairways looks great as it is now standing as opposed to laying over; removing the grain that has occurred from mowing the same direction. The fairways are striped as this is done. The direction changes by striping enhances the benefits of removing the grain. We will return to the half-and-half cut in a week or so as it is substantially faster which saves time and money.

Checking and setting the depth of the verticutter on fairways

7 fairway verticut and ready for sweeping

So after a rocky start, we are finishing strong. The plan is to have 1-8 and 14 open by noon tomorrow. The other holes will open as we finish them. The final clean-up of piles etc around the course shouldn't take too long tomorrow. All that will remain is to topdress tees. Due to the weather delays we will aerate the Driving Range next Tuesday when we are closed. 

Almost back to normal

Aeration Day 2

Although frustrating at times, today went better than yesterday. The crew put a great effort in to have the greens all aerated and cleaned by 10:30. The aerators were then switched over to larger tines and sent out on tees. By the end of the day they had 7 sets of tees completed, which is right on schedule.

Clean-up on 1 tee

The greens topdressing and fairway aeration however did not go as well as expected. The contractor got started early, but an afternoon shower was just enough to dampen everything; the cores on the fairways from yesterday could not be dragged or swept. We switched our plans again and finished up just aerating the remaining holes; so all is left for tomorrow is to drag and sweep those remaining six fairways. Thankfully the forecast is for no precipitation for the next two days so we should get everything back on track tomorrow. 

I had planned to have most, if not all the greens topdressed today but our loader broke down on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately it is not a quick fix so a rental had to be ordered and it was mid afternoon before it arrived. At least it arrived just as the rain passed and the sun popped out, so we were able to get 6 greens topdressed (including the pocketed 'problem' greens) before the heat arrives tomorrow. This will greatly reduce the stress on the plants on the pocketed greens ensuring there will be no turf loss. It wasn't the result I wanted but at least we were able to salvage something good from it. Again with the dry weather forecast the remaining greens should be finished up tomorrow. 

Topdressing Greens

Loading the topdresser

Brushing the sand in on the greens

The last two days have been a test of patience showing how easily the weather effects golf course maintenance. Although extremely frustrating at the time, the quick decision making and adapting to the change in plans is fun and keeps the job interesting! Although I am looking forward to a perfect day tomorrow. 

Goodnight from an nearly aerated LedgeRock

August aeration week 2013

It is hard to believe the August aeration week has arrived. The course closed today at noon and will be open again on Wednesday at noon. Over the last week the course was prepped to minimize the healing time from the aeration process. The greens were sprayed twice with a blend of fertilizers to start the turf growing rapidly. It takes a few days for the plant to take in the fertilizer through it's roots; so spraying the greens a few days before, has them rapidly growing by the time we start to aerate. The fairways and tees were fertilized with an organic granular fertilizer for the same reason. 

The greens fertilizer is sprayed and it is rapidly used by the plant. The granular fertilizer on fairways is taken up slowly and is available for the plant for a longer period. This means that on greens there is no residual fertilizer lingering once they heal and they can be brought quickly back up to speed. This is not an issue on the fairways so the less time consuming method of the granular application works great.

By using this method the greens are essentially starting to heal when we start the process, which greatly minimizes the time it takes for them to recover. The weather this time of the year is usually very good for turf growth, also helping to speed up the recovery. The weather this spring stayed cool for a prolonged period so the greens took a lot longer to heal than normal. With the current weather and our fertility program I expect the greens to be in great shape within two weeks; if not fully back up to speed by then also. 

Getting started on the small practice green

 Aerating bentgrass at this time of the year is ideal for a number of reasons. As mentioned, the weather is usually perfect for bentgrass growth so healing time is minimized. The college and high school students are still working so there is plenty of staff to get it done quickly. The temperatures are usually unfavorable for poa annua germination; this means the greens have time to recover before the weather favors poa germination, decreasing the potential for invasion.

Aerating 3 green. The fairway has just been completed. The darkness of the photo shows how miserable a day it was. 

The hollow core aeration is a big inconvenience for golfers while the course heals but the benefits outweigh the pain. It ensures that organic build up is minimized and the greens perform as they were designed. This also ensures they consistently putt quickly, true and smooth all year and are better able to handle times of excess stress. 

Today got off to a bad start due to the rain. It shouldn't be a shock at this point, as it seems like every year it rains on the Sunday afternoon of the August aeration; even if the forecast is clear, as it was this year..... Light rain is very frustrating as it can make clean-up messy. Luckily today's rain was light enough as to not effect the greens aeration, however it was a different story for fairways. 

We waited until the radar looked clear to begin and initially it went very well. The cores pulled cleanly. The cores get broken up with a mat and this went very well also on 1 fairway. The leaves were stained brown (from the wet cores) which is not an issue as it is mown off after a few cuts. The soil becomes an issue when it gets wet and clumps up. The sweepers collected the debris well on 1 fairway but a shower made the cores on 3 fairway too wet and the soil started clumping behind the sweepers; causing an early end to fairway aeration for the day. 

Dragging the cores on 1 fairway

The clumps left by the sweepers on 3 fairway after the shower

Thankfully the greens aeration went a lot smoother although the precipitation meant that we could not perform the final clean-up with a blower. As always the crew worked really hard and had 13 greens aerated and cleaned up by 6:30pm.

The core-hogs and the crew in action cleaning up

Of course the sun popped out as we were finishing up; hopefully that means it will be shining early on us tomorrow and everything will go smoothly. Provided the weather cooperates, the greens will be finished tomorrow and the tees will be started to be aerated.. The contractor should have all the fairways completed also. Most, if not all, the greens will be topdressed tomorrow also. 

15 fairway's irrigation heads, flagged and painted for aeration

Our progress will be updated tomorrow. 

What a difference a few days make

It has been quiet around the course for most of the period since my last post, but what a difference a few days make. Once the hot and humid weather broke, the course was not under any weather- related stress. There were no maintenance issues either so it was a relatively easy ten days. Then, the rain and humidity returned, but fortunately the heat stayed away.

I tried to extend the prior fungicide application for a few extra days when the cooler, less humid weather arrived. Usually this is possible as the disease pressure is reduced and stretching the application window saves money by saving an application. Unfortunately the Dollar Spot biomass had reached a point during the humidity that it still popped up when the humidity dropped. The tees and fairways were sprayed at the first signs of the disease but not before the tan blemishes appeared everywhere. Dollar Spot is a frustrating disease as it is relatively easy to control but it can get make an area of turf look ugly very quickly. It will grow out shortly, especially after we aerate next week.

The greens had been looking great for the last few weeks and the algae was barely visible. Adding the second fan to the 4th green really helped during the high humidity and it has been nearly perfect all summer. This is a far cry from a couple of years ago when 4 was the worst green, before the fans were added. The rain over the last 4-5 days made the algae return in force! The greens were sprayed for it on Saturday and it made an immediate difference. Once it is kept in check it is an aesthetic problem (the black patches) and it does not effect ball roll. The picture below is 4 green on Friday evening and the algae is very prominent.

Below is the same spot on Sunday, having been sprayed on Saturday morning. The difference is obvious. The topdressing next week will really help keep it under control. The extra fertilizer needed to heal the greens from aeration will grow the greens out, which will help camouflage the black areas enhancing their appearance.

As mentioned in a previous post, a few collars are thin, mainly in high traffic areas. The collar on 2 is the worst mainly due to the traffic being concentrated on the small walk-on. We plugged the worst of the areas. The plugs will fill in the bare areas quickly after aeration and  are a better solution than sodding a traffic area. Traffic would have to keep off the sod to ensure it knits properly so the tight area would make getting people on and off the green difficult. 

 

We have been making sure the greens stay healthy which means when the rain arrives, rolling is skipped the following day (or days depending on the quantity). Depending on the length of time rolling is skipped, a drop of  up to a foot in green-speed can be seen. However it is a small price to pay as the health of the greens is priority at this time of the year. The remainder of the course is also in great shape. The bunkers have washed out a number of times over the last week but the crew have worked hard and put them back together quickly each time. The wilt spots here and there in the roughs have mostly recovered and the course looks great. 

The rain has bought up the issue with carts not following signs again. The cart rules are to protect the course from potential damage and to ensure everyone stays safe; the terrain at LedgeRock is not cart friendly and the potential for an accident increases when it is wet. We try and let carts out as soon as possible but only do so once the potential for damage is minimized. The cart rules apply to all carts. On Friday, this damage occurred on 10.  It was from someone diving to the pond to fish. After the tracks were mown, the tracks were brown as the areas were scalped. 

 

Another spot was on 8 where someone had ignored the traffic sign and drove over a stake. The beginning of 8 fairway is a wet area so after a rain we prevent traffic going there. The second picture is the damage the cart did as it drove through one of the wet spots. While it does not look severe, the heaved ground dries out and gets scalped when we mow resulting in a bare spot and dulling the mower reel. 

The next post will discuss the process of aeration and the impact on course conditions and play.