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.
