Day One Aerification Recap

Safe to say we really lucked out with the weather yesterday, the forecasted 90% of rain only brought sprinkles and allowed us to get started on aerification right out of the gates.  It was a extremely productive day and my hat is off to the staff, even with limited numbers we were able to poke, clean and amend 13 greens.

The purchase of core collectors (the black blade pictured above behind the aerifier) really helped in the efficiency of the process.  If you take a look at the picture below, in the past we would have to push all the plugs to the collars as the first set up the process.  That was time consuming and labor intensive.  With the core collectors, the cores would form into a pile with the blade and move across the green as the 648 was poking.  Once the 648 reached the edge of the green, the mechanics of the machine while lifting would also lift the collector leaving a pile at the edge of the green.  An additional benefit during the process is gained with the amount of sand material that is breaking from the core while moving across the green. 

 

The goal of any aerification is to remove 20% of the total green surface area.  To achieve this, we use our standard regimen of using 5/8 inch tines on a 1.5 inch spacing. 

 



 

Today, once the frost lifts we will finish the remaining greens and begin the process of topdressing and dragging in all putting surfaces.  We will remain on temporaries today with the full hopes of making a enough progress to give the membership a complete setup golf course tee to green for tomorrow.  As always, thank you for your patience and cooperation while conducting such a vital practice towards our success.