Spring Aerification Complete!

The Spring Aerification went to plan on Monday and Tuesday, and the rain stopped long enough for us to finish the process.  It was great to get the greens vented with holes and remove a bunch of wet organic material.  Last week we received over 4 inches of rain, so it was perfect timing to aerate and add some clean sand.  I will show you a step by step process in photos of how we carried out this years aerification.

Here is #2 Overlook green before we start the process.  The greens are very healthy now after a long winter of rain, so they should recover quickly.  First step in the process is to topdress the greens with sand.

Here you can see the sand being evenly applied to the green surface.  We will apply almost 75 tons of sand to the greens during the process!

A before and after of the sand topdressing

The second step is to use the aerification machine to remove plugs from the green.  After the plug is removed there is a 3.5 inch deep hole left in the green.  This fresh new hole exposes the root layer of the grass to much needed air, sand, and nutrients. 

Here is a picture of the plugs removed from the green.  The gray box on the back of the machine actually collects the plugs as the aerifier works across the green.  Once the machine reaches the edge of the green, it lifts up and dumps the plugs.

Here you can see a crew of guys shoveling up the plugs to remove them after being dumped by the machine.  This photo is of the first green of the day right at daylight.

The next step once all the plugs have been cleaned off is to drag the sand into the holes.  This is done using a large brush which we pull behind a utility cart.

Here is a closer look at the brush.  This process really helps to get the sand into the holes and incorporated into the turf canopy.  The sand helps to add pore space to the soil profile for new roots to grow this Spring.  Sand also helps to smooth out the putting surface by filling any imperfections.  

Here is a closer look of the surface of the green after the process of dragging the sand into the green.  You will notice that almost every hole is full of sand, and there is a uniform layer of sand on top.  

After all the sand has been brushed into the holes, it is time for the roller to roll the green smooth.  This roller really helps to improve the putting surface after this entire process.  Many tire tracks and foot prints are smoothed out to start the recovery process off right.  We will roll the greens a few times over the next few weeks to continue to smooth the surface to improve play-ability and aid in a successful recovery.

Last but not least we add a few minutes of water to each green.  During this process of dragging and punching the greens the grass can sometimes get bruised up.  By keeping it moist throughout the next few weeks we can reduce any damage and also speed up recovery.  The rain has helped to aid this week in driving the sand into the greens profile, and we are already starting to see a lot of green grass peaking through.  As always, this aerification process takes the greens about 4 weeks to fully recover!