Importance of Aerating

Germination!!

Number 10 green and approach were seeded and fertilized September 13 and yesterday we started seeing a nice crop of bentgrass germinating.  Typically it takes bentgrass 6-10 days to germinate.  I was a little worried about some of the cool overnight temps (frost on Sept. 15th) and cloud cover, but after 7 days the seed sprouted.  We have our irrigation system setup to run each sprinkler head one rotation every 3 hours to keep the seed and soil moist and this has been very successful.  On cool cloudy days we back off on the water and just add water as needed. 

Deep Tine

Monday morning the greens were deep tined, followed by a double roll to close up the holes.  The deep tine machines were reaching depths of  9-10 inches into the soil.  This is a key process to our greens program, this helps air and water infiltration, relieves soil compaction and helps promote a healthier root system.  On Tuesday morning the crew put down a heavy topdressing followed by a coco bean drag (to drag in the sand) and another roll with the roller.  By adding the sand we fill any uneven areas of the putting surface and fill any aerification holes that did not close. 

 

Update on Project

 Last Monday morning the crew from Hartman Co. started stripping sod from #10 green.  It is very apparent these guys know what they are doing.  I was amazed at how quick and agile the crew is and how much pride they put into their work.  The irrigation crew is down on #10 today installing pipe and irrigation heads and it sounds like we will be seeding #10 next Monday followed by the bluegrass sod. 
The crew will be working on #8 green and fairway into next week.  They had to wait a little longer to start on the fairway because the round-up had not yet killed the root system so they could till up the fairway.  As of today the dozer has started to shape the fairway before final grading.  I have found this to be a great experience to work with these professionals and I'm very thankful we chose Hartman for the job.     

Changes to the Collars

This past Tuesday all of the collars were core aerified, topdressed and seeded.  We have had problems in years past with the collars getting really beat up and some spots dying.  We have found most of the collars are clay soils instead of the 80/20 greens mix.  So the idea is to start mowing our collars at .3" with a 21"  wide walk mower on the greens mix and the existing collars will be mowed at 1.25" with a 4' sidewinder.  This will make the new collars much easier to putt off and look much cleaner.  

The crew has also started to level and seed the potholes and drain lines on most of the fairways that died this spring and summer.  Most of these areas were seeded last week and most spots have started germinating already.  The crew will start covering the large areas with a erosion control blanket cut into sections to hold moisture for the seed.