March 25, 2010

On Wednesday and Thursday we aerated fairways and tees.

The tee aeration process was this:

First our contractor aerated the tees with a tractor pulled aeration machine that pulled cores approximately 3” deep and .75” in diameter. This brings up a lot of thatch and soil, which is exactly what is needed on the tees!



Cleanup is next. First the cores are dragged to break them up and separate the soil from the thatch, which is blown off. Some of the soil, now loosened, naturally gets dragged back into the holes.

Mycorrhizae is then spread on the tee surface, for the same reasons as for the greens.

Due to time and equipment restraints – we are at the same time now touching up the greens and aerating/ cleaning fairways – we will top dress the tees early next week. For topdressing we use a spec’d sand with a little bit of peat/soil mixed in. After the topdressing is applied, we will drag this in same as we did the greens.

The fairways are done much the same, yet on a much bigger scale (26 acres vs. 3.5 acres!) but without the mycorrhizae and topdressing. Two tractor pulled aerators go first, followed by two persons who drag the cores with big, metal drags. On the approaches we use the core harvester so that the soil from the fairways will not get dragged near the green, contaminating the greens’ sand topdressing. We then use three blowers to blow off the residue thatch into the rough. Over the next week, we will use rough mowers to “mulch” up this thatch.






All of this is a lot of work, but there is no other substitute for removing thatch, or for cultivating and improving the soil profile. In the end, aeration is really a course improvement every time it is done!