March 10, 2011

About every two or three years we like to tour all of the tree-lines on the golf course and decide which grassy areas are receiving the most competition from trees. Tree roots typically grow near the soil surface and “steal” water and nutrients from our greens, tees, fairways, and roughs. Most of these areas are already tough to grow grass in because they are heavily shaded and receive plenty of traffic. Allowing trees to impact turf from above and below just doesn’t seem fair. On Wednesday, Clarkton Turf Services visited Greate Bay to do some tree root pruning for us. They have an impressive machine which uses a series of curved blades that penetrate about ten inches into the soil (most grass roots grow two to six inches deep), slicing all of the tree roots that could make growing grass even more difficult. Their machine is very efficient and can prune everything we need in about one day. Root pruning is another tool we can use to improve conditions on the course, and when performed properly, is completely safe for trees. The rule of thumb is to avoid pruning more than 1/3 of a tree’s roots in any given year. Our method only impacts about ¼ of the root system, and we have yet to “lose” a tree because of pruning. Check out the video to see just how the machine works.

 

 Post, pictures and video contributed by Chris Lare, Assistant Superintendent