Aerification Day

We finished the front nine today.  The greens became a little soft from the amount of material we were removing and being a little soft from the recent rain.

Overall the process went well with one minor set back.  The aerifier blew the clutch causing a two hour delay while we got the aerifier from Hawk's Prairie.  Rick was nice enough to let us borrow his machine to finish today and complete the back nine tomorrow.
The greens will be a little bumpy over the next few weeks.  Please bear with us while we are building the foundation for the future health of our playing surfaces.
If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me.
Justin Ruiz, CGCS
Justinr@indiansummergolf.com

Aerification Test Run

Today we started with the small practice greens and the big putter.  The greens were very soft from the rain over the weekend.  Sand and rolling has done good on firming the greens back and smoothing out any heaving.

Tomorrow we will be starting the front nine greens since they seem to be the most dry.  The back nine has more greens located in pockets of trees and shade.

If you have any question feel free to send me an email.

Justinr@indiansummergolf.com

Fall Aerification 2011

This week is aerification week.  Yes, it is that time of year again.  The course will have the nine holes that we are not punching open for play.  On Tuesday the 20^th, we will aerify the front nine.  On Wednesday the 21^st the back nine will be our focus.  Weather depending we should have all the greens aerified and sanded.

The spring aerification consisted of a slightly different process then what was completed in the past.  We used seven inch long tines, three inches longer than the standard aerification tines.  We were able to get below the thatch layer and increase the ability for deeper roots and healthier turf.  This also resulted in softer conditions during aerification.

The USGA recommends a 20% removal of organic matter each year.  This is a good number for maintenance purposes.  This does not take in account if you already have a little extra thatch.  It is important for us to reduce thatch to increase drainage and avoid turf problems in the future.  If you would like to read in more detail about aerification, click here.



This fall we will be using another process that is unique to this property.  We will use ½” quad tines to remove a little extra organic matter.  These tines will be the usual four inch depth.  The change in depth is to also avoid any plow pan that may occur from continuous aerification at the same depth.  Plow pan is when the roots reach the depth of the aerification tines, but cannot penetrate any deeper.  If we can keep changing it up hopefully we will eventually get roots down deeper.

If there are any questions about aerification or the science behind the process feel free to contact me.

Justin Ruiz, CGCS
justinr@indiansummergolf.com