They're aerating in December?!

I'm sure we will get some crazy looks over the next week or so when people see or read that we decided to aerate our greens in December. First I'll explain the why and then the what.

WHY: Just like you and I, grass needs air to survive. Now obviously grass breathes through the leaf blades but the roots also need air to perform their duties. The roots are essentially the lifeblood of the plant, without roots the plant will not absorb nutrients or water for growth. Basically the healthier the roots, the healthier the plant. Throughout the season with every single footstep, cart traffic and maintenance traffic the soil begins to compact. When the soil compacts we lose porosity, thus reducing air in the soil. By reducing pore space we will limit the capabilities of root development and possibly cause a reduction in root mass. As stated earlier, roots are essential to the plant and if we start to lose roots we start to lose turf. Another issue with compacted soil is we being to lose the soils natural drainage capabilities. Pore space allows for water to penetrate into and through the soil. The more porous the soil, the better it will drain. If we have a soil that drains poorly we will begin to see saturated conditions. With saturated conditions we will have no air in the soil, which once again is bad for turf. Also, if the soil is saturated we create a situation where microorganisms cannot breathe and do their thing in the soil, ie; breaking down thatch and we all know how bad thatch is! So by performing procedures that increase the porosity of the soil we will begin to improve drainage, activity of microorganisms and overall turf health. I am not sure if many of you have noticed, but we have changed the frequency of some cultural practices since my arrival. Rolling frequency has increased dramatically to provide smoother ball roll. With this increase we will begin to increase compaction to the soil over time as the roller is essentially designs to squish the plant down. I have found this procedure only effects the top 1/2" of the profile and on occasion needs relief, so now I'll go onto the what we decided to do about this.

WHAT: Today we began to pencil tine our greens to improve the porosity of the soil. The tines are 1/4" in diameter and are 1" apart with a 3" spacing at a depth of 2.5". This setup allows for maximum efficiency while still providing good aeration to the soil. This process is immediately followed by the green being rolled and pin changed to recreate a smooth putting surface. Once the process is completed the green is back to rolling true with only pin sized holes remaining on the surface. Each green takes approximately 45 mins to complete.

Closures and temporary greens

In total in the past 48 hours we've received approximately 4.3 inches (2.2 Monday night and 2.1 Tuesday night) and that's not including the 1-2 inches of snow that melted from the weekend. With the recent large volumes of precipitation and the lack of subsurface drainage the course is literally saturated.

When it comes to the greens, they are our bread and butter so to speak. We must ensure we are not doing any long-term detriment to them by opening them prematurely after such torrential rains. If we open saturated greens the foot traffic alone will cause substantial compaction. This compaction will weaken the turf and if left uninterrupted we will begin to lose turf in areas. Most of the greens drain fairly quickly, while we have a couple of poorly draining greens such as 3, 10 and 12 that take a substantially longer time to drain. Cultural practices such as traditional aeration, deep tine aeration and addition of drainage will long-term help alleviate these issues. In the short-term, we appreciate your cooperation in playing to temporary greens and when moving onto the next hole, please avoid walking on the closed green.

The 8th hole today was completely closed due to the soil being completely saturated. Long-term we all understand drainage is an important part of correcting this issue along with core aeration and topdressing. In the mean time we are working on creating a pad with a mat and pathway leading to it for winter play. The hole will play approximately 130 yards to the center of the green. We ask all golfers remain on the path on this hole and try and keep off the saturated fairway for the same reasons as I spoke of above on the greens. Walking on saturated turf compacts the soil and weakens the turf. So again, we appreciate everyone's cooperation, please keep on the path, hit from the mat and return to the path until you get to the green site.

Thank you,

Brett Finlayson
Golf Course Superintendent

Hole closures - why?

Recently we've had a bit of a cold snap causing some lengthy frost delays. On more than 1 occasion  the frost was so severe that certain areas of the course never saw the frost lift. An example of an area where this may occur is the 7th hole. With the tall trees on the south side of the hole, blocking out sun, the frost can remain present all day. In a case such as this, the grounds team will post signage signifying the entire hole will be closed. The sole reason for this is turf health. We all understand that walking on a frosty green is detrimental to the turf, the same goes for shortly mowed turf such as approaches, fairways and tees. Here is a quote from my last update; "Turf is made up of 90% water and during periods of frost this water freezes in the cell causing the structure of the plant to be very brittle. If turf is walked on under these conditions the cell walls will shatter and can cause the plant much unneeded stress." By closing these few holes on the few days that frost remains present all day, we will have much healthier turf heading into the spring and arrive at peak conditions that much earlier. Our goal is to get every golfer out as soon as possible and playing as much golf on as many regular greens as possible. We just need to convince Mother Nature to cooperate.

Brett

Old man winter

It's a little earlier than I expected, but today we had our first frost delay of the season here at AR. With the beautiful sunny days and clear nights we've been having comes cool mornings that result in frosted turf. Turf is made up of 90% water and during periods of frost this water freezes in the cell causing the structure of the plant to be very brittle. If turf is walked on under these conditions the cell walls will shatter and can cause the plant much unneeded stress. If we walked on a green with frost it can cause irreversible damage and potentially kill the plant. I've attached a link to a USGA video this issue and why it is important that we take care of our golf course. 

http://www.usga.org/turf/articles/video/frost.html

#12 Drainage

Before the heavy rains begin we started the drainage project on the 12th approach. First I would like to address the fact that our approaches have accumulated a massive of thatch over the years. Continuous aeration and topdressing is necessary to provide the desired results that we are looking for. This will take some time to accomplish but year-to-year they will continue to improve. I've attached a photo to indicate the level of thatch we are currently dealing with on # 12.

Approximately 5 inches of thatch build up

The drainage itself will help alleviate excess water in the area by allowing a path for it to escape. The existing drainage that was present was completely clogged and basically useless. The new drainage is being installed with a 12" trench at a 2% slope and consists of socked 4" perforated Big "O" and back filled with straight sand. The trench in the rough portion will be seeded with a few "dams" put in to stop the sand from washing out. The trench through the approach will have the sod replaced for a quicker healing time. The drain should be thought of the main collector drain which will allow us to tie into it down the road to continue to improve this area. Many of our approaches that are bowl shaped such as this require similar drainage and will be addressed in the future. We did run into a few problems, ie stumps and irrigation, but feel we made great progress today. We are about 3/4's of the way through and it will be completed tomorrow. 

Bill and Mike digging the trench and shooting the grade

Irrigation break...

Back filling trench

More back filling trench

Topped off before being seeded

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