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.
