Russ is operating the aerifier with our large Kubota Tractor. We operate in the lowest gear at the slowest speed so we can get closer spacing between holes. We are in the area of a 3" spacing between holes.
The rear view of the operation.
The completed practice green covered in sand, soil and cores.
Harry(our mechanic) and Assistant Skip operating the core harvester. The small plows direct the cores and sand into the shoot which lifts and shoots the material into the bed of the 3 wheeled truckster. Depending upon the size of the green, the bed of the cart usually fills completely and it is then dumped in an out of the way area on the property to help speed up the operation.
Assistant Skip is spreading the material out in the back of the cushman as it comes out of the machine.
This is the view from behind the core harvesting operation.
Here is the view after the harvesting operation was completed. My camera case is about 4" long so you can see that we are around 3" between rows and about 2" between each tine.
I did not get a picture of our topdressing work in which Assistant Mike was performing the work for the day. This was completed using our standard topdresser. We decided to use the spinners design which throws sand out a few feet on either side of the machine. This helps with reducing traffic on the soft greens. A normal green would take 4-5 passes of the machine to get enough sand on the green. He would usually have to refill his hopper before covering the complete green surface. We used approximately 40 tons of sand material on our greens. Just before the sanding operation, we placed a micro-nutrient product onto the greens with a broadcast spreader at the rate of 25#'s per thousand square feet. It is important for this material to get into the profile of the green where it provides assistance to the turf as it grows.
When the topdressing is complete, we then blow the sand back and forth across the green to fill the holes as full as possible. There are a couple of greens that need some supplemental hole filling in the next few days. We try to fill the holes with sand so that we can incorporate a larger particle sized sand into the subsurface of the green to assist in oxygen exchange, root growth and drainage.
The sand material that was used routinely in St. Louis for years was a fine sand which would make for some pretty smooth greens but was less than desirable in the above mentioned areas. I have a great picture below which will show what we are attempting to do in our green profile.
Once the sand was blown into as many holes as possible, we would then bring a drag brush out and would go circles around the green help in dispering more sand. Once that process was completed, we would then mow the green without baskets because the green mower would pick up more sand than grass. This could negatively affect the operation of the mowing unit and could lead to potential scalping because of the weight of the sand. The operator would need a mask and definetly would need protective eye wear.
This view is looking down into a normal sized golf hole without the hole cup being in place.
You can see the sand layer going down into the profile about 3-4". Below the sand layer is a transitional line between the lighter colored sand and the darker soil layer. Within that soil layer, there are veins of sand which going down into that profile all the way to the bottom of the hole. This is our goal during the aeration process. We are attempting to place as much sandy material into that area as possible. The deepest veins are ususally completed with the verti-drain and our solid tine operation
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