Root pruning of trees

A perfect example of a trench made last fall from the bunker project actually created a much improved turf situation by root pruning the trees.  When managing a property that is full of trees, one of the options to improve turf is to prune or shear the roots down to a depth of 12" or so depending up on the piece of equipment you might have.  Trees require at least 4 times much water as turf and when the turf is under large canopied trees, the trees will win.  We do not own anything that can accomplish this work but will begin to investigate potential equipment that we should consider buying and or renting for future use.  I will discuss this with green committee in the future and will post additional blogs regarding this subject.  This is not a one time process. Once you start the work, it should be done every 5 years or so or when the turf begins to thin.  It is not normally detrimental to the trees.  You usually have to stay out a few feet from the base to insure that the equipment can get through the root system and of course you want to in most cases protect the tree.

Drought stressed turf to the left of the picture and healthy, vibrant turf to the right side of the picture.  The out fall pipe which was trenched last fall during the bunker project assisted in creating this battle between thin and thick turf.  This is to the left of 6 tee water station. 

The completed right side of #3 red tee with its new sod.  Much improved for the horrible turf/weeds that we were once their.