Fairway Aeration

Staff spent the day beating on the fairways with a number of tools. Allow me a few moments to explain:

First we used our core pulling aerator to pull 1/2” plugs from fairways 1-5, 7-8, 10-13, and 15. Normally we would get a plug averaging 2-3”. With the drier soil, we were barely able to pull a little over an inch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8syQtsNWGA

Second, we used our leaf vacuum which has vertical   blades that cut down into the soil and create a vertical mowing pattern into our zoysia fairways assisting in removing thatch. This process also broke up the plugs, removed some of the excess blades and soil. 

   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD6nbTLaulU

Thatch brought up by the vertical mowing blades.

Couple of loads of soil, thatch and grass blades from thé vertical mowing. 

 

Third we used a couple of drag mats to break up the remaining cores and disperse the excess material accumulated.

Dragging fairways with metal drag mats

We then took our blower and blew the excess material into the rough. 

We aerated, vertical mowed fwys 1-8. We had to stop on 8 with an equipment breakdown. We continued aerating and dragging through hole 15. We have mowed fwys 1-7 and will mow the remaining fairways when they dry in the morning. Not sure when our vertical mowing will continue with the breakdown but will pick up where we left off.

We also applied some organic fertilizer to the fairways through #8 and then watered it in. Science has shown with the use of organic fertilizer and removing excess thatch through verticutting reduces the amount of fairy ring and large patch in zoysia fairways. We also plan to use our slicing blades with our pull behind aerator over the next month or two to improve water and gas penetration.

Greens Aeration

 Well, we've survived winter or have we. I bet if you asked our crew who spent 11 hours out on the course today that winter is still in full force but the promise of better weather is ahead. Oh it was a cold  aerating the PG and greens 1-13 today. We anticipate completing greens 14-18 on Tuesday.

Most modern greens consist of 12” of sand, 4” of pea gravel and drain lines cut into the soil subsurface with 4” slitted drain pipes that help to evacuate excess water from the root zone. 18 of the 19 greens at Glen Echo are sand capped which means there is a 4-6” layer of sand on top of the soil layer with no drain tile to move excess water from the root zones. 

The water that penetrates our greens evacuates in 2 ways. The first is moving down through the sand cap and meeting the soil layer. It will then flow with gravity out away into the green surround area. The second way our greens drain is through the holes we have placed in our greens over the last 20 years or more that penetrate into the soil layer. We then back fill the channel with sand which allows for additional water to move through the root profile and drain into the soil layer. We have placed thousands of holes into this soil layer to assist in removing excess water.

Below is a description of today's process with a couple videos and photos to show your our process.

The tines we use are 1/2” in diameter and penetrate to about 8” in depth.  

 Before we do the aeration work, we place a layer of sand on the green surface. This is done ahead of time to reduce the potential heaving of the green surface. If you aerated and then pulled a machine across the surface with a load of sand it would put some waves in the green surface.

We put approximately 1500-2000 pounds of sand per green depending upon the size.

 https://youtu.be/pb-eGeIe7Jc

 

 https://youtu.be/4fgH3jTjPV0

We apply a micro nutrient granular product to our greens and then move sand into the holes with a pull behind blower and backpack blowers.

We then drag the greens with a brush, roll them and fertilize with an organic chicken based fertilizer. The greens are then rolled and water is applied to begin to dissolve the fertilizer and settle the sand.

We have a second aeration planned for next week which is contracted out. I will explain this process next week but it’s used in place of the common proactive that is called core aeration. 

Our aeration process does the following for our greens:

• Stimulates top and root growth
• Sand assists in smoothing the surfaces and provides a fresh channel of sand for drainage and root growth.
• Penetrates into the soil layer assisting in drainage for our greens.
• Encourage microbial activity as the weather warms which assists in reducing thatch. The sand also assists in diluting thatch.
   

Long Range Committee Tree Plan and Grounds Department Tree Management Plan

 Over the past few weeks, a great deal of activity has been occurring on the grounds at Glen Echo CC. Its been quite a while since I've made a post so here we go. We've had a combination of Long Range Committee tree work taking place as well and our normal removal of dying trees that our staff handles with assistance from our contractor or we do completely on our own depending upon the size of the tree. Below are some examples of the before and after shots that has been taking place.

Trees short right were removed, a dying ash and large sweetgum about 200 yards on right and 3 white pines mixed in with the pines about 150 yards on the left.

Updated view after removals. Goals were to remove trees at start of fairway to allow balls struck to the right beyond the trees to see where they end after they come to rest. Also removal of trees that keep the ball from advancing forward. Normally a high handicapped

We contracted removals with Gamma Tree Experts for the Long Range Committees work on hole 7/8. There were 20 total trees removed from this area with 16 of them between the 7th/8th fairway and 7th green and 8th tee. This still left 10 very large specimen trees in this area. The photos are outstanding seeing the differences before and after.

7 off of tee with 5 trees removed out of right side at start of fairway about to about 275 yards to 7 green. Notice left by red tee Maples are still there but were removed earlier today.

3 trees on the left removed. You can now see down the left side of the hole.

Approach on #7 before 3 of 4 pines were removed. Large middle was left in place but 3 removed.

What were are left with is stunning, even when dormant. Shapes and curves along right side of green are visible back 200 yards or more. Also will allow the bunker to come more into play since balls won't be blocked by the line of trees.