Well, its been quite some time since I've made a blog post so let's get after it.
POUND THE PAVEMENT
That's been my phrase since I became motivated to change my health regimen at the beginning of December. Thirty pounds lost with a goal of another fifteen over the next few months. Diet generally has changed with throwing wheat out of my intake. Pretty difficult initially when I consumed 6-8 servings a day which a majority of it included bread, donuts and cookies. Active here at the club and on my job but a lack of control and will power with food intake has been an issue forever for me. Hopefully, after discussing potential retirement in just a few years, its time for a permanent change in healthy eating and some regular movement away from the job.
POUND SAND
Over this past week we have brought in over 60 tons of sand to place on and or into our golf greens here at Glen Echo. We contracted with a company to perform the Dryject operation on our greens and begin to do our deep-tine solid aeration using our Verti-drain aerator. We used about 35 tons of sand in completing this operation.
Dryject machine injecting sand with a 3000 psi bead of water and sand into the green about 5". You can see the staff filling 5 gallon buckets of dry sand to load the machine. It takes about 2 buckets or more across the green before it will run out.
3 x 3 spacing after completion. Greens were brushed and rolled after this picture was taken.
We are planning on deep-tine aerating our greens on Monday, March 21st. We do not all of them completed in one day so decided to get some of the greens completed this week. We did greens 15, 17, and 18 on Wednesday and completed greens 5-6, 8-9 on Thursday. The aerating process included the following;
Sanding greens ahead to reduce tire rutting
Aerate greens
Apply soil enrichment fertilizer
Blow sand in holes
Brush greens and change holes
Roll greens and apply an organic fertilizer
Skip apply a heavy coating of sand on the greens before bringing the tractor on the green and punching hole. Takes about 2 loads of sand per green, approximately 2 tons.
Russ using our Verti-drain deep tine aerator on our greens. 3" spacing approximately 7-8" deep with 1/2" tines.
Staff using our new articulating blower and backpacks to move sand into the holes in the greens.
YOU TALKIN ABOUT PRACTICE
Pro shop purchased 8 new mats for long range wet, off season practice area. Our staff power washed the concrete, removed the old mats and installed the new mats. The mats accept a regular tee so you will not have to hit from the rubber tees. We are providing a rubber tee on the mat for anyone who does not want to tee as high as a standard tee. These will also be available for groups to hit from as well during our tournament season. I've included a video regarding the new mats as well as a discussion regarding when will be opening the grass tees. Probably will be at least a month or more.
Thank you for being a part of this great club. We look forward to the upcoming season of golf here at Glen Echo. Remember you can follow regular daily updates on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook regarding the property we manage for you. I will give you as many details as you can stand.
No, we aren't talking Britney Spears here ladies and gentlemen, we are talking about millions of holes in our golf greens at Glen Echo CC for a second time in 7 days!!
We completed our Dry-Ject contracted service on March 23rd and we spent parts of 4 days this week doing our Verti-drain Deep-tined Aeration. Our process includes the following:
Burying each green with about a ton of sand
Then using our Verti-drain deep-tined aerator with 1/2" tines going about 8" deep into our green profile
We then blow the sand into the holes
Brush the green with a drag brush behind a cart
And Roll the greens
This work assists our .125" tall bentgrass (30 pieces of copy paper tall) in a number of ways:
Deep channels assists water to move through the green profile.
It creates channels for new roots to form and grow.
Oxygen moves into the subsurface assisting root growth and soil microbiology
Reduces excessive thatch which can make a green spongy and be susceptible to foot traffic during wet conditions
The additional sand assists in protecting crowns which is the growth center of the plants where roots grow down and leaf shoots grow up. The sand also assists in filling blemishes, ball mark holes and improves ball roll out
Tom blowing sand in holes. We also use backpack blowers in tight areas.
Pretty much the finished product. We've brushed and rolled the greens a couple more times this week which assists in spreading the heavier pockets of sand around the green surface. We expect the greens to be completely healed over the next 10-14 days. Work took about 150 man hours to complete.
Tree Management Plan includes removing dead and or dying trees throughout the season. It also includes a few planted when needed. Staff installed 3 trees on the right side of #9 red tee toward the fence line on 9. These trees were grown in our nursery over the last few years and we then transplanted them. From left to right, Black Gum, European Hornbeam and Yellowwood to replace the Carrico tree which died over the winter.
Skip mowing fairways for the first time. Not a real tight mow and used an old set of reals since there is so much small debris on the fairways. We blew and hand picked up as much as we could. This got a little bit of the winter fluff off of them.
During this most difficult time, your grounds staff is preparing the course for what we hope will be some normalcy in the future. Our seasonal/summer staff will not be added until our club is back in full operation. We are lucky that our staff on hand including managers has over 175 years experience in working courses with a majority of that being at Glen Echo.
As weather improves, we will be finishing the project that was started last fall which includes zoysia around the back of 5 green and grassing the 6th green complex with zoysia. This funding is provided through the foundation and has already been allocated for this project from 2019. We hope to have the tee open sometime around May 1st if the weather cooperates. I would expect to have the sod completed around the greens by May as well.
We had initially planned to renovate the 4th and 12th tee complex but under the current situation it was determined to postpone this project. We have not determined a new date but it will be no earlier than October 1st since member guest is at the end of September.
This past Monday, the staff was involved with our contracting company @DryjectofTennessee to aerate our greens. Our spring process involves the Dry-ject system which shoots a stream of water and sand at 3,000 psi into our greens staring from the surface and ending about 5" into the existing sand profile
Out staff’s involvement was to load 5 gallon buckets of dry sand into the aeration machine hopper. We used about 30 tons of sand. That is too many buckets of sand to count over the 10 hour period the operation took to complete. We also brushed the greens once they dried and they were rolled the next day since we ran out of time.
Hopper area where kiln dried sand is dumped. Sand is released through the holes and is then injected down into the green.
Chad Gamble, owner operator. Been a tough season for his business with cancellations beginning to fill his phone from our existing health crisis.
We hope to do a deep tine aeration of our greens early next week. This will consist of the green being covered in sand and then a half inch tine will push through the green surface to about 8” of depth.Our greens do not have modern drainage and must drain through our 4-6" sand profile and through the holes that are filled with sand. Deep tine aeration has been a life savor for our greens assisting in water removal from surfaces. Modern green architecture consists of an elaborate drainage system consisting of 10-12" of sand, gravel and drain tile. Our 9th green is the only one on property with this type of system.
The staff have been replacing damaged heads around our greens. The new system has been in the ground now for 13 seasons. Mowers and equipment going over top of them break the outer top casing which can effect the way the head operates. Our mower can also catch the corner of the head and damage it further.
You can see this head is missing almost 1/2 of the top part of the casing which rests on the soil/sod surface.
Russ working on a head at the corner of 4 green. Jason was involved in this production as well. Hopefully will be finished today.
Our spring greens aeration was completed today using a process called DryJect. We contracted with DryJect Tennessee who brought two machines to Glen Echo to do the work. The following process was used for all 19 greens at Glen Echo. Our staff did an excellent job in getting this operation completed today!
Greens were mowed to create a smooth surface since we will not be mowing for the next few days to allow the sand to settle into the canopy.
5 gallon buckets of sand were placed in the hopper as it crossed the green and were continuously added as it crossed back and forth across the green until the green was completely aerated.
The machine uses a bead of water shot at 3,000 psi into the surface of the green. Simultaneously sand is injected into the water. The sand fills the space created in the green subsurface to a depth of 4-5".
Once the sand dried on the green surface, the greens were brushed and holes were changed.
Tomorrow, we will rolling the greens to help smooth out any imperfections.
We expect the greens to heal over the next 10-14 days. The holes are completely covered and should not create a great deal of disruption in ball roll out.
This process improves water infiltration/drying of wet areas, root growth, thatch control, gas exchange, smooths the surface of the greens with the excess sand that was brushed around the surface, and helps to protect the crown of the plant which is the area where the roots grown down and leaves grow up.
Trailer used to hold sand
Closer view of the process on each green.
Aerial view of the operation on 15 green. Sand at each side of the green. About 25 tons of sand was used today.
Sand on top of the machine. The clear tubes allow the kiln dried sand to be injected under the machine and into the green subsurface. The process taking approximately 30 minutes per green more or less.
This past Monday and half of Tuesday, the staff did our every Fall deep-tine aeration with our
Verti-Drain machine. This process involved about 170 hours of labor, 42 tons of sand, 900 pounds of a soil amendment product, and approximately 1.6 million 1/2" solid tine holes put in our greens, collars and cool season approaches at an average depth of 7.5 to 8.0".
Our process included the following:
Mow the greens
Placed a layer of sand ahead of the aeration
Aerated the greens
Applied a 50# bag of the soil amendment material to each green.
Blew, brushed and pushed the sand into the holes and did a final smoothing of the sandy surface with a drag brush.
Rolled the green surfaces to smooth the surfaces
Changed the holes
Mowed green surfaces with an old set of reels to cut off the tufts of bent grass or longer leaves of plants that were lifted up during the process.
Watered greens a couple of minutes
Aeration of our greens are one of the most important cultural practices that take place on our golf course for the year. We complete this process for a number of reasons:
Improves drainage through our green profiles and assists in drying out wetter sections of greens.
Exchanges good gas(oxygen) with an overabundance of bad gas(carbon dioxide).
Improves drainage and oxygen which is great for developing new roots and improving existing root systems.
Additional sand on the surfaces assists in smoothing the surface after the holes close back together and protects the crowns of the plant which is where roots and leaves start their lives.
It also helps to dilute thatch or improve the mat layer which reduces the effects of ball marks and speeds up the process of healing as long as the mark is repaired by the golfer.
Topdressing machine puts a layer of sand on the greens at about a depth of 1/4" more or less. This is the same machine that we place a very light topdressing layer on our greens during the season. Approximately 3 hoppers of sand for the total golf course. It takes almost 2 loads of sand per the average sized green during aeration. A green such as 1 green we go across it 3 times for very light topdressing. During aeration, its about 10 passes which could increase tire tracking on the greens which we attempt to prevent.
The sand is kiln dried and reaches a temperature of well over 1000 degrees which dries it and kills the weeds and the bad actors in the sand. We brought our 45 tons of sand in on Thursday before the Monday activity so it would have a chance to begin to cool before placing it on the greens. Sand too hot being put on at the heavier rate could literally cook the bent grass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYLffGwfH8c
We started the process before first light on Monday morning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkX8SxCReTs
A daylight view of the aeration. As you can see, 4 tines per holder with 6 arms placing 24 holes in our greens every 3" at a depth on average of nearly 8".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Rezk8nRBTM
Tom spreading soil amendment product which includes: Dry kelp meal, greensand, compost, rock phosphate, sulfate of potash magnesia, calcium carbonate, humic acid, zeolite, and compost.
Pull behind blower and staff using back packs during sand into the hole.
Dark thirty the 2nd day.
Hole filled vs no fill.
Completed, holes to the top!!
1.Below are pics of the end results.You can see the channels down into this 7" section of the practice green. The topdressing/sand layer has been applied to the greens for the last 30 to 40 years. At the last 2 inches is the soil layer which is being incorporated with aerating/topdressing sand over the years to allow moisture to drain out of the system.
2. Our overall roots grow in the top 3-4" of our profile but we have longer roots growing through aeration holes deeper in the profile up to 7" or more as you can see below.
3. A large aeration hole from our Dry-Ject process that takes place each late winter/early spring up to 4" to 5" deep.
4. After the rains overnight and into this morning, water at the bottom of the 7" deep hole where I pulled a hole. This moisture works through the 5-6" deep sand layer of the green and then enters through the 2" soil layer more quickly because of the deep-tine aeration holes. It will move directly through the soil and a much slower pace because of the tight soil particles.
5. Below is a standard drainage system in most modern greens. We have one green that has drainage set up this way, green 9 renovated in the late 80's. This system is designed so water will drain through the 12" sand layer represented by the dark section on top. The water will slowly build up in the bottom 3rd but will slow at the next layer which is gravel which creates a perched water table. The construction of this type of system in golf greens is to allow roots the opportunity to take up moisture into the bent grass plant as the water passes through the sand. Once the water pressure increases enough at the bottom of the interface between the sand layer and gravel, it then releases into the gravel layer. Too much moisture for too long of a period of time in the root zone will deprive the plant of oxygen which is needed for the plant to survive.
This is once of the issues we have with our greens at Glen Echo which do not have standard drainage systems. A higher than normal period of moisture can lead to negative results both on the putting surface and below surface in our root systems.
Once the water begins to drain through the gravel system it will then enter the small holes in the drain pipe and will exit from the green area.
Spring is upon us so it's time for some inputs to our greens to help bring about strong and vigorous plants that will thrive during the summer season. Our first application is a process called Dry-Ject. This process shoots a bead of water with sand penetrating the green surface and going to a depth of 4-5". This process will:
Stimulate root and shoot growth,
Improve surface drainage and water penetration
Dilute thatch and build a mat layer which is a proper combination of sand and diluted thatch which assists in proper sized ball marks on our greens. Too much thatch, soft greens and too little can provide no protection for growth area of the plant. See below
Provides additional sand on the surface of the greens to smooth blemishes and covers the crown of the plant. The crown is the key growth area of the plants where's shoots grow up and out and roots grow down. If this area becomes damaged shoot and root growth of the plant will be disrupted
I have a video of the process with some discussion. Brushing of the greens and a little ball roll out demo.
I apologize for little activity on the blog lately. Time to catch up. Course has held up well this fall. A little bit of rain has been helpful for the seed that was drilled in during late September and early October.
Frost is predicted over the next couple of days. What does that mean? Course will remain closed until frost has lifted from playing areas. We of course are most concerned about greens so this means the practice green and practice facilities are closed until frost has lifted off of those surfaces. What can frost do? Watch the following video from the USGA, they explain it perfectly. The frost delays are normally shorter in length this time of year since the ground temperatures are still elevated. As temperatures cool, the delays increase in length. Factors that affect delays include cloud cover and wind speed as the sun comes up. Remember, the last thing we want is to delay golfers from getting out on the course but our goal is not do damage to the turf that could create issues going into winter or coming out of winter into spring.
Fall aeration is planned on Monday 10/30 with probably 12-14 greens getting completed we hope. We will get the others completed over the next couple of days trying to finish before early bird players catch up to us. We intend to do a deep solid tine aeration, about 8-9" deep. We will fill the holes with sand which will assist the holes in healing and will improve ball roll out. Greens should be pretty good to go as the week goes by. In the video it illustrates coring, pulling a core out of the green about 2-3" deep. Our process will not involve pulling out a core but placing a deep 1/2" tine into the green about 8". These deep holes penetrate into our soil layer which is about 5" below the surface of the greens and assists with root growth and moisture penetration. I'll explain more next week after our process is completed.
Staff has been busy removing part of the ornamental planting along the east side of 9 lake over the last few weeks. With the addition of plantings around the clubhouse and pro shop, our horticulturist Becky has just too much for one person to manage. This bed was going to need a complete overhaul but I thought the best way to handle it was to put it back to turf grass. We had a difficult time making the steep sloped bank look good in the first place. I think next season along the turf to grow a bit along the steep side of the bank will look pretty good in place of an out of control planting bed.
Lake bank sodded and seeded along 9. Saved some money and decided to seed the top part. Area next to it is bermuda and will over run the seeded area next summer. Why waste money on something that won't be there for long.
This is our practice green collar that was sprayed with a product called Pylex used at a rate of 1/2 oz per acre. We've made another application since this photo and hopefully will remove some of this pesky grass out of our collars.
Picture above is a fairy ring on #10 fairway. We've had these from time to time on our fairways but not to the size and killing rings that we have been experiencing in the last year or so. We are looking at a couple of different potential treatments next season. First is possibly changing to an organic fertilizer which reduces thatch and improves the microbial population that are antagonistic to the fairy ring organism. 2nd would be a fungicide application. I like improving soil health through the organic fertilizer option.
We've had a little bit of Large Patch on Zoysia break out a couple of weeks ago. Largest spots were up toward 13 green. We did some spot spraying with a fungicide to help knock it down. The worst time of the year is spring for this disease. The spot spraying this fall will help reduce some of the activity next spring but we will still spray some of our areas where the disease occurs on a yearly basis. The organic fertilizer option could help to alleviate this disease but it takes a couple of years to throw the soil microbe population to the good guy side. Organic does cost more but in the end does it really when you have to keep spraying fungicides on a regular basis?
MSD is doing some storm drainage work in the subdivision next to us in Glen Echo Park to reduce storm water getting into the sanitary sewer line that runs through our course along the lake system. The excessive loading of the sanitary sewer creates issues along Wilson Street in U-City which has been on the news many times in the past from flooding. Part of the work will be some repairs and storm drainage being improved between the property line fence on 9 and the lake. This work will start in the beginning of winter and will be completed before the golf season next spring. Outside contractors through MSD will be completing the work. Some large storm water lines will be installed into our property and a open grass basin will lead water into another pipe that will go into our 9 lake. Our staff will be removing irrigation lines that will have to be dug up and replaced once the project is completed. The club has been reimbursed for work our staff will have to do for this project.
This season we will be doing the DryJect Aeration process from our contractor. Scheduled initially for this Sunday PM and next Sunday PM, the dates were moved due to weather concerns.
We will be completing this process on Wednesday March 15 and Thursday March 16. I don't like to do this work during the work but we had no choice or wait until the end of April which I do not want. It is a pretty non-evasive process but we will have to have you go around the holes that we are working. We will have 2 units working. Takes about 45 minutes per green or so.
Below is the link to last years work. We usually just brush the greens and roll them if they are dry enough and they are ready for play.
http://geccgcm.blogspot.com/search/label/DryJect
Later in the month we will be performing our deep-tined areation which will help us drain water deeper through our profile as needed, especially through the earthen layer that rest 6" below ground.
I will make another post in the next few days catching you up on other work the staff have been performing.
MONTHLY RECORDS
9TH WARMEST MARCH ON RECORD
TIED 2ND LEAST NUMBER OF OCCURRENCES OF MINIMUM TEMPERATURE LESS
THAN OR EQUAL TO 32 DEGREES
DAILY RECORDS
3/8...RECORD HIGH MINIMUM TEMPERATURE OF 63 PREVIOUSLY 62 IN 1974
3/15...RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 82 PREVIOUSLY 81 IN 2012
Temperature Observed Normal Value Departure from Normal Last Year High 62.5 55.9 6.6 57.2 Low 43.6 36.6 7.0 35.6 Average 53.0 46.3 6.7 46.4 Precipitation Rainfall 2.29" 3.32" -1.03" 3.0" Snowfall .3" 2.3" -2.0" .6"
The short range grass tee is now open. Long range tee will be another week or so. Short range tee is built on sand which allows it to warm quicker and begin growing and repairing itself a little faster. Long range also sits in a hole and its definitely colder down here but it is looking good.
The staff repaired the water line for the water fountain on #14 yesterday. The leak was directly in the middle of the cart path. They cut the asphalt out and were able to locate the leak about 15" underground and made the repairs pretty quickly.
Tom and Jason down to the dirt.
Leaking metal line on the right side of the picture.
Skip touching up the new asphalt patch.
Russ packing and smoothing the newly laid asphalt.
At the top of hill of #7 about 50 yards from the green significant bump that developed over the last year or so in the cart path. The boys cut out the asphalt and patched the area to make it smooth again. Also at the main road and 7 cart path, we have had the little path blocked off that goes up the right side of the hole. We are eliminating this cart road because of the wear and tear it creates at the beginning and up the right side of the fairway for at least 50 yards. Excessive cart traffic weakens the zoysia. We used the asphalt saw to cut a small walk path for our walking golfers to continue to use. We will be picking up the asphalt next week and will fill the area with soil and fescue sod next week. We will be placing Ornamental wood stakes with rope along the main road to block cart traffic from entering this area. We are requesting that carts use the left path and then cross the fairway.
Russ tamping the new repair on hole 7.
Finished
The arrows point to the new path that will be for walkers only. Rope and stakes will be used to direct carts to the left path on #7 near the red tee. Excessive wear at the beginning of the fairway from cart traffic is the reason for the changes.
Becky has designed a new planting scheme for the Bubble Ornamental Bed. The existing bed was a bit overgrown and tired and was in need of some attention. I pulled the plant material out today, we will be tilling the area, adding soil, changing the shape of the bed, adjusting irrigation as needed, till in compost for the new bed and plant it all hopefully within the next week. Some of the perennials she planned are still growing in the greenhouse and will be delayed in their installation until they are mature enough to plant.
Plants removed and now empty.
You will notice some additional sod work was completed by the staff early this week. Areas repaired include the drive off near 8 green just short of the bunker. The left fairway bunker on #5 needed some replacement. There was an area to the ornamental planting as you come down the hill toward the first tee. Trees have been removed in this area but rough mowers and roughed up this spot pretty significantly over the last few years. This area had soil added and new sod. A few other spots were completed as well like the walk off area near 17. We used 480 yards of fescue sod in the last 2 weeks.
Fairways and all tees were mowed early in the week. Yes it will be cold Friday night but I don't expect the temperatures will be cold enough to stop the green growth in our warm season grass.
Greens continue to heal but these cold temperatures have not done us any favors. I did roll a few balls on the putting green today and our ball roll is improving noticeably since we have been able to mow a couple of times this week. We mowed and rolled today and will roll the greens again in the morning if the frost stays away and greens aren't damp. Warmer temperatures next week with early week rain should continue to move them in the right direction.
A number of items to cover as we go into this weekend. The weather has been really kind to us with average temperatures 6-7 degrees above normal for March. That means our warm season grass has awakened early this year. Normally we mow fairways around the 20th of April give or a take a few days. Might be a little early this year but will evaluate a little further early next week. No promises but we are looking at it closely.
The staff noticed the other day a water stream above the 14th tee water fountain. Skip has investigated and believes the leak is coming from under the cart path. Sure, lets make it real difficult. We plan to cut the cart path next week and dig up the leak. The line feeds the water fountain on 14 so it is shutoff for now. Sorry for the inconvenience.
The view looking down from the cart path on 14 tee. Red dots are the water line. We believe the water line is leaking from under the path. Water line comes from Lucas & Hunt. It feeds the Field Bar, goes cross country to the pro shop and to our building. This was the original water line that fed the old clubhouse at the tennis courts.
Free is always good when it comes to our department. We try to think of ways of doing things that do not require additional expenditure. One of these ways is using oak chips from the tree trimming and of course when an oak is dropped we chip those limbs as well. Its not the fanciest mulch but it works well enough in our shrub style beds like along Wallingford Drive along the short range and especially #9 Woodland Garden. We would probably need another thousand dollar load of regular mulch if we used it on these areas. Along with mulching comes continued removal of sweetgum balls. Alphonso worked all day today on about 8 different trees picking up and hauling away gumballs.
Nice sized pile for us to use. You would be surprised how quickly it goes. Latrell and Randy spreading product along Wallingford.
The staff spent most of the day Wednesday and part of the morning on Thursday sodding the ground stump areas on the course. We still have a few spots that we will seed in the next few days.
This worked involved hauling dirt which was discussed the week before, packing it and then cutting out the edges and laying the sod. I will circle these areas in the next couple of days to allow you for a free drop from this new sod as well as warning you when driving your carts so that you will not drive over the top of them. It will take a few weeks for them to become solid and to become fully rooted.
Becky came up with the idea to make some additional planters out on the course from the hollowed trees that were removed this winter like she has been using at the Field Bar the last few years. Should be a colorful addition to a few tees on the course this season.
10 tee with 3 new planters
Last but not least. Greens are healing well from aeration. They were brushed and rolled today after Wednesday evenings rain. We don't do much to them except brush and roll when they are dry.
11 days since our first and 4 days since the second. If they grow enough over the next few days, we will put a mow to them next mid-week. Biggest issue effecting growth is the fact that we are in the middle of growth regulator time because of seed head development as well as trying to keep the poa annua in a stunted position with another regulator.Yes the greens are a little extra sandy but as they begin to grow through the sand this should give us some excellent smoothness to our surfaces. I would expect the greens to be in great condition for opening day coming up next Saturday for the Men and the following Tuesday for our Ladies.
Completed our last 3 greens this morning. Process included mowing, verticutting, pulling cores, picking up almost 2 million cores, applying soil amendment, topdressing, blowing sand in holes, brushing, rolled this morning and fertilized. Video explains most of our work. Being a working member in the aeration process, the video leaves much room for improvement including camera(need to buy a Go-Pro) and maybe a Phantom 3 or 4 drone with some overhead video which will help us in our operation. I placed a link to YouTube for those of you whose devices do not open the embedded videos.
Also, we aerated the cool season tees, holes 2,3,5,10,11,14,17 and filled some of the stump grinding holes with soil in preperation for sodding. Short video and a couple pics below as well.
https://youtu.be/483zo9IEMLQ
https://youtu.be/HpJTLXsnDGg
https://youtu.be/5YodaG3OqE8
Compacted below, pile of soil for me to spread under the watchful eyes of you know who in the background!
Smoothed and ready. Might need to add just a bit more dirt but we will see.
Six of us worked till nearly dark this evening aerating our greens. We had a frost delay that slowed us a couple of hours. We were able to get the PG plus 15 others cored, sanded, and brushed. We still need to do some clean up around the greens and finish sanding 16-18 tomorrow morning as well as roll the greens. We also have to apply some granular fertilizer which is chicken manure based and will be a little smelly for a couple of days but will provide great benefit in the future. A more detailed report will follow in the next couple of days. I'm whooped and heading home.
Jason coring 14 green on a great day to accomplish this work.
The first of our two spring aerations will begin tomorrow, March 21st with a 1/2" core aeration. We expect to have all greens completed by Tuesday if everything goes to plan.
We intend to do a second aeration next Monday using a newer technique called Dryject which is gaining popularity around the country.
Made a short video for your viewing pleasure of our practice run on the practice green from Friday to make sure our depth was set properly.
Its been 15 days since our greens aeration was completed and they are almost 100% healed. A few holes here and there still trying to close but overall in good shape. Did our first wet morning mowing today and rolling behind the mower. We have had to layoff early morning work on the greens to allow the sand to settle down a bit so we did not create a mess on the greens. Dry mowing and rolling was the order of the day last week.
We laid off the growth regulator at aeration time which allowed the turf to bounce back along with great growing weather helped in the healing process. I applied a regulator and some fertilizer last Friday before the weekend rain to reduce the growth of the poa annua and improve the growth of the bent grass. This should improve ball roll over the next couple of weeks before we allow them to get a little hairy before winter sets in. We have at least one more regulator planned before winter if weather allows help stunt the poa.
Our fall greens aeration is our most concentrated project each season which requires using every staff member to complete this task. It is our most important project because it helps to improve the health of our greens more than anything else we do to them besides watering.
As mentioned in the past, deep-tine aeration provides the following benefits:
Drainage through and improves water's ability to penetrate into the profile both to get through it and into the areas where water is needed by the root system.
Gas exchange, oxygen into the soil and the release of harmful carbon dioxide which can build up in the soil.
Space for roots to grow, expand and improve.
Allows us to modify the sand profile with a coarse sand that provides improvement in all the areas listed above.
Improves the biological health, good microbes in the soil.
Thatch reduction by mixing sand with the thatch helping to dilute or break down the thatch.
Our process included:
Placing the sand on the greens. Approximately 1-2 tons per green based on their size.
Aerating punching about 110,000 holes 8" deep, 5/8" channel in each green.
Applying a soil amendment product to the green. Earthworks Renovate Plus
Blowing the sand in the holes
Brushing the sand in the holes and helping to spread the sand uniformly across the surface. .
Rolling to close over the holes and smooth the surface as best we can.
Changing the holes since they were damaged during the process.
We will need to brush the greens again to help work excess sand into the profile. We will roll regularly to help smooth the surfaces until we mow again which will be in a few days once the sand has settled.
Over the next few days, we will be increasing the
watering of our greens to push moisture through the profile. I sprayed a couple of wetting agent/penetrate products that will assist with getting the water through the layers on our greens. This material will also suppress dew helping the surfaces dry quicker during aeration allowing us to get started quicker in the mornings. We are trying to
get moisture to the soil layer which was the original surface of our greens
when they were built many eons ago. If this layer is too dry, the tines stick and heaves the turf forcing us to shorten the depth of our aeration which we don't want to happen. The deeper we go with aeration, the greater the benefit for our turf.
The original depth of our greens is 5-6" below the surface where you are currently putting on. Modern greens keepers have used sand to help smooth the surfaces and improve drainage. We have 18 of these greens at Glen Echo. With no rain and watering lightly to keep ball roll out long and smooth in the last 30 days, we have gotten drier down in this soil layer than we should be. We also fertilized our greens last week and have not applied the regulator we used over the last month that assisted us as well. All these things in combination will allow us to get our work completed in a timely and efficient manner and should assist us with healing. I would expect the greens to be in good condition in the next 10-14 days after we have aerated.
The soil depth is about 2-2.5" deep at the bottom of the hole with the sand between 5-6" in depth . Right at the point of the arrow you can see an old aeration hole going down into the soil layer. Our goal with the aeration is to create channels down into the soil layer allowing moisture to move through the bottom of the green. This also creates channels for rooting and gas exchange with the good Oxygen entering the root zone and the bad when too much has built up Carbon Dioxide can escape from the soil.
