Spring Greens Aerification

Spring Aerification is a chance for use to help relieve the greens from all the stress endured during the fall and winter, which ensures we will have healthy greens going into the summer. Aerification helps remove all the built up organic matter which gives the  roots a chance to breath, increasing air movement and infiltration.  At TPC Stonebrae our greens aerification process involves a number of steps which are shown in the photos below.



This photo shows first three process of greens aerification at the practice center. First all the head are flagged so they are visable for operaters running the aerifiers. Secondly once the heads are marked the aerifiers proceed to aerate the area. Then after the area has been aerified snow shovels are used to push the plugs into piles off the green, where they can then be picked up using scoop shovels and a John Deere Pro Gator.



After the plugs have been cleaned the green is brushed with a greens groomer. This process helps to clean the surface and stands up the leaf blades, so sand will easily fill the holes.

After being brushed the remaning debris are blow off the greens surface using a buffalo blower.

Since we removed a lot of surface area of the green, they are then handwatered to prevent any stress which could slow the recovery process.

Now the greens are ready for sand. This photo shows both the topdresser and the method used to fill the holes. Once the sand is on the green, blowers are then used to moved the sand across the green, while filling the holes in the process. It's a fast and effecient process.

This is a photo of the green after the  holes are filled with sand.

After the holes are filled the greens are then double rolled to help smooth the surface.

Then the greens are ready for the ammendments. The Following ammendments were applied using push spreaders( Earth works 5-4-5, Potassium Sulfate, and Cal-CM-Plus).

The ammendments are then watered  in, which helps break them down so they are readily available to the plant.