Manakin aeration complete, back to the Sabot next week
Manakin greens aeration was knocked out quickly on Monday. The deep tine aerators went across the green first, poking 8 inch deep holes through the upper profile.
The walk behind core aerators came quickly behind and pulled out a 3/8" core. This is only the second time we have pulled a core on these greens this year. With covid pushing all our golf events to the fall, we obviously wanted to wait until those were over before we punched again.
Here is the reason we pull cores. This layer of dark anaerobic soil just under the surface of the greens is what causes them to thin in the summer and also what holds us back from pushing the greens hard for speed through the middle of the season. This layer is caused from skipping aerations and pushing the greens at the wrong times resulting in thin, unhealthy turf. In the last year and a half we have deployed as many different cultural practices as possible to alleviate this layer and give you the healthiest surfaces possible to putt on.
By pulling out the muck and diluting that layer with new sand, we make some headway in the battle against bentgrass thatch production. It will always be tough to balance these practices against a very busy golf course!
Our team once again put in the work to get all the greens aerated and cleaned up on Monday. Blowers were used to take the plugs off the greens so that the surface wasn't damaged with shovels.
The sand was brushed and blown around until just about all the holes were filled up. Any extra sand was scooped up and brought back to the shop.
Monday's finished product after about 30 tons of sand were persuaded into the holes.
We are going to get lucky with the weather over the next 10 days or so. Warmer temps and no frost will help these greens perk back up and get them rolling smoothly again. Our plan is to mow and roll tomorrow morning (Friday) and then probably just wipe the dew off for the weekend. The sand makes mowing and rolling a difficult process and we do not want to bring more sand up on the surface with our machines. Overall the greens are smoothing out and we have plenty of fertilizer on the help them fill in and shoot some new roots down through the millions of sand channels.
By skating past the last 3-4 frost chances, the bermuda is still green all through the property. This has held up the bluegrass quite a bit on the Sabot. Fertilizer went out this week to help the blue along. It is hard to tell what are bluegrass seedlings and what is poa annua and exactly how much of either is out there until the frost hits. In the meantime, we will back on the Sabot working on drainage and bunker renovations over the coming weeks. We want to take advantage of some drier weather before the cold comes back in December!