Sabot greens aeration complete

 

A few rain showers and a lack of sun did not slow down our aeration process on the Sabot this week. The Dryject machines were here bright and early on Monday and made it across all 20 greens before about 3:30 pm. Around 30 tons of sand were hand loaded into 3 machines which then injected the sand straight into the greens profile.

Diluting old organic matter is the name of the game with bentgrass aeration. Bentgrass is constantly growing and we are constantly mowing it which means dead leaves, stems and roots accumulate quickly and contribute to an organic layer above the original sand base that the greens were built on. By diluting the organic matter we can maintain a healthy surface and provide a satisfactory medium for the bentgrass to thrive in. The Dryject is almost cheating in a sense that it requires little effort to get sand exactly where we need it.

In the spring we have the luxury to take an aggressive approach with aeration in order to get ready for the season. By using coring tines on the aerators we are directly removing organic matter and replacing with with sand. Going in a different direction than the dryject machine ensures we don't pull out any of the sand that was injected a few minutes before.

Our full team worked seamlessly to get the cores blown off and ready for more sand. Once clean we spread out a variety of nutrients including potassium, magnesium, calcium and a zeolite clay for increased water availability.

The greens were topdressed heavily! We may have eclipsed the 100 ton mark for this aeration.

Aerators equipped with solid tines went in a third direction, at a different spacing, to poke one more set of holes for sand to go into.

The greens were brushed and rolled and the holes filled up nicely. Since this picture was taken, about 7 tenths of an inch of rain has washed the sand and nutrients even further into the greens. Once we get past this cold weekend our turfgrass should be off and running!

With aeration completed on Tuesday we were right back into action with our other spring projects. A few more pine trees were removed behind 18 Sabot black tee to make room for that tee to be moved about 40 yards back. We hope to get some sod on 9 Sabot black tee next week and then move forward with the 4 new tees for 18 Sabot. The black tee being one of them and three tees along the lake edge being the others, as described in a previous blog and on the Master Plan.

The apple trees right of 11 Sabot tees were also retired this week. They were in miserable shape after a long life of feeding the deer. The view up 2 Manakin has opened up nicely and these tees on 11 are scheduled to be resurfaced and tied in slightly with 2 Manakin in a few weeks. 

New bunker sand was arrived this week so we have been moving it out into the bunkers on 1, 4 and 9. We may or may not be able to fill up the bunker on 6 tomorrow. The bunkers around 5 green have been cleaned out and just need new drainage. We hope to have the bunkers completely finished up next week!

The Latitude is fighting through some cool cloudy days. More and more green is showing up every day. Spring is progressing nicely!