Hottest week of the year to aerify + armyworm invasion!

 On Monday and Tuesday this week we core aerated the Sabot greens. We would have liked it if the heat index wasn't over 100 all week but the calendar wins the argument of when to aerate most of the time. With the sod project looming on the Sabot front nine, we wanted to take the opportunity to pull out as much anaerobic material as possible.

The actual act of aerating does not injure the bentgrass, it is more about what happens afterwards. By using blowers to move the plugs off and into the bermuda for cleanup we limit any kind of abrasion.

Trying to fill the holes with sand is where it gets difficult to limit abrasion in the hot weather. Each day we just worked on 9 holes and tried to finish the entire aeration, cleanup, fertilize, topdress and brushing process before 1:00 pm. If it wasn't for the new sod headed our way in two months we probably would not have been this aggressive.

The greens were brushed in two different directions, rolled and then blown off again. You will see some open holes left in the greens and that is because we didn't want to work the surface too hard in the heat. Those holes still have sand in them, just not all the way to the top, which will not matter in two months once the sod cutter lands on the front nine greens.

The first mowing went down on Thursday. We will apply some fungicide and fertilizer through the sprayer on Friday and more than likely just wipe or water the dew off this weekend. In the mornings the sand sticks to the mowers and does not allow for a proper cut. Things should get back to normal for next week as far as mowing goes and the greens should be putting nicely in two weeks or so.

With the Sabot closed Monday and Tuesday we put the vertiquake machine in action on a few wet fairways. The vertiquake cuts a slit about 6 inches deep that helps water keep moving away from the surface. The deep tine aerator also went out on the Manakin to poke some solid tine holes on 13 fairway to help dry that up some more after all the rain last week.

We have made some progress at the pumphouse with a new intake pipe being installed on Monday. We had to order some longer bolts to finish restraining the pipe so hopefully everything will be buttoned up next week.

Not only has the heat come on strong this week but we have also been invaded by the fall armyworm. The armyworm moths have been coming up on the tropical storms from the south and laying eggs in our area for the past few weeks. Over the weekend the worm population exploded!

The worms seek out young and or stressed out turfgrass. They managed to shred the leaves on some of our new sod laid down two weeks ago. They have also taken down some of the smaller tall fescue areas along the wood lines on the back nine of the Sabot. We applied insecticide to the roughs on Monday and Tuesday in order to take the worms down. The bermuda grows back quickly and in the tall fescue areas we get to find out how much bermuda was really there anyway. 

If you are seeing parts of your lawn turning brown this week it is most likely the armyworm. There are billions out there. The rain last week kept all the mowers in the shed so the worms had a good time organizing their invasion. With the mowers back out and insecticide down we should see some recovery through the weekend.