Sabot aeration complete - Irrigation is on #1!

 

We came up with a perfect week of weather for aerating greens this week. Two dry sunny days were followed up with another shot of rain on Wednesday. The Sabot back nine greens were where we started on Monday. The deep tine aerators started the process by driving half inch solid tines about 8 inches into the surface. The dryject machines followed and quickly injected about 20 tons of sand into all 9 greens. 

The dryject puts the sand right where we want it, diluting the top organic layer of our greens. We are once again going as aggressive as possible here on the back nine in front of the greens resurfacing to be completed this coming winter.

After the dryject we pulled half inch cores out and blew off the resulting organic matter.

More sand was put down on top of the open holes. Starting out with the dryject is basically a head start for aeration. Working sand into the holes with traditional aeration is much more difficult.

The greens were brushed and rolled and then the aerators came back out with solid half inch tines. More holes were poked in yet another direction.

Another lighter dose of sand was laid down and then the greens were brushed in two directions and amended with some potassium and calcium. A cool weekend will slow growth down on these greens but as temps continue to rise they will heal up nicely.

Here are a couple of plugs from the bottom front of 10 Sabot green. A few years ago, these plugs were black and very anaerobic. Over the years we have been able to incorporate a healthy amount of sand which means we are getting more air around our roots and are able to grow a healthier plant; all thanks to aeration!

The rain held off until lunch time on Wednesday so that gave us enough time to pull tiny 1/4" cores out of the new front nine greens on the Sabot. A light topdressing went down afterwards and the rain pushed it in nicely.

The rooting on the new Pure Eclipse greens is very impressive. We'll continue to work the height down over the next few weeks and these greens should be putting nicely by April 19th.

The irrigation crew has broken ground on #1! The rain gave them a day off this week but they will be here nonstop finishing things up over the next few weeks.

Don't mind the non overseeded vamont fairways greening up faster than the Latitude. We'll see how 22 degrees on Sunday night treats them but our experiment of no overseed here on the front nine was beyond successful in our opinion.

Wells Paving is scheduled to be on site this coming Monday. They will be working on the path between 1 Manakin and 10 Sabot, a few spots on 8 Manakin, most of the cart path on 1 Sabot and then putting in a new path here connecting 4 and 5 Sabot. We did some prep work here on 5 Sabot this week, getting rid of an old stump that has been in the way for a while.

Jacob root pruned to the right of the path on 1 Manakin so that the new path will have a chance against these big pines. Enjoy the cool weekend, spring will show up full time soon enough!