Thatch

[TEPaul]

DonM:

Thanks for your post too. It's "printable" too.

[TEPaul]

Donnie Beck:

With your course, let's say you have a real dry year like you did a couple of years ago, and you'd basically done nothing about thatch for years. Would your course (no fairway irrigation at Fishers folks) get slowed up quite a bit when it was super brown like it was a few summers ago because you'd done nothing about thatch?

[Lawrence Largent]

I would like to thank eveyone for there imput so far. Our greens really aren't the problem we do the core aerification quite often. This year we are starting an aggresive topdressing program. I would like to see us verticut more though. My biggest problem I believe is making them understand the problems with the fairways.

Lawrence

[TEPaul]

"My biggest problem I believe is making them understand the problems with the fairways."

Lawrence:

Do you think your fairways have a "playability" problem, and if so what is that "playability" problem?

[James Bennett]

Lawrence

do your fairways go into two-tone colouring - some green and 'healthy' whilst other areas are pale, straw-coloured and thin.  If so, there is every chance you have 'thatch' which has dried out and gone hydro-fobic (well, at least prevented the irrigation from getting through to the soil underneath).

If you committee likes 'healthy' green, take them out to the site of the two-tone, and take a couple of cores.  I'll bet you'll see a significantly deep layer of hard, dead root material.

We widened some fairways last year with stolons (santa anna couch).  At this stage of our summer, these 'new areas' are firm, green and healthy.  Right next to it are fairways that are fine to play golf from, but are two-tone.  Exactly the same nutrients and irrigation, just 7 years old rather than one year old.  And we 'scarified' last year!  Some fairways are getting a more aggresive surface removal this year.

James B

[Adrian_Stiff]

I would like to thank eveyone for there imput so far. Our greens really aren't the problem we do the core aerification quite often. This year we are starting an aggresive topdressing program. I would like to see us verticut more though. My biggest problem I believe is making them understand the problems with the fairways.

Lawrence

Lawrence, its often easer to explain thatch and refer to greens but with your fairway problem it sounds to me as if somewhere something has been avoided by either a bad committee not allowng the superintendent to do his work or maybe the super does not understand. If your making a lot of thatch on fairways something is forcing the grass to grow too fast. I am not an agronmist but it sounds a lack of air problem and maybe you need to deep solid core with a 10" verti drain that will stretch the soil profile to say 10½" that introduces air/ oxgen and allows the natural process. If you got out and take a surface plug and you can smell Hydrogen Sulphide it is most likely this problem, are the fairways okay on the high spots or is the problem wall to wall.

TEP- I am from England, I was a greenkeeper before moving into design and construction. Probably 90% of what i learnt is still relelevant but a lot of things have moved on in greenkeeping, the ABC of greenkeeping is never going to change.

[Lawrence Largent]

While I'm not an expert in this field. I have been around enough to know that the more you aerify and top dress not to mention verticut your course will benefit. I asked the question last summer to my Head Professional. Why haven't we arified the fairways the last two seasons? I'm not sure why we haven't thats a very good question. I said in a previous post that we are budget strapped and for about 3 years we had to make budget cuts to the Maintence of the course. I'm not sure how the Super took this but I pretty sure he was very fustrated. I guess my next question is how much cost is envolved with aerifing and verticuting the fairways.

Lawrence

[TEPaul]

Lawrence:

Remember that old Midas Muffler ad that said; "You can pay me now or you can pay me more later".

Stop aerifying and the rest of the necessary maintenance practices mentioned here for some years and you're gonna pay. The golf course will really suffer. And when it does suffer down the road remember to show them this thread with the dates on it.

[Adrian_Stiff]

If you have a major problem with thatch  things have got too far for verti cutting to really help. Verti cutting is only one stage up from grooming and should be a treatment carried out bi-weekly in the grow season on greens and on higher budget fairways. Scarification is a similar process to verti cutting but a bit more industrial, ie the blades go into the fibre layer and quite a lot of debri is produced although the surface plays real good soon after. Scarification on a deeper basis is more of a spring and autumn practice, but can be more regular, it is effective for controlling thatch but if the thatch is there now it might be to late, depends on the scale of your problem. With fairways many UK clubs do not verti cut or scarify, they are low budget courses that probably do not apply any food or water to the fairways at all, they dont really have a thatch problem. It would seem strange to me that your club cant afford 2 days work for 1 man to go out and scarify the fairways or aerate, yet you are producing grass at a high volume that has to be cut. I think your club needs some guidance on the best ways to spend your dollar and without looking into your maintenance shed and seeing what you have its not easy to help on here.

[Craig Sweet]

Adrian...yes, to poke some holes in the fairway is a two day, one man job....to pull cores is a totally different kettle of fish...

I aerated our fairways...front nine one day and the backside the next, last summer, and when I asked the super about coring the fairways later in the fall, he said, no time and no money...I think its been 6-8 YEARS since we last pulled cores from our fairways!

Fortunately, grass does not grow too fast in the Rocky Mountains once it gets hot...we water "just enough" to keep the grass alive....we have a nice brown/yellow/shades of green look in mid summer...

[James Bennett]

North Berwick core their fairways, then drag heavy steel mesh over the surface to break up those cores.  The thatch blows away with thw wind.  Of course, for Laurence, we are talking soft grasses in this instance, not bermuda.

James B