No fairway aerification for 10 years

[Tom ORourke]

What is the impact of not  doing a fairway aerification for 10 years? I know the benefits of aerification. And I recently did a topic on how much our courses are overwatered. But we have two courses in South Carolina in a fairly rainy fall and winter. There are always some holes that are cart path only, and very often both courses are either cart path only, or closed, and I believe it is due to the lack of fairway aerification. We have a very shallow root system, and the water just is not going anywhere. There were a few temporary greens set up short of the real greens and even after 4 or 5 days of no rain you can see 2 inches of water in the cups. Our greens are in great shape as they do get aerified. There are some times when he does a slice in the fairways for seed, but has not pulled plugs in 10 years. I think we have some issues with our drains and that is another problem. And I can see 4 other courses within 5 miles of ours that are fine. It is only us. But what are the main problems with not doing fairway aerification? Thanks.

[Kyle Harris]

Is the soil compacted?

[Adrian_Stiff]

There are various forms of fairway aerification. We have not 'pulled plugs' ever on a widespread basis. I don't think many courses in the UK would do so either, if you mean coring.



Slit tining so the tines slightly heave the soil is a practice on heavy soils. Verti-draining ( a mechanical fork) to heave the soil by 5% or so and create fissures for air, roots, water passage. Verti cutting or scarifation is also a lesser form of aerification, removing dead material stimulating growth, ultimately producing more plant growth/fissuring.

[Tom ORourke]

Is the soil compacted?
Probably. He loves to keeps things green and waters like crazy so the fairways are always soft. It is not unusual to have mud on your ball in the middle of a rainless spring or summer. It is difficult to know how hard the ground is once you get down a few inches.

[Kyle Harris]

Is the soil compacted?
Probably. He loves to keeps things green and waters like crazy so the fairways are always soft. It is not unusual to have mud on your ball in the middle of a rainless spring or summer. It is difficult to know how hard the ground is once you get down a few inches.

Grass won't grow too well on compacted soils. Your problem sounds like the soil in its current state can't shed water fast enough either through drainage, surface movement, or evaporation/transpiration. Soil compaction can certainly prevent the last, but that would also imply the water couldn't get in either. Solely aerifying is strictly to relieve compaction, or else it is a tool that is in the longer process of soil amendment. If the soil is not compacted, strictly aerifying isn't going to address the problem that the soil does not shed water fast enough for your agronomic and playability goals.

Remember, it's alright to get wet if you can dry out fast enough. In fact, finding the honey spot of what is a good rate of wet/dry cycling is the crux of good irrigation and soils management.

[Philippe Binette]

No aerification leads to the creation of a complete layer of thatch .... Thatch becomes impermeable...
Water and air will not go in the soil
= no drainage because water stay on top of the surface
= grass living only on the nutriments of the surface because of the Shallow roots
= constant need for water
= soft course and bad resistance to heat

[Tony Ristola]

The type of soil makes a difference, and this can vary not just within the region, but within the course.

Construction can compact soils, and if there is no heavy frost to loosen the soils...

Wet soils are more prone to compaction.

Thatch is a water retaining bugger.

I'd say find an expert to take a look.

What do the other clubs have for soils and programs...

[Marty Bonnar]

What's your elevation, Tom?
Are you at sea level there? Or higher up?

M.

[Don Mahaffey]

Tom,
There are empirical methods available for answering your questions. Any trained and experienced agronomist (and many Superintendents including probably your own) can tell you what they are and help interpret the test results, and a plan of action if needed.

[Blake Conant]

Is Colbert Hills still experimenting with zero aerification management?  Jeff, can you speak to that at all? 

[Tom ORourke]

Are you at sea level there?

We are at 515 feet so elevation is not a big deal. I think what Philippe wrote is probably correct as we might have a thatch issue. Our courses are kept at a high saturation level all year long as the super likes a green looking course. We have extremely shallow roots and we have had a rainy winter. We just had a few days with no rain and closed one of our courses for a few days just to keep people off it. Our drier course is cart path only and some of the holes that had temp greens still have cups cut. These are in the fairways short of the green. I passed one yesterday where the cup was filled to the top. I am going to have a talk with the greens committee. Thanks for the comments and help.

[Grant Saunders]

Tom

There could be a number of different reasons for the poor drainage. Some have already been listed and it could even be a combination of factors.

There is no real chance of getting an accurate diagnosis on an internet forum. It would need to be investigated properly by someone experienced in turf and soil. Anything being posted here is simply a guess.

I would suggest that if cut cups in fairway areas are still full of water, the problems is probably deeper in the profile and unlikely thatch related unless your thatch levels are 200mm deep. The cup should be bypassing the top layer so if the problem was at the surface the holes would not hold water.

Regarding no aerification for long periods, I have seen many courses that have probably never performed any aeration ever and they drain fine. The appropriate renovation schedule is determined by many factors such as climate, soil type, grass type, nutrition an water inputs, traffic etc.

If you have a concern, a chat with your super is a good start. There may be constraints he has to operate under that limit what can be achieved.  The next step may be for your club to look to an agronomist for further advice.

[Martin Lehmann]

The single most important thing in my view is to develop a plan. Have the greens committee, in close cooperation with the head greenkeeper, to set clear and unambiguous goals and targets. Then hire the best agronomist you can get. That's what we did it at my club with, until now, good results. For our fairways, based on heavy clay and therefore extremely wet after heavy rainfall and during winter, we developed a five year program to make them dryer and more firm & fast. They get treated with a machine called 'the earthquake' once a year and then top dressed with sand. Bad spots are verti-drained at least three times per year. Monitoring and laboratory tests are part of the program. Depending on the results, we''ll decide if installing additional top-drainage is necessary.       

[Carl Rogers]

Riverfront ........... something tells me that this (no aerification of the fairway) is becoming a problem.