Mole Ploughing for Drainage

[Duncan Cheslett]

While we are lucky enough to have free draining soil on much of our course, we have also areas of heavy clay. We have been discussing drainage options and of course the major obstacle is cost.


I have come across the idea of mole plough drainage. It seems to have been around for donkey's years but not done so much these days. My interest is well and truly piqued.


https://www.pitchcare.com/news-media/mole-ploughing.html


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1FCXVHaz1U


What experience does anyone have of this?


How realistic is it to fix the end of a coil of flexible pipe to the back of the "torpedo" and pull it through the hole?

[Jon Wiggett]

Duncan,


If you have a clay soil then mole drains can be a great answer. You still need to have piped drains set at a depth below the mole drain so the distance is not much more the 30 yards. Also, to install you need a heavy tractor to reduce slippage. I would think that a flexi-pipe would tear and also needs a gravel packing to work long term.


Jon

[Marty Bonnar]

Duncan,
I’ve had Contractors do mole draining on a number of sites in the past - esp. a really shitty, boggy upland marsh which some eedjit thought would be a great site for a footie pitch!
It really is a great (Cheap!) solution for moving water away very quickly. Obviously, you still need somewhere for it to go!
I’ve tried both back-filling the slit with sand and just leaving it open. Both seemed to work, maybe the sand-slitting a tad better, but very much site specific.
Don’t bother with pipes. That rather defeats the idea and you’d never be able to pull a perf pipe through anyway. I’ve seen solid pipes pulled but they were for a water supply.
Cheers,
M.


PS Agree with what Jon says re tractor. Low ground pressure tyres sometimes struggle with traction and normal tractor tyres will tear up your surface. Trial in non-crucial areas!

[Duncan Cheslett]

Cheers Jon & Marty,


We do have a few problem areas on heavy clay-based fairways which gather standing water despite being only a dozen or so yards from the river. We are on an undulating site anyway so there is always somewhere for water to go.


We are continually improving drainage in the normal way but the costs limit the speed at which we can cover the course.


A simple cheap method that we can do in-house would be an attractive proposition, even if only in the short-term.


It would seem that MacKenzie himself was a big advocate of mole drainage.


From "Golf Architecture"


https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=T38SAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=mackenzie+mole+drain&source=bl&ots=usZMPenPZE&sig=-S3v6JJJODbQZKNI3fkrDs0p7to&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjfwtjOoZXXAhWGEVAKHRUSD_IQ6AEIUTAK#v=onepage&q=mackenzie%20mole%20drain&f=false

[Adrian_Stiff]

Mole ploughing is useful on some soils. You need consistent falls and the soil needs to be clay to stay open, they can be effective for years but they are usually best 2 or 3 years after you moled then tail off a bit as the hole collapses, probably need to do it every 5 years. If you have stones in the soil that messes it up as it disturbs the bullet/bob that makes the hole and you can get bleeding then.


Verti-draining is also very effective.

[Thomas Dai]

Would it be correct that moles/bullets are not keen on being pulled through areas with tree roots and that in time 'new' tree roots tend to grow into the mole channels? A few sub-surface surprises may also become apparent, eg old drains.
As Duncan mentions, I believe I've read references to mole-draining in MacKenzie's work.

atb