[Aaron Katz]

Dave Wilbur's wonderful interview pointed out that most golf courses aerate far too infrequently.  The resulting overly-compacted soil might be a major cause of too soft conditions:  Water doesn't percalate as quickly to the deeper subsurface, and more surface water is ultimately needed because of excess evaporation (I have no idea if this is correct scientifically; I'm just guessing here).  

The problem is that players usually avoid courses that have aerated recently, and this in turn forces golf courses to aerate as infrequently as possible -- which means maybe twice a year when the course conditions have already sufferred immensely.  

My question is whether the typical aeration schedules -- where superintendents aerate the entire golf course over a one to two day period two or three times a year -- are necessary or optimal.  Would it be possible to aerate individual holes on a two week rotating basis:  Holes#1 and #10 get aerated on week #1, Holes #2 and #11 get aerated on week #3 and so on?  This would result in five to six aerations for each hole every year.  And I wouldn't avoid a golf course that had a pair of freshly aerated holes.  After two weeks, the scars should have sufficiently healed that, no any given day, only two holes on the course are in scarred condition.  I certainly wouldn't feel the need to avoid a solid course simply because two holes might have been aerated.

Is this type of aeration schedule possible, at least with respect to those areas that don't go through a frigid winter?  How would it affect long-term conditions?

[John_Cullum]

In my area, most couses do not own their aeration equipment. They hire a regional aeration firm to come in and do the aeration. So, it has to be scheduled well in advance, and it gets done all at once.

[John_Cullum]

I think you meant to say they aerate too infrequently.

Dave Wilbur's wonderful interview pointed out that most golf courses aerate far too frequently. ...

A quote from the interview...

"10) What are the biggest mistakes that you see golf course superintendents making?....

Not aerifying enough and not taking compaction seriously as a barrier to air and water movement."


 

[Aaron Katz]

Sorry for the typo.  I did indeed mean to say INFREQUENTLY.

[Tom_Doak]

Aaron:

It's not just compaction, either ... aerification physcially removes some of the thatch which has built up over time, and creates drainage through it.  I've seen plenty of golf courses where excess thatch was preventing the water from percolating into the soil.

[M. Shea Sweeney]

Araon-

The main rule to keep in mind is that one must aerify, dethatch, verticut, topdress etc. during a time where the temperature is sufficient enough that the turfgrass will be able to handle the most stress.

So if your playing on bermuda and you live in the south maybe sometime in June, July, August.

If your playing on bent its going to be March, late August or September.

[Aaron Katz]

Okay, so that sort of answers my question.  What your saying is that it would be almost impossible to constantly aerate over an entire year, with only a couple holes at a time being done.  

It seems to me that very few courses have the capability of sufficiently caring for 18 holes of turf after aeration -- or even 9 holes.  I mostly see course getting punched, top dressed once in the fairways and maybe twice on the greens, and then left alone.  Sounds like the turf needs a bit more coddling to recover as best it can.

[M. Shea Sweeney]

Aaron-

Correct. The idea is to stress the grass when it is growing best. If you like your "windows of oppurtunity".

For example, you wouldn't arerify a Bermuda green in South Carolina in the month of November. The grass is dormant, it doesn't want to grow. There for doing any type of work to the greens, fariways, roughs, etc. would not be smart.

[ANTHONYPIOPPI]

Aaron,

Aerifying in a staggered manner would create havoc with the mowers. Often times superintendents use backup mowers or cutting reels until the sand has worked its way down into the canopy, then the good mowers are put back to use. At courses with lower budgets there may not be two sets of reels or mowers so frequent backlapping and sharpening takes place.

Another created by staggering the aeration would be greens with vastly different speeds.

Thirdly, aeration must be worked in around rain. By staggering the process you could end up with greens being aerified nearly a month apart; again leading to inconsistent green speed.

The answer to the problem of aeration is that golfers have to learn to live with it because it is set-in-stone requirement for healthy turf.

Hope this answers at least some of your questions.

Tony

[John_Cullum]

I had an interesting conversation with our superintendent the other day. He told me that with tifeagle, the goal is to remove 25% of the surface area per year. 25% is a rather substantial chunk. 5/8 inch tines will take about 4.5% each time, so this would require five plus punches.

The reason we had this discussion was because we had recently done a "Graden" verticutting. The Graden method really does some damage, and it takes 6 weeks to recover. But it takes about 7.7% of surface area, so it will mean one less punch for the year. Its a pretty invasive remedy that we had to use because we had gotten behind in our verticutting schedule.

Its been a pain because we have pretty exceptional greens for Florida. thank godwe have 36 holes and we only had to do 18.

[SB]

One trick I have seen occasionally is that 1/2 of each green is aerated, and the other 1/2 is hit a couple weeks later.  While not perfect, it does mean you won't have absolutely terrible conditions right around the hole.  However, you do need to own or share an aerater to do it, as John mentioned.

[Grant Davey]

Aaron,

As Anthony mentioned you will have issues with quality of cut, varying green speeds and different cultural practices.

Every surface and course has different needs but this is a bit of indication on my aerification schedual:
We aerify greens twice a year 1/2" tinnes in modified quad tine brackets. This enables us to impact a greater area with reduced heal time because of the smaller holes. We will aerate way early in the spring and depending on play all eighteen at once or split nines. In the fall we will usually break it into six at a time to lessen the impact on guests. The heal time is usually seven days. Coupled with this we have used a Hydroject in the raised position to increase airflow in between aerifications and 1/4" solid tines on heavily trafficed areas. Both these options have little impact on playability and will add a short term benefit to the system lasting possibly five-seven days.

As far as the Fairways, we aerify when we can ahead of play. Last year we aerifyied (30 acres of Fairways) twice with 5/8" tines and Verticut them once. We remove the cores and then topdress them at a later date. This year we have verticut them once with a Sissis unit (just about to start a seconned rip) and aerified once. We will aerify them once more before the season ends. We also aim to slice them real late to allow for a little freeze/thaw action of the winter.

Tees are generally aerifed twice a year and Graden twice a year, again ahead of play.

Once last note, never underestimate the power of a consistent verticutting/topdressing program.

Grant Davey
Irish Course Superintendent
Whistling Straits  
 

[Dave_Wilber]

Well said Grant. Nice of you to share the info!

And i think that often, wrongly, we americans think of aeration as the coring process when often what we really need to do is just punch some kind of hole. I don't always love the softer surface that core aerification can promote and with some grass and soil types, this just isn't what we need at all. I'll ask.."why did you pull cores" and often the answer is because that's the way it has always been done.

My better results right now are with my guys who use the Graden for thatch surgery and use a verti-drain or perhaps even an aer-way and get holes punched with solid tines (or a slice) in a way that allows for them to do it with less resulting hassles with play and mowers--thus more often. But that's a unique and individual case by case basis call.  More holes the better, that's for sure.

[Donnie Beck]

We have been using this technique for a few years with good results.. Aerify with 5/8 tines topdress heavily with turfco drop, drag in the sand.. doesn't have to be perfect this time.. Come back with the Sissis at 3/4" drag again. This separates the thatch from the sand. Blow off thatch with Buffalo turbine. Come back in and topdress with turfco spinner topdresser to fill Sissis lines.. With good operators there isn't much more damage than aerating alone.. If you are going to beat them up you might as well remove as much material as possible..

[Don_Mahaffey]

Aaron,
Did Dave really say that most golf courses aerate far too infrequently? He gets around quite a bit, but that's a pretty strong comment.

Here's my take, If I manage lean turf on free draining soil and use deep watering techniques (an aerification process itself with no disruption) then I may not have to aerify all that much. But if I grow lush, over watered, over fed turf that is cut within a millimeter of its life on a regular basis, then I probably can't aerify enough.

Don't think plugs spread about on the ground, think air in the rootzone's soil pores. Whatever frequency of aerification, and whatever method used, which keeps thatch in check (aerification is just one part of that process) and air in the rootzone is the right program for the turf.  

[Dave_Wilber]

Aaron,
Did Dave really say that most golf courses aerate far too infrequently? He gets around quite a bit, but that's a pretty strong comment.

Here's my take, If I manage lean turf on free draining soil and use deep watering techniques (an aerification process itself with no disruption) then I may not have to aerify all that much. But if I grow lush, over watered, over fed turf that is cut within a millimeter of its life on a regular basis, then I probably can't aerify enough.

Don't think plugs spread about on the ground, think air in the rootzone's soil pores. Whatever frequency of aerification, and whatever method used, which keeps thatch in check (aerification is just one part of that process) and air in the rootzone is the right program for the turf.  

Well said, Don. Wish you would have been there when I was writing this because I should have developed the thought more:

"Not aerifying enough and not taking compaction seriously as a barrier to air and water movement."

"Forgetting their soils and being focused on fertilizer instead of soil fertility."

Kind of goes hand in hand..as does much of it. But you really nailed it with your paragraph!

[Guy Nicholson]

Okay, so that sort of answers my question.  What your saying is that it would be almost impossible to constantly aerate over an entire year, with only a couple holes at a time being done.

Curiously, however, I played today on a muni that aerated just two fairways. I didn't think to ask, but assumed they would be spreading the rest of them over a longer period this fall.

[Steve Burrows]

A Hydroject works pretty well between scheduled aerifications to relieve some stress.  It is, of course, very short term.  It doesn't remove organic material/thatch, but does allow for a quick breather and there is virtually no disturbance.

[Dan Herrmann]

We got a Graden verticutter this year.  The greens looked like a bowling alley with the little lines for a couple of weeks, but boy - does this thing work.

Got rid of a lot of thatch and introduced a good deal of sand back into the greens.

I'm pretty sure this product is used at AGNC because I could see faint verticutter marks on the greens during the telecast (I love High Def TV)

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