[Anthony_Nysse]

We are in the middle of our aerification week here at Pine Tree. We a verticutting in 2 directions, (down and back at 1/16” deep) aerifiying with a 5/8" coring tine, handbrooming sand into the holes and rolling 2 directions.
 My question is several-Do golfers really know the difference and the importance of tine size? Meaning, in many cases, a small 1/4" tine is USUALLY just to allow the plant to breath, and aid with compaction, but when a bigger tine is used, thatch and organic matter is intentionally removed. The USGA recommends disrupting 25-30% of the surface area per year. How many clubs are trying to accomplish this, especially considering that golfer’s satisfaction NEEDS to be at an all time high, to ensure that there is return play? Has your club opted to changed it’s aerification practices from those in the past?

Verticutting 4 times


Aerification with 5/8" tine


Pushing sand into the open holes


After the green is rolled

[David_Madison]

Our club in NC has gotten away from the big 5/8" holes whenever possible, instead opting for what I believe are 3/8". Our club's processes seem pretty similar to yours, with an emphasis placed on really getting the holes packed with clean sand. They heal so much faster, and even while healing don't seem to be as disruptive to play. By placing the cores closer together, can't you still get to a sufficient surface disruption? My sense is that our members would rather have the smaller cores done one extra time thru the year rather than the big ones which seem to take forever to fully heal.

[David_Tepper]

Anthony -

My guess is the vast majority of golfers have little or no understanding of how and why aerification is done. It certainly looks to be a labor intensive process.

I would encourage you and all greens keepers to communicate regularly & openly with your members/customers about when & why you are aerifying your greens. It would also be nice if daily fee courses would offer a 10%-20% discount on green fees in the week following aerification.

DT 

[Patrick Ofee]

Anthony,
        If the USGA are recommending removing the entire surface area by 30%/year, I believe this is an error.  This is proving to be an unsustainable program for both cool and warm season grasses on a putting green environment.  It is  negatively compromising surface quality and exponentially increasing maintenance costs.  This maintenance model needs to be reevaluated.  Just because we can do it, does not mean it needs to be done.

[Bill_McBride]

My wife is kind of irritated because our super (with approval of the green committee) postponed large tine aeration for a Society of Seniors event, and did the work right before the ladies club championship.  What was she thinking?

Your photos look just like our operation, good stuff.

[Mike McGuire]

A 5/8 hole on a 2 x 2 grid (looks like what they did in the photo) only removes  7.67 % of the surface. You would have to do this 3 times to get 23% of the surface removed.

Seems a bit much to control thatch.

[Anthony_Nysse]

A 5/8 hole on a 2 x 2 grid (looks like what they did in the photo) only removes  7.67 % of the surface. You would have to do this 3 times to get 23% of the surface removed.

Seems a bit much to control thatch.

There are alot of guys out there that cannot keep up with their thatch layer WITH 3 5/8" aerications. We do 2, 5/8", 2, 3/8" along with verticutting and dethatching machines.

[Brent Hutto]

Are those percent-annual-removal rates the same for Bermuda and Bent grasses?

[JMEvensky]

Are those percent-annual-removal rates the same for Bermuda and Bent grasses?

And,if not,where would Champion bermuda rank?

[Brent Hutto]

Or for that matter Mini Verde.

[Anthony_Nysse]

My numbers are for bermudagrass-tifeagle, champion and mini...not sure of bent.

[Mike McGuire]

Or for that matter Mini Verde.

I have no idea on the details

I just posted it because a lot of people  think you core one time and remove 25% of the surface

[Mark Chaplin]

Tony - how long in normal weather conditions does it take for the greens to return to normal?

[Ryan DeMay]

Tony and all,
Below is a blog I posted last autumn regarding our greens aerification practices at our club.  One thing we have went to that has helped in both the efficiency of the operation and recovery time is using smaller tines mounted on quad-tine blocks.  For the layman, we are essentially doubling the amount of tines the machine is able to hold by using a different block that holds the tines on the machine.  By having more tines on the machine we can run the machine at a faster ground speed to achieve the same results with double the tines.  This also helps speed up the recovery process as we have much smaller holes to heal in than you would typically see with a traditional hollow tine aerification.  We have been using this setup now for two years with nothing but positive results.  1/2" tines mounted on quad-tine blocks at a spacing of about 1" X 2" which will give us approximately 10% surface disruption.  This is on L-93 bentgrass in Ohio and is performed twice per year (early May and early September).

http://kinsaleturf.blogspot.com/2009/10/fall-aerification.html

[Ian Larson]

Tony,

Great thread topic man! There's much to be debated about the the subtle nuances of aerification and why it's done but I just don't have the energy.

I will say this....less is more. It's possible to aerify with smaller tine sizes but fitted with blocks that have MORE tines per square inch, but at a smaller diameter. So the target amount of displaced organic matter is reached but with smaller holes that heal cleaner and faster. I think supers get too hung up on the fact that they need to incorporate sand into the profile. That's great, but if it's seen that they can't get sand into smaller holes.....I feel that they performed a small miracle by removing the amount of organic and thatch they did!

I don't think there is a huge gap between bentgrass and Bermuda. The difference is probably splitting hairs. So 25% a year is a GREAT target to achieve. And it's very achievable if the super looks outside of what has always been done.

Having an aerifier fitted with blocks that have smaller tines, but more of them per square inch will keep members happy with down time while accomplishing what the super needs to accomplish. 




Ryan just posted exactly my point....

[Brent Hutto]

Thank you for that, Ryan. Excellent presentation.

[Don_Mahaffey]

Just want to 2nd one thing Ian mentioned.
For some reason golfers, and various other experts who hang around golf courses, grade aerifications based on how many holes get filled perfectly. Remember one thing, it’s called aerification, not sandification. Unless you’re actually trying to amend the rootzone, leaving the holes open is a very viable option. Especially if you’re going with the smaller tines.
Poor grass, we cut it within a 1000th of its life, poke thousands of holes in it, and then drag and brush and blow until its blue trying to make every hole look perfect.

[jeffwarne]

  Just because we can do it, does not mean it needs to be done.

Amen

[Anthony_Nysse]

Tony - how long in normal weather conditions does it take for the greens to return to normal?

Mark,
  I usually tell the members 3 weeks, tops, but we are usually back to normal in 2.5 weeks. We needle tine greens October-April, year round, always trying to allow the plant to breath.

[Shannon Wheeler]

Mike,

Table 1 was printed around 2001, long before the widespread use of the heavy thatch producing ultradwarf species.  Even at the lowest nitrogen applications these ultradwarfs produce excessive amounts of thatch.  Tony's program seems right on target for the ultradwarf bemudagrasses in his area. I've even seen evidence of even more aggressive thatch control personally, with great results.

[Nick Cauley]

IMHO,
I do not think golfers can tell the difference between a large hollow tine and a small hollow tine.  We use a 5/8 inch tine on 1x1 spacings and this removes 31% of the surface, and we only have to do this 1 time a year.  This is what works for us, I just feel when a core is pulled it always takes about 2-3 weeks to heal over no matter what size of the tine is used. 

[Anthony_Nysse]

Nick,
  Nice blog, buddy! I hope that you're well.

[Greg Tallman]

Anthony, our maintenance schedule is as follows:

May 24-26 - Aerify with 5/8" hollow tine
July 26-28 - Graden Verticutting in two directions (not exactly sure of depth setting... as deep as possible)
August 9-11 - Aerfiy 5/8" hollow tine
Sept 20-22 - Final aerification 5/8" hollow tines

Same process on alternate dates on the second course.

Additionally another 8 step process is performed 2 time per month and includes:
Sanding
Drag metal mat (the cheese grater)
Tri-plex Brush
Tri Plex Mow
Darg Coco mat
Hand Mow
Soil Reliver
Roll

We usually plug in a 90 minute window for the process in the latemorning and once finished the greens are as good as they can be though some sand is visible but the roll of the green is perfect.

[Donnie Beck]

In recent years I have had great success running a Sisis rotorake with 2mm blades immediately after aerification.  We aerify with 5/8 tines 2x2 spacing then clean the greens with snow shovels and buffalo blower. Next we topdress and brush in the sand (nothing fancy at this point just enough to fill all the holes). We then run the Sisis at a depth of 1”. After the Sisis we drag the greens with a metal drag mat. The metal mat does a good job of separating the sand from the thatch and filling the verticut lines with sand. We then blow off the thatch with the buffalo blower. Finally we lightly topdress then brush in. We do this process twice a year and I have been very happy with the results.

[Greg Tallman]

Just wanted to bump this back to the top and ask if anyone has seen something as aggressive as the following process:

Step 1: Triplex verticut against the grain
Step 2: Mow/scalp
Step 3: Triplex verticut (assuming original VC was 6 to 12 second is 8 to 2)
Step 4: Mow/scalp
Step 5: Graden verticut
Step 6: Mow/scalp
Step 7: 5/8" aerification
Step 8: Top dress
Step 9: Hand broom sand
Step 10: Flush green (dry overnight)
Step 11: Drag with coco mat
Step 12: Mow green
Step 13: Graden verticut in opposite driection as original (Approx 14 days after first pass)
Step 14: Mow
Step 15: Top Dress
Step 16: Hand broom sand
Step 17: Flush green (dry overnight)
Step 18: Drag coco mat

Luxury of having 2 courses is being able to close for extended periods and get this aggressive as TifEagle require such aggressive proctices in this non stop growing climate.

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