August 6, 2014
It’s hard
to believe it’s already August 6th and summer is already past the halfway
point. But there’s still plenty of golf
to be played at Pike Lake with some exciting tournaments in the schedule.
During
the week of July 28 - August 1 the greens were aerified using ¼” solid
tines. Immediately after the holes were
punched, a greens mower was used to roll the surface smooth before cutting the
green. Some of you may not have even
noticed the aerification holes as they are very tiny. While they are tiny, they are still very effective
in relieving compaction, allowing oxygen to enter the rootzone and allowing
toxic gases to release that build up over time.
The older greens at Pike Lake are comprised of sand, silt and clay while
the newer greens are comprised of sand.
The older greens are prone to compaction due to their soil
structure. This makes it difficult for
roots to breathe and find room to grow.
The sandy soil greens are not prone to compaction but they still breathe
a sigh of relief when much needed oxygen enters the rootzone via the
aerification. This “cultural practice” also ensures the flow
of water through the surface into the rootzone.
During the summer heat the surface can become very firm and water has a
difficult time percolating.
While the solid tine aerification is very beneficial to the
putting greens, it’s not near as beneficial as a hollow tine aerification where
cores are pulled from the surface. We
hope to use solid tines on the greens once more this season before we complete
our annual fall core aerification.
This photo was taken in the spring and captures the roots
enjoying the environment that the tines created during the fall aerification of
2013.
The greens were saturated from rain prior to the
aerification and they received some fertilizer afterwards to encourage a speedy
recovery. The combination of the
aerification, rain, fertilizer and some heat created a lot of growth on our
healthy greens. This makes for slower
putting speeds. If you remember from the
last update, verticutting is a tool we use to thin out the excess growth and
regulate our putting speeds. If they
haven’t already, the speeds of the greens will return to normal shortly.
