Aerification can mean many forms of cultural practices to incorporate oxygen into the soil and improve playing surfaces.
This fall we continue to use deep tine aerification to our advantage and create air channels 7-8 inches deep. This helps with oxygen entering the soil, break up layering, improve rooting and water percolation.
We stop with holes here. Some of the next steps are a little different from normal, but will yield great results. Best of all, the greens will heal faster.
Following the deep tines, we verticut. Verticutting is exactly what it sounds like. Small vertical blades that dig into the profile. This process has many goals. The first is to remove any excess thatch buildup. We performed this in two directions at two different depths.
It also cleans up long bentgrass leaf blades that lay down along the canopy. Bentgrass grows laterally and consistent grooming is required to maintain a good playing surface.
Verticutting also provides an excellent seed bed for more bentgrass.
We have seen an increase of 30-40 percent on our bentgrass populations on the greens at Pinehurst over the last several years. Our management practices have limited the poa annua and favored bentgrass. With these encouraging results we must keep up our efforts of promoting bent. This fall we will apply over a trillion bent grass seeds within our greens.
We are careful with seeding as we always want to make sure the seed only stays on the green. We prefer blue and ryegrass surrounding the green.
Ah yes, then comes the sand. The only thing better than sand on a putting green is more sand. I never understood why some golfers dislike topdressing. It is the single most important practice to having smooth, true and even fast paced greens. Without sand topdressing, golf would never have reached the popularity it has today. Without this practice, greens would be performing at much slower speeds and bumpy too.
The sand acts as a blanket for excellent seed and soil contact for germination. Over the next couple of weeks we will continue to keep the seed bed damp to promote germination. Once seeds develop then we will apply fertilizer to promote their growth and maturity.
We expect seed germination by next week. Continuous mowing will improve development of the seedlings.
This is not a process that will change greens overnight. This is a long process that will continue for many years, but a successful one for the long haul.
This process also beats the need to start all over and rebuild greens. We have always inter-seeded greens but this year we are taking a more active roll trying to amplify our efforts.
Poa annua continues to seed itself each year, so it is important that we compete with that pressure.
The bentgrass variety we continue to use is called Pure Distinction. It is a wonderful plant that has done very well on this property due to its aggressive nature. It is also the same variety used on the new putting greens from last year's renovation.
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