greens aerification 5/8 inch tines 1x1 spacing
tractor w/rolling aerator
This shows the whole process
Over the past three weeks we have been very busy on the golf course. Since we only aerify once a year, we get very aggressive on the turf when the time comes. The aerification process is a long, slow process that is very necessary from the health our turfgrass.
Aerification is done for several reasons:
- release of toxic gases from the soil
- improve wetting of dry or hydrophobic soils
- accelerated drying of persistently wet soils
- increased infiltration capacity, especially where surface compaction or thatch limits infiltration
- stimulated root growth within the holes
- increased shoot growth atop the holes
- disruption of soil layers resulting from topdressing
- control thatch, especially where soil cores are reincorporated or where topdressing follows coring
- improved turfgrass response to fertilizers
With this being said our process goes like this:
- Greens- we aerify them with 5/8 inch tines on 1x1 spacing, this removes 32% of the surface per year (USGA recommends that you remove 20% of the surface per year).
- Approaches and Collars- we use the same machine as the greens
- Fairways- we use a rolling, pull behind machine, we try to go over them 4x and drag the cores in soon after
- Roughs- same machine as fairways, we go over these areas 2x
I know what everybody thinks about aerification, but what we need to understand is how important it is for the health of our turfgrass.
