Early Winter Update

 

As one of our very best turf seasons comes to an end we are preparing the greens and tees for winter.

We have, as in the past, gone with an aggressive aeration and heavy topdressing program on our greens.  The reason we do this is two fold, first - winter protection and drainage, second - some springs are too wet for us to aerate due to our soils.

 

Our Aeration/Topdressing  process was as follows:

 

We first treated our Greens and Tees for Winter diseases with a fungicide application and then topdressed the greens very heavily with a local sand that contained particle sizes up to 2 MM.  This larger particle size is intended to help our greens drain a little better after many of these procedures.    The greens are then Verti-Drained (deep tine aeration) with 3/4"x 10" deep holes.   The sand is applied first, prior to aerating, because the weight of the topdressing equipment can close some of the aeration holes and allow less sand into the intended spaces. 

 

Verti-Draining after sand application

 

Our next step was to use back-pack blowers to incorporate the sand into the holes.  Amazing that in some cases we were able to get over 2 tons of sand into a green, depending on the size.

 

Staff members blow sand into aeration holes - very labor intensive, some greens took 3 hours for this process. 

 

 

Next, we solid tine aerated with 3/8" x 4" deep "quad-tines".   This helped to smooth the massive holes from the verti-drain, while making literally hundreds of thousands of holes to help incorporate more sand into the root-zone.

 

 

Pro-Core  solid tine aeration over Verti-Drain holes.

Long time employee, Lisandro, getting it done.





Prior to dragging and smoothing out the remaining sand, as seen below, we spiked and rolled the surfaces a minimum of 3 different directions.   Once the sand was dragged, filling in as many holes as possible, the cups were changed and the greens re-opened for a few more weeks until going to temps for the winter. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PRO SHOP OAK TREE

 

If you hadn't noticed, the huge Oak tree near the proshop has "passed".  We brought in our arborist to confirm that there was no chance for this tree to recover prior to beginning the removal process.  The dangerous wood has been removed and most of the huge limbs.  The remainder will come down after the wires that have long been attached to this tree are moved.

 

Our staff split many cords of this Oak for the benefit of the members to take, and although it will not burn for a while, most of it has been quickly "gobbled up".

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wishing all of you the Best Christmas / Holiday Season.

-JohnnyP