Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Spring 2017 Aeration Progress

Monday 4/10/17 will be three weeks since we aerated the putting surfaces here at Granite Bay. Its been two weeks since we followed up that aeration with a aggressive vertical mowing, seeding and light sand topdressing. On Monday 4/10/17 we applied another light sand topdressing and will continue to do so most Mondays for the remainder of the growing season which has been our practice for the past two years.


#11 green a day after 3/20/17 core aeration


Practice Green on 4/10/17.  21 days after initial core aeration.
By my estimation a little behind.

 After 21 days of aeration recovery I would say the greens are a bit behind the previous two or three seasons primarily due to weather. Since aerating greens we have had 9 rain days producing 4.7" of precipitation. While the rain is helpful after aeration to move sand into aeration holes and into the turf canopy, the accompanying lack of sunlight during inclement weather will hamper growth to cover over aeration holes and germinate seed.


























We were able to stay on schedule with fairway aeration despite all of the weather. Weather did get in the way of getting all of our topdressing out as its need to be dry to drag into the holes. We anticipate drier weather ahead  so we will be able to get the rest of this topdressing out over the next couple of weeks.


Aerating FW


Dragging Cores

Cleaning up the mess

We are taking this week, Monday 4/10/17 - Friday 4/14/17 to core aerate rough areas prior to a nice application of fertilizer to the entire course next week. This will conclude major aeration events until October.


Fairway Topdressing sand stockpiled in the parking lot.