New Aerification Record

With a devoted and skilled staff, perfect weather conditions, proper soil moisture, and borrowed equipment, we completed 34 acres of fairway aerification in 14 hours.  In addition to aerification, the fairways received approximately a 1/16" or 300 yards of sand topdressing.

With establishing a sand cap as our primary objective, the process begins with a solid tine aerification to help incorporate the sand into the existing soil and promote soil air exchange.  Although some debate exists on coring vs solid tine, our goal is to build a substantial sand layer on top of our clay soils, which is best accomplished with a solid tine that does not bring unwanted poor soils to the surface.

 

   

Having access to the proper equipment is paramount to a successful aerification process. Large area aerification equipment along with the tractors to power them are expensive to purchase and maintain. However, the consequences of not performing aerification is apparent as the extremes of summer weather, cart traffic, and turfgrass diseases result in declining turf.  Although spring and fall are traditionally optimum for aerification, the process is often a monthly cultural practice on problem areas throughout the course.   

Along with the aerification process, a screened and washed sand is applied to the fairways with large spreaders capable of slinging sand in swaths of 20' to 25' wide.  The concept of sand applications to fairways began over 15 years ago on a limited basis to combat high traffic areas, poorly drained soils, and to aid in the recovery of weakened turf. The benefits of sand topdressing are well documented on greens and tee surfaces, which include improved drainage, smoother more consistent surfaces, greater wear tolerance, and generally healthier turf.  Fairway sand topdressing can have similar benefits but only after a considerable accumulation is achieved.            

However largely determined by budget constraints, our sand topdressing accumulation goal is approximately 1/4" per season. Over the past five or six seasons, we have accumulated approximately an 1 1/4" of sand.  The adage of "more is better" certainly applies to sand accumulations and 1/2" or more per season is better.  With the goal of establishing a 5 or 6 inch layer of sand, accumulating a 1/4" to 1/2" of sand per season will take several seasons before all of the benefits are realized.