Foundry

Foundry

Friday, September 28, 2012

Fairways Rye grass Overseeding and Greens Aeration

Seeding fairways with a gandy drop spreader.  We apply the seed in two directions to eliminate any skips. We can expect to see the seed germinate in 3-5 days.  We will allow the rye grass to root down and get long before we mow the first cut.  If mowing occurs to soon we can tear the seed out of the ground and it will die.  The first mowing usually takes place within 8-10 days at a higher height than we will manage it through the winter. We will lower the mower each day and proceed to find the perfect height for playability and health.  This usually is 3/4 of an inch.  The process will be complete by the second week of October if the weather cooperates

The pictures show the seeding rate compared to the size of a phone.  We applied a 250lb/acre rate of seed this year.
This is about 25 lbs less than last year.  We have decreased our seeding rate for the last two years.  We are trying to have green fairways without jeopardizing our Bermuda grass in the fairways.  This past year was an impressive year for our rye grass fairways and the Bermuda summer transition.  We hardly even noticed the transition.  We can not expect to have that easy of a year each time

Standard aeration  1/2 inch tines on a 2.5 inch spacing

Aerating a green takes approximately 30 minutes, then the clean up, and sand topdressing begins

The crew using blowers to push the plugs off to the side of the green.  The greens are very soft after aeration, so we choose to limit equipment traffic until we roll them out with a greens roller

Removing the plugs from the edge of the greens

More plug removal

Adding the first application of sand to fill in the holes.  We will do a second application two days later to fill the remainder of open holes.  We use approximately 50 tons of sand for topdressing after this type of aeration

After brushing and blowing the sand into the holes we will water for 30 minutes to get the sand into the canopy.
We will see full recovery in two weeks