Aerification

We are 15 days out of aerification of the greens, and they are healing well despite back to back frosts last weekend. The greens are still being cut higher than normal. We do this to allow the plant to be a little more tolerant of the stress, and as to not pick up any of the layer of sand that we put down on the surface of the green. We will start dropping the height of cut to the seasonal standard next week as long as the heal in stays on this path.

Here is a picture of the middle of the putting green surface I took this morning to let you know what to expect.

I know that aerifing is a headache that comes at some of the best points of the year in golfing standards. It is something that needs to be done though. Every growing season we accumulate thatch in the soil from decomposing organic material. We have to go in and physically remove a certain amount of this material and replace it with clean sand. If the thatch layer is allowed to continually increase it will result in a poor surface throughout the season.