The Roar
Many courses in Northern areas have begun their annual rite of late Summer, early Fall-the roar of the hollow tine cultivation unit followed by burying the putting surface, tee or fairway in sand topdressing. Is this a hold-over from a time when we aerified twice per year or is it something we need to keep doing?
Is this a hold-over from a time when we aerified twice per year or is it something we need to keep doing?
In simple terms if you have a sand-based root-zone, i.e., greater than 85% sand, you have a few options. First, if you want to minimize any coring-solid, hollow or needle, then you better be prepared to apply between 17 and 22 cubic yards of sand per year, of once very five days.
If you are willing to cultivate regularly during the season with a less invasive method and avoid “the roar” in Spring and Fall then be sure to apply the same amount of topdressing but you can apply it less frequently at 7-10 days. If you want to keep roaring the aerifier and are also willing to make a monthly hole then you can topdress every 10-14 days.
If you want to keep roaring the aerifier and are also willing to make a monthly hole then you can topdress every 10-14 days.
If you have a good sand-base then as we have said before that a “hole is a hole” and you can save lots of labor by simply solid tining and topdressing behind it. The key to effective surface organic matter management is dilution of the OM with sand. The coring or solid tining or needle tining is nothing more than making room for the sand. Hardly anything to roar about.
One one point in the last paragraph I would sand first and then solid core the top dresser is heavy and leaves wheel tracks in the greens/ tees and you see almost no tracks if done first. I also sand first if hollow core on sand greens, not on soil greens. Then drag and remove just the grass head of the plug.
he keith…i have heard guys use the approach you suggest…sometimes it depends on the sand in the rootzone…some more shifty than others
Keith,
We have used both practices you mention above and both have worked very well. This fall we deep-tined, rolled, topdressed, broomed, quad-tined to a depth of 2″ then keystones to remove the thatch. Blew off the thatch and some more brooming to finish up. Process was great and very efficient. Did the entire course in one day with four guys!
Our sand based root zone is very unstable so we sand, solid tine then roll with a brush fitted to the roller. Most effective way I’ve come up with so far for a speedy recovery.
I have been exposed to frequent top dressing followed by a needle tine then sand blown in with back pack blowers every 10 days. Did well for soil composition and also alleviated a lot of traffic on the greens seeing that the kiln dried sand was applied with Lesco spreaders in two directions. I guess it is all contingent on your budget.
Good point Bobby. My sense is there are many ways to skin this cat. But the goal of getting the sand in efficiently and effectively remains the key.
I plan to go skiing this spring instead of hollow coring. I stopped hollow coring in 2012 but solid tined once per month and topdressed once per week or as often as possible. I had great results but after so many years of the hollow coring ritual it was a bit of a shock. The good kind. What is the surface area that you recommend for the 17-22 cu. yards. number. Is that per acre?