Spring aeration of greens at Glendale CC

Day one of our three day closure for spring aeration centers around getting all our greens done. The process has multiple steps so I'll show briefly show each one from start to finish.

  Each green in verticut in two directions. The verticutter units have carbide tipped circular blades that are set about 3/16" below the surface of the green. The blades spin on a shaft and bring up excess turf shoots to provide channels for sand on the surface of the green.

The video below shows the machine in action. It pulls up a lot of material!

Next, we blow off all the cuttings from the verticutter.

The photo below shows what the surface of the green looks like after it's blown off.

The greens are then topdressed with a heavy layer of sand.

We use 1/2" diameter solid tines on 2" X 2" spacing and punch the sand into the top 2 1/2" of the green.

The sand is allowed to dry for a couple hours after aeration and then we drag the sand with a broom attachment to fill the holes.

After dragging, the green surface is shown below.

Next step is to roll the green in several directions to help smooth out the surface.

After rolling the excess sand is blown off.

The final product is shown below.

We'll roll the greens for about five more days before we mow for the first time so the sand can settle in place. It should take about two weeks and the greens will be back to playing like they did before we aerated.

Steve Kealy
Golf Course Superintendent

Tree removal project at 50% completion

The Pine tree removal project is now half way home. Our goal for the project was 50 trees but we managed to cut down and process 81 trees in 13 working days. We hired a tree contractor to do all the climbing and falling of the trees and grinding of the stumps. Our staff did most of the chipping of branches and site clean up. I can't believe how much material is generated from chipping one Pine tree! I now understand how trees catch on fire so easily. The branches going through the chipper are super dry and produce a constant dust cloud.

In the video above you see we built a box mounted to our 4 yard dump trailer to shoot the chips into. I estimate the trailer holds 6-7 yards of chips and it takes 1 1/2 to 2 trailers of chips per tree. 81 trees with an average of  9 yards of chips each equals 729 yards of chips! Luckily we were able to dump the chips on site and not have to pay to have them hauled away. With all the brush and branches chipped, the next step is to get the logs and cut ends off the course. The logs are moved out to the North end of the course adjacent to the 4th tee where they are picked up by a log truck and taken to a saw mill for processing.

 Josh runs our excavator and loads a log onto the log trailer.

Andrew is shown connecting a chain to our loader to haul it to the log pile.

The log hauling process is slow but it's the only way to get 32' long logs off the course in one piece.

 Logs are stockpiled by the 4th tee awaiting pick up.

 The log truck enters through the gate from NE 8th street and self loads.

This load of logs weighed 34 tons. The mill is only paying $25 per ton for Pine logs so after we pay for trucking to the mill we net about $400 per load. At least we don't have to pay to get rid of them.

 There are many parts of each tree that are not long enough to go to the mill. This pile in the upper parking lot is less than 1/3 of all the cut ends that we have to find a new home for.

 Once the cut ends and logs are off the course we will have to pick up all the stump grindings. This is also a slow process. We can scoop most of the grindings out of each hole with our excavator but there is still some hand shoveling that has to be done. Each stump generates 2-3 yards of grindings so we generate another 200 yards of material to haul away.

While the tree contractor was here I asked them to do some trimming of the trees on along the entry road. Branches were hanging down so low that it was hard to see cars coming around the corner by the driving range tee.

We also removed some plants that had grown too tall and were blocking the view of oncoming cars.

We will be working daily to get the tree project done and the course in good condition for spring play.
See you on the course!

Steve Kealy
Golf Course Superintendent

Pine tree removals moving full speed ahead!

The Pine tree removal project is moving along at a good pace. We had a tree contractor helping us last week and were able to cut down and process 25 trees. We have the contractor for another five days so we should be able to get to our goal of  removing 50 trees.

  Most of the Pine trees are very large and really messy. There are many dead limbs and when the tree hits the ground the dead wood explodes into thousands of small pieces.

Once the tree is on the ground it's time to run all the branches and small debris (called "duff") through the chipper. We built a box mounted in our dump trailer to shoot the chips into. It's very easy to move around when pulled by a tractor and it doesn't tear up the turf as much as the tree contractor's truck.

Once the limbs are chipped and the area is clean the logs are cut into 32' lengths. The mill wants them cut to this length for processing. Any logs that are at least 4" in diameter and are a minimum of 16' long can go to the mill. Anything shorter we run through the chipper if 10" or less in diameter. Anything larger must be cut and split for firewood. We grab the log with our excavator and set it on a cart on the lead end. The other end is lifted and a chain sling placed around the log so it can be hauled with the loader. The logs are then transported to a holding area next to the fourth tee where a logging truck can come in through the gate from NE 8th Street.

Trevor (one of the guys on our staff) is shown here atop the mounting pile of cut logs ready for delivery to the mill.

Once the logs are hauled off it's time to start grinding. This machine has a rotating wheel with carbide teeth that cuts down the remaining stump. The machine can grind to about 12" below ground level and it takes about an hour to grind a 36" diameter stump.

                                                      The grinder in action.

A progress photo showing the area between #2 and #3 tees where we are in the process of removing  5 Pine trees. There is a climber in the tree removing one branch at a time. It was windy and there is an irrigation controller about 3 feet behind the tree. The contractor was worried about falling the tree due to it leaning toward the controller and the South wind pushing the tree toward the controller.

This photo shows the area behind #5 tee looking North toward the 9th tees showing most of the stumps ground. Once all the grinding is complete we will go back and scoop out the grindings, fill in the holes with soil and place sod over the soil. It will take us about a month to get everything cleaned up, sodded and all of the rutted up turf areas restored.

 Thanks for your patience during the process,

Steve Kealy
Golf Course Superintendent.

More drainage issues

Last week I showed the process that we go through when looking for drain lines in really wet areas on the course. Recently we were working on #8 fairway between the fairway bunkers. The fairway turf was so wet and mucky that you couldn't even walk on it. We knew that something was really clogged or broken so we started digging. We found a line going across the fairway toward the creek but couldn't find the end of the pipe. It was buried in the bank so we ran a hose down it with the water on until we could locate and expose the end of the pipe.

We frequently find drain lines that are buried along creek banks. Once we got it flushed out we could tie into it with some new drain lines through the sloppy area.

Several new lines were added and week later the area has dried out and is playable. It was so wet in front of the 9th tee we knew there had to be some other line that was broken or plugged so we kept digging.

Finally we found an old 8" concrete line over by the cart path that was plugged full of tree roots. A tree had been planted directly on top of the drain line. As we dug on the other side of the path we found two more trees that had also been planted years ago on top of the line.

We had to dig up the stumps to get at the drain line and clean out all the roots. It was a lot bigger job that we expected.

With the stumps removed we were able to clean out the roots and add new sections of pipe. We could be dealing with this condition all over the course for years to come since there was no map of the drainage system when the trees were planted.
Steve Kealy
Golf Course Superintendent

Why is the course so wet?

I've been asked this question many times over the last month so I'll give it my best shot at answering. The record rainfall we have had since last October has exposed all of the problems with our drainage system. When the course was built there was no map of the drain lines given to the club management team. Several years after the course was built, trees were planted all over the course with some of them near or on top of drain lines. Fast forward 55 years to today and many of those tree roots have completely clogged the once flowing drainage system. With no plans of the system we don't know where many of the lines are located. When a wet area appears, we have to start digging to find the cause.

A large wet area developed this winter in the middle of the 13th fairway. We first go to the wettest spots and insert metal probes into the soil looking for gravel. Josh and Joe are shown above looking for gravel in hope of finding an existing drain line.

Once we find gravel then we start digging. 

A drain line was found and Tim is shown cutting into the line.

  

The next step is to insert a hose and run it up the line as far as it will go. The hose has a nozzle on the end that once the water is turned on will push the hose up the line as it cleans out all the slime and muck.

The nozzle shoots some of the water backwards which helps  move the hose up the drain line. 

Josh is shown flushing the "brown goo" out of this line in #13 fairway. 

When the hose stops moving up the line it's time to dig another hole to see if that is the end of the line or there is another blockage. We found that the line stopped across the fairway. It was in good condition so we inserted the hose on the other end of the pipe to see where the discharge point was located.

After running the hose for a minute or so the water backed up into the hole. The line was clogged somewhere on the other end. 

We found some water bubbling up so we dug and found the discharge end of the drain line buried about 8 feet from the creek. At the time this line was installed it discharged directly into the creek. The stream has moved toward #12 fairway and this drain line got buried in sediment over time. Once the line was flushed out the wet area in #13 fairway dried out in two days. Over the past two winters we have have been marking the location of drain lines discharging into the creeks with a green pipe. The pipe is pounded into the ground next to the drain line so we can find it if the creek channel moves and plugs up the line. This time it was the creek bed that clogged our drain line. In my next post I will show what happened on #8 fairway where three trees were planted in a row on top of an 8" main drain line. 

Steve Kealy 

Golf Course Superintendent

Clogged drain lines all over the course

We have had record rainfall this past fall and winter but there are some areas on the course that never dry out. Most of the time this is due to clogged drain lines and the biggest challenge for our staff is to locate the problem. When our golf course was in the planning stage there was a proposed drainage plan. During construction of the course the drainage plan was followed in some areas but not in others. The other problem is there are no "as built" plans for the drainage system that was installed. We do have photos and diagrams of the drainage we have installed over the past 25 years but that is just a small part of the entire system. There is another twist to the story. Several years after the course was built all of the trees were planted without knowledge of the drain line locations. We have found trees planted on top of drain lines that are completely plugged with tree roots.

The tree pictured above is located to the left of the 9th tee and blew over during a storm in March of 2016. This area was very wet every winter for at least the past twenty years. 

When we pulled out the stump we found an 6" drain line that the tree was sitting on and was completely full of tree roots. We had no idea that drain was even there. It must start somewhere across #4 or #3 fairway but still don't know it's origin.

Two weeks ago we found water coming out of the ground in the right rough on #9 about 50 yards from the green. 

After some digging by hand we found an 8" concrete drain line that was clogged. 

Look close and you can see the large Cottonwood tree roots coming out of the drain line. The concrete line was also clogged with roots so we had to get the excavator to dig until the pipe had no more roots. 

We removed about 20 feet of pipe that was clogged with roots. The Cottonwood tree that's causing the problem is over 40' away from this area

Check out our assistant superintendent Josh posing with a "trophy" sized root he pulled out from an adjacent drain line.  

Tree roots will continue to be a problem across the golf course for many years to come. As new wet areas appear, all we can do is start digging!

Steve Kealy

Golf Course Superintendent