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
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