The Benefits of Aerification

The Rim Golf Club is a unique club. The breath taking views from every hole are like no other golf club in Arizona. The idea that we live in a desert climate is sometimes forgotten when we live among the largest forest of Ponderosa Pines in America. There is no doubt; it is tough to find a better environment to enjoy playing the game of golf.

Growing grass in Payson is much different than anywhere in the State of Arizona. Cool season grasses grown on decomposed granite is not accomplished anywhere else in the State. Sedona, Flagstaff, The White Mountains, all have more desirable soils to work with. Sedona is the closest to our climate with warmer summers to cause substantial disease pressure in the Monsoon months. The northern courses will never experience destructive disease like we do. Cooler overnight temperatures keep pathogens in check.

A frequently discussed subject among members is our soil or lack of. Adding soil or organic matter has been a topic for as long as I can remember. This could sound like I am contradicting myself, but we don’t have a problem with not having enough organic matter, actually we grow all of our grass in a two inch thick blanket of organic matter (thatch) that caps our native granite soil. We can utilize this organic layer by incorporating inorganic sand to create an optimum playing field. An ideal soil is shown in this diagram. If you notice mineral (rock, gravel) is a key ingredient. Organic is only a minor piece of the pie.

Building a soil is a slow process. The inability to make use of our native soil has become a reality. Making use of the organic matter (thatch) we have in place and mixing in sand through aerification and topdressing we can create a decent growing medium for turf. It is a slow process. I have been here for four seasons and three years ago we started a consistent cultivation program. The benefits of incorporating sand have been fairways that are more firm, slightly better water infiltration through the organic matter and a healthier root structure. Benefits we will see with continued cultivation will be less disease pressure due to better drainage, deeper roots that will endure drought better and utilize nutrients and water more efficiently. Aerification can be a dirty word in the golf community, but to a turf manager it is literally a breath of fresh air.

In my opinion, Payson is located in the most beautiful area in Arizona. Complementing the surrounding environment is quite a challenge as a turfgrass manager. Grass, being a living organism, needs adequate oxygen, water, and light. Aerification is the most important practice to oxygenate the soil, a practice that is needed twice a year to enhance the course’s future. Conditions will only improve over the years with consistent cultivation.

Aerification Dates

September 20th Greens

September 21st – 24th Fairways

If you have any questions about our upcoming aerification practices please feel free to contact me at any time.
Justin Ruiz, CGCS
jruiz@therimgolfclub.org
928-951-3421

Monthly Green Committee Report February 2010

Monthly Greens Committee Report

Presented to The Rim Greens Committee

By

Golf Course Superintendent

Justin C. Ruiz, CGCS

January, 2010

Course Condition

The cold weather has come back for a little while and the course remains dormant. Spring is just around the corner though and it won’t be long before we begin greening up.

Projects Completed

This month we have focused on trying to recover from the massive storm we had last month.
We finished fire-wise along the right hand side of #11.

You may have seen us over by #18 approach digging up a valve. We thought the valve was leaking, but the soil was so saturated in that area from the storm, water started to fill the valve boxes. Ground water was finding the least amount of resistance to surface, which was right at the valve. Luckily, no irrigation leaks.

Cart drive offs have been covered with new, finer, mulch and the rocks defining the paths have been removed. We are still looking into a more permanent fix for the rough conditions over time.

Projects in Process

The storm damage on #13 has become our priority. The large amount of water mixed with DG plugged the drain pipe. At construction they installed a 6” drain pipe that then reduced to 4” pipe toward the end of the drain. It is like coming down from the Rim on 260, Sunday afternoon; everyone races through the passing lane and then when it merges back to one lane everyone is hitting the brakes. All the water had to go somewhere so it washed out the whole trench containing the pipe.

The left side of #11 and #6 are currently getting fire-wised during frost delays.

Projects Planned

Once #11 is completed, the right side of #6 will be fire-wised.

Removing excess DG in drainage areas will take place this next month.

With frozen conditions letting up we can get back to working on pressure adjustments to the sprinklers.

Divot and Ballmark Repair Party

We completed another repair party the 26th of February. The members that volunteered their time were able to complete all 18 fairways and greens in a little over an hour. A big thanks goes out to those who -olunteered. It helps our staff and the course out tremendously.

Integrated Pest Management

March 1st will begin our degree day count and start our trap monitoring for this season’s insect pests. We will also begin checking soil temperatures to plan our control process for the root infecting disease, Summer Patch. If you would like to read about our IPM practices, click here.

Aerification Notice read more

Greens Aerification April 12th.

Fairway Aerification April 26th.

Side Notes

The Golf Industry Show took place at the beginning of this month in San Diego. I was lucky enough to get a portion of the conference and show sponsored by some of our vendors. I took a class about irrigation auditing to continue to make improvements on water conservation. read more I spoke about our water conservation efforts over the past three years to nearly 200 golf course superintendents in the innovative superintendent session.

Dan had mentioned in a previous newsletter about my use of twitter and blogging to increase communication to our members and with other superintendents in the industry. The February issue of Golfdom has a great article on the use of twitter in our industry. view article

Spring Aerification

Spring is the time for us as Turfgrass Managers, to start thinking of the new season that will be upon us in just a few short months. It is an important time to prepare the turf for the stresses of the summer heat, and relentless pest pressure. To prepare the turf, we use a combination of cultural practices including the most important one, core aerification.

The turf grows in a unique environment, getting nutrients and life support from the soil. An ideal soil system is 50% insoluble material, while the other 50% is made up of 25% water, and 25% oxygen. If you noticed, I mentioned “ideal.” Over the winter months the soil has become saturated with water, and since the insoluble material cannot be displaced, oxygen is pushed from the soil system, leaving the turf in a less than desirable situation.

With that being said, as turf managers, we make the decision to core aerify the turf. The goal is to balance the soil’s three part system, while also removing unwanted thatch, created by the natural attrition of the shoots, roots, and stems. The process also enhances nutrient uptake, while beginning the root driving process. We remove about 10% of the turf’s surface. To offset thatch buildup, removal of 20% of the surface per year is recommended by the USGA. That gives us the reasoning behind the need of twice per year. Click here for the recommendations of the USGA.

Core aerification is a disruptive process. Playing conditions will be affected for up to four weeks, depending upon weather. An application of fertilizer, one week before aerification day, will get the plant growing rapidly. Expect reduced green speeds coming into aerification. The day of aerification, after we have filled the holes completely with sand, we will apply another application of fertilizer. The purpose of increased fertility during this process is to speed up the healing process and give the plant the nutrition it needs to grow roots.

During the spring, we will aerify greens, tees, fairways, and approaches. The tees that were damaged by the dethatching process last fall will be addressed at this time. After we pull plugs on the damaged tee surfaces, we will spread an 80/20 mixture of Kentucky Bluegrass and Perennial Ryegrass. This mixture approximately matches the mixture growing on the course today. Depending on weather, the tees will need an extra cycle or two of irrigation to promote germination. We will also move the tee markers accordingly, to eliminate traffic on these selected tees, while they germinate and fill in.

I have been asked many times over the winter if skipping the aerification process last fall will cause problems. My answer to that question has been, skipping the process once, will not cause major problems, because of our use of the hydroject, and planet air. If the process is skipped repeatedly, then problems begin to occur that are not easily corrected. My analogy to help understand this answer is; if you are healthy and you eat French-fries once, it will not majorly affect you. If you begin eating French-fries at every meal, then you are looking at combating major health issues, even after you get back to your healthy diet.

2010 Aerification dates

• April 12th, 2010 Green Aerification
• April 26th, 2010 Fairway Aerification
• August 23rd, 2010 Fairway Aerification
• September 20th, 2010 Green Aerification

If you have any questions, pleas feel free to contact me.

Justin C. Ruiz, CGCS
justinr@therimgolfclub.org

Spring is Around the Corner

The Rim Golf Club Maintenance Department is now thinking of spring.  It won't be long before the weather gets warmer and the grass begins it spring green up.  The recent weather forecast of snow possibilities makes spring feel like a far away thought. 

The upcoming months are important for our team to ensure a healthy stand of turf going into the stress of summer.  To acheive our goals, common cultural practice must take place. Spring aerification, water management, nutrition and grooming/vertical mowing are some of the practices that are important.

Spring aerification opens up the soil for the turf's first big breath of the season.  The soil profile is made up of three different parts; soil (decomposed granite{fairways}, sand {greens}), water and oxygen.  A healthy soil is 50 percent soil and 50 percent water and oxygen, preferrabley equal amounts water and oxygen.  The wet winter has changed this ideal balance with excess water in the profile.  Since soil cannot be reduced in the system oxygen must go.  With that being said, pulling cores and introducing the system with much needed oxygen is key to building a healthy stand of turf for the stressfull months during the season.

That brings me to water management.  Spring can be tricky with weather being unpredictable.  We can have warm spells for a few days straight followed by cooler weather. This increases the importance of weather prediction and the ability of being one step ahead of Mother Nature.  Our goal is to anticipate the weather and apply water accordingly.  Unpredictability can make for an interesting spring.  To help combat the spring roller coaster I have gathered the water usage data from the previous years and averaged the monthly usage to create a guideline or budget to stay on track with our water usage.  Of course, weather will be the defining factor in our actual water needs. With a guidline in place we can monitor our usage closely and better prepare ourselves for the critical months of June, July and August.  

When the soil temperatures begin to rise the grass begins to green up.  Our late fall application of fertilizer was done for the sole purpose of giving the plant available nutrition during this period.  Once the grass begins to green up the roots will be looking for nutrients to support the production of new leaves.  Our late fall application was a blend of organic (slow release) and synthetic (quick release fertilizer). The quick release helped retain some of the color through the winter months while the slow release remains in the soil profile until the temperatures rise starting the breakdown process from various bacteria converting the nitrogen into plant available nitrogen.  We have plenty of light, water and oxygen, food is the limiting factor.

Vertical mowing and grooming is the process of cutting the lateral growth of the plant.  The greens consist of Bentgrass.   Bentgrass uses stolons (above ground stems) to fill in thin areas.  As they move along the surface they shoot roots out creating another source for nutrient harvesting.  If we cut these stolons it forces the cut section to grow and start a new plant.  This helps thicken the turf as well as making room for the new leaves that are making their spring appearance.  Consistent grooming results in healthy upright turf that produces smooth playing surfaces.   

The Spring season is not far away.  Cultural practice planning is important to build a healthy stand of turf that can withstand the stressful conditions of Summer.  Our plan is to have another successful year keeping the course playable and prepared for what Mother Nature will bring.

If you have any questions about our Spring program or just have questions please contact me.

Justin C. Ruiz, CGCS

justinr@therimgolfclub.org