What do you do when your greens reach the point where they are so contaminated with organic matter and have formed a hard pan layer from years of conventional aerification that roots, air and water cannot penetrate through the soil profile?
Answer...You bring out the big guns. Today we deep drilled three greens (14, 16, and 17) with 5/8" tines which penetrated the greens to a depth of 10 inches. This process was masterfully done by
Southeastern Turf Maintenance in a matter of just a couple of hours.
The drills are set on a continuous plate which holds 50 drill bits which allows for a quick operation.
Standard 16" 1/2" soil probe placed in a drill hole.
Depth of soil probe when place in drill hole.
Deep drill tine in comparison to soil probe.
We chose to double drill #16 green since it has given us the most issues this year. This is half way through the second drilling on the green.
All the material which was brought to the surface from the drilling process was picked up and removed from the green. The green was then topdressed, allowed to dry for a while, then drug in with a carpet drag and the green was then rolled several times. The deep drilling will allow for water and oxygen to move throughout the soil profile of these greens which will allow for the roots to thrive and the green to recover completely in a matter of a week or two. If this works out to the extent we believe it will we will look at doing all the greens next year when we close for mid season aerification.
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