DryJect--Sand Injection Aerification

Just like a mechanic can not overhaul an engine with just a 9/16" wrench, a golf course superintendent has to have several "tools" in his tool chest to maintain a golf course to high standards.  As many of you know the course was closed last week for two days so we could aerify the greens.  Well this year we broke out one of those different tools in our arsenal and were VERY pleased with the results.

The process is knows as DryJect.  The DryJect process, as you can see in the video, uses high pressure water to inject sand into the greens.  This process eliminates the mechanical removal of material from the greens which is the main cause for bumpy greens following aerification. In the video you can see the sand being delivered through the tubes into the injection chamber and then being injected into the green.

Close to 20 tons of dried bagged AS45 sand were injected into the greens during the process.  Our staff did a fantastic job keeping the hoppers full of sand and dealing with the heat and the popup rainstorms that slowed us down a bit.  Being able to inject this much sand at one time is incredible.  If we were to try and apply that much sand on top of our greens and drag it into aerification holes we would have had to place a layer of sand close to 3/16" deep on the green.  That would have been almost impossible to get drug into the holes and everyone would have been upset.

This is a photo of one of the injection points that I lucked up and got down the side of a cup as we reset the holes for play. There are better pictures of DryJect applications online if you are interested.  What this shows me is that we definitely achieved the goal we were shooting for which was to get below, or through, the traditional 4" aerification layer that we typically get during aerification.  If you look about half way down the cup you will see a dark layer and then it changes to a light brown.  The dark layer is where our traditional core aerification stops at, which in turn is where water and oxygen infiltration stops at, and where our roots stop at.  The light brown layer is where we want our roots to be but they can not get there due to the hardpan layer formed at the bottom of the coring stroke.  The DryJect application blasted a 1/2" column of sand through this layer and into the green between 6-8" inches deep.  Better oxygen and water infiltration will result in better roots and in turn better putting surfaces.

Here is a photo of a green following the DryJect process after it had been drug with our carpet drag.  The holes are 3" x 3" apart and the disruption to the putting surface is about the size of a 3/8" coring tine.

This is a photo of the same green after an application of our dyed greens topdressing sand and a drag.  Not pulling a core reduces the disruption to the putting surface and the use of the green sand helps to mask most of the evidence of the process being done.

One of the added benefits of using the DryJect process is the ability to inject helpful amendments into the soil that otherwise would be almost impossible to incorporate into an existing green.  On a couple of holes we injected Profile Porous Ceramic which will aid in firmness and water movement in the green.  We also injected Harrell's Divot Recovery Mix which has MaXand, EarthMAX, and Milorganite into one green to test how it would aid the green in recovery and overall health.  The options for this process are almost limitless and the return on investment, almost priceless.

I have to give a special thanks to Chad Gamble of DryJect of Tennessee, and his assistant Patrick, for providing this service for us.  Was it worth it financially?  The greens were injected on Wednesday and Thursday.  We did over 400 rounds Friday-Sunday with zero discounts and zero serious complaints (always have that one person, you know).  I had some of my biggest critics come up and tell me how nice the greens looked and how well they were rolling.  Time will definitely tell but as for now I feel it is worth every penny spent.

2014 Mowing Season is Done

As another mowing season comes to a close at Harrison Bay we have to look back to what all has been accomplished this year and look forward to the enhancements and improvements scheduled for the winter months ahead.  Your agronomy staff has been working hard this year to bring you the best playing conditions possible so if you see them out on the course, let them know you appreciate your efforts.

Last winter brought us some unexpected and unneeded very cold temperatures and snow cover.  Extended cold temperatures and shade are not the best friend to 419 bermudagrass which we have on our fairways and roughs.  As a result we had close to 3 acres of turf which had to be replaced or resodded. These areas have come in nicely and are ready for this winter to come.  If you have noticed we learned from last winter and have raised our height of cut on the fairways a bit more than normal and have moved some of the fairway cuts in on a couple of holes.

One of the biggest improvements we made to the course over the past year was the installation of new irrigation heads around many of the greens.  These heads have allowed us to only water the greens surface instead of using full circle technology which watered the green and the surrounds.  This has cut our watering time and has reduced the amount of water we use to water our greens by over 1 million gallons of water this year alone.  We have 6 more holes to go and this project will be in the books.  I bet Willie and Jonathan will be happy about that.

One change we made to the course this year (some liked it and some did not) was to change the way we mow the fairways and tees.  Instead of striping the fairways which we have done for several years we decided to mow the fairways and tees in the "classic cut" manor which means we mow up and back on one side of the area.  This was a drastic change but the final result was exactly what we wanted.  Not only did it give us a different and unique look, it saved us a considerable amount of time and fuel.  This season, by making this one simple change, we eliminated over 312 man hours spent on mowing fairways.  This reduction in mowing saved over 811 gallons of diesel fuel and eliminated the creation of over 18,000 pounds of carbon emissions.

In an effort to correct the many years of neglect and soft handedness we have given to our greens, this summer we got really aggressive with our aerification and verticutting of the greens.  There was a great deal of debate and concern over the process but in the end it turned out to be one of the best things we have done for our greens in quite a long time and as many of you have been telling us, they are the best they have been in many years.  Sometimes you have to break several eggs to make a really good omelet.

To repair some of the areas on the greens which were damaged from the winter we had to use our nursery, which is what it was made for.  After we used what we needed we went back and sprigged it and grew it in.  It was a good bit of work but having a source of sod on site and having the area double as a short game practice area is the perfect solution.

This year in an effort to help the pollinator population on the golf course we created two areas designated to the growing and cultivation of native wildflowers.  Working with Syngenta through their Operation Pollinator project we selected two areas, one beside #1 tee complex and one between #10 green and #11 tee complex, to create these areas.  The project has been a great success and we see these areas teaming with bees and butterflies.  We will continue to improve our planting processes over the winter to hopefully have these areas even more plentiful with wildflowers and pollinators.

As we look ahead to next season we have many improvements in mind.  We will be adding the DryJect process to our aerification in August. We hope using this process will provide better subsurface drainage and root growth and will reduce the disruption to the putting surface so we can get the greens back to their desired quality sooner.  This winter we will finish our greens irrigation renovation, add surface drainage to #10 fairway, selectively reduce shade around the course, renovate the native planting bed between #1 tee and the driving range, and renovate the remaining fairway bunkers.

It is going to be a long winter and a lot of hard work.  We will do our best to not interfere with your round but please remember that all the work we are doing is simply to make your course better.

DryJect Demo--Changing Perceptions about Aerification

It's time to talk about aerification again.  Don't panic we are not going to aerify the greens again this year but we are already discussing the aerification timing and process for next year.  As I have said before, aerification is a "necessary evil" but if we can find techniques and processes that will provide our greens with the cultivation management needed but will be less disruptive to the putting surface and require less time to recover then we will investigate that process.

On Friday we saw a demonstration of a "new" technique known as DryJect from Chad Gamble owner of DryJect of Tennessee.  The DryJect process is unique from traditional core aerification in that it uses high pressure water injectors to incorporate sand or amendments directly into the putting green profile.  This is different from core aerification where sand and/or amendments are placed on top of the green and every attempt is made to drag/brush/broom the sand down into the holes, which honestly is nearly impossible to accomplish.

This illustration shows how the DryJect process works to make for a better aerification process with little to no disruption to the putting green surface while at the same time completely filling the soil with sand or amendments and fracturing the subsurface of the green to provide greater movement of air, water, and roots.  The DryJect process is better for the soil also because compared to normal core aerification it does not "glaze" the side of the core hole which limits where air, water, and roots can penetrate.

Here is a link to a very informative video made by a good friend of mine, Mark Langner, Director of Agronomy at Pursell Farms in Alabama made the DryJect process and why it is beneficial.

The Unique Process of DryJecting at Pursell Farms

This is a photo of the demo area on the putting green on Friday following a pushbroom brushing and a rolling.  The spacing on the DryJect in this area was spaced at 3" x 3" and placed the sand/amendment to a depth of at least 6" deep, leaving a hole on the putting surface close to 3/8" in size.  Once broomed and rolled we were very impressed with how firm and smooth the area was and Robin and Mr. Nixon had no issues with putting quality.

Here is a photo of the same area on Saturday morning after the area had an irrigation cycle applied to it and had been mowed.  Even though you could tell that something had been done to the area it was drastically different in both firmness and smoothness from what one would expect to experience following a normal core aerification.

As we look ahead to next year we hope to continue our pursuit of providing you with a high quality golf course from putting green to fairway to bunker.  Each improvement we make to our maintenance program and practices helps us to achieve our goal of being among the best golf courses around and somewhere everyone will want to play.  We hope we can include the unique DryJect process into those programs and reduce our need to aerify the greens so aggressively or as often.  A "win-win" for everyone.