Phase II

Phase II was off and running Monday morning.  Things started off a bit slow as we again were hit with a substantial amount of rain on Sunday afternoon/evening.  Even though very wet we began our cultural practices to prepare the greens and approaches for the fumigation process.  Going into the project we had a good idea of what it was that we wanted and needed to do although weren't too certain on the sequence of events.  Initially we thought the sequence would be deeptining, verticutting, drill n fill, aerify, and then topdress.  Well as we began we notice some complication with our methods and how the surface appeared following their application.  When we did some tweaking we found that the best order was to verticut, mow(scalp), drill n fill, deeptine, topdress, drag, aerify, topdress, and then drag again.  We found here that we were able to get more sand into the holes we had created and help create the best growing medium for the seed when the time comes. 

Ryan is here today and is beginning their alteration on number one green.  Number one green is having a slight adjustment done to the front left to aid in surface drainage.  Currently the pitch of the green is less than .5% of slope meaning that there is no water draining off the green, reason why 1 green experienced significant ice damage 2 springs ago.  Other greens seeing some slight adjustments are the front right of 8, front right of 9, and back left of 18.  We anticipate having these adjustments done by Friday as well as the fumigation to be wrapped up by Friday giving the weekend for the gas to sit and do its work. 

I'll continue to keep updates posted here as well as some informational emails being sent out.  Keep the fingers crossed for good weather!  We are hoping to have all seed down by the end of next week giving us 2 weeks even before Labor Day to promote germination.  This is the perfect time to be getting bentgrass seed on the ground. 

Here are some pictures of sequence of events during preparation:

Scalping the green prior to aerification.

One of the large piles of clippings and thatch from the greens.

Premier Greens and Turf carrying out the Drill n Fill process.  They were using 7/8"x10" drill bits.

Antonio Vargas carrying out the deeptine process.  This machine is fitted with 1/2"x6" solid tines.



This picture illustrates the hole spacing and pattern by the deeptine.



Loading the topdresser with sand.  Topdressing greens and approaches with a rootzone mix.

Jorge Zamudio dragging in the topdressing sand.  This is done to fill all the holes created by the aerifers.

Nathan and Refugio aerifying number 2 green.

Illustrates spacing and pattern of small aerification.  Using 5/8"x5" hollow tines at 2.5" spacing.

Jorge dragging in sand on 4 green

Illustrates the greens surface after all prep measures.  Ready for fumigation.

Another illustration of what our prep work looks like.

One last photo