No Fall Greens Aeration?

Some nice roots (especially down the deep tine aeration hole) for late August on our predominantly Annual bluegrass greens. Poa annua is known for shortened roots at the end of the summer months.

Unlike my previous bunker post, this one will be a lot shorter!

We are closely monitoring greens organic matter accumulation and practicing organic matter reduction techniques that are less disruptive to greens playability. These include:

• Tightly managing nitrogen applications
• Using plant growth regulators to utilize nitrogen applications more efficiently
• Frequent light verticutting
• Frequent light sand top dressing 

In addition to our annual winter testing, we conducted testing on a few greens in early August. In spite of our efforts, we are seeing a rise in organic matter that will need to be checked. While we are not aerating greens this fall, it would be safe to expect a greens aeration in the spring of 2023. 

Organic matter itself is not a bad thing, the appropriate amount provides resiliency in the surface (more receptive to shots) and support for the turfgrass plant itself (the ability to better withstand wear & ball mark damage). Too much though, and greens can hold too much water, not be firm enough to properly mow / roll and be more susceptible to disease. 

The subsurface sand mix that the greens was originally constructed of does not drain exceptionally well to start with. This has been observed by past Superintendents and was confirmed by recent infiltration tests conducted on some greens. This is why when we have rain, the greens will accumulate standing water quickly. Keeping greens within a reasonable organic matter level is important so we do not further exacerbate this underlying problem. 

We will slightly increase our verticutting / light top dressing frequency in the remaining months of the year to work towards a reduction before our next testing in January.