Preparing The Seedbed

We are now filling the aerification holes with topdressing sand and getting a 1/4" layer of sand built up on the surface.  We should be ready to seed the greens on Thursday and Friday.  The weather forecast is for sunny and 90+ degree temperatures over the weekend so we will need to be watering the new seed often.

Out With The Old

It's now been three days since we finished fumigating the greens and they are now dead. On Monday the covers will be removed and on Tuesday we will begin bringing them back to life.




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Regrassing Greens Project Begins

On Monday we began our greens regrassing project with a deep tine aeration followed by conventional aeration.  We want to put as many holes as possible in the soil profile to improve gas penetration to achieve soil sterilization as deep as possible. In the picture you can see the aerator with the 3/4" x 10" tines and the resulting hole pattern.

Following the aeration the gas delivery tubes are placed on the green and then the green is covered with an impermeable plastic cover and the edges sealed so no gas can leak from under the cover. Once the green cover is sealed tight a computer controls the proper dose of methyl bromide gas that is pumped through the delivery tubes.  The covers will stay in place for a minimum of five days.

Recovery Begins

Now that the temperature is getting back to normal we are beginning to inter seed bentgrasses into the areas that we lost Annual Bluegrass (Poa annua). In the photo you can see the slits made by the seeder while sowing new seed into the old turf. The new bentgrasses can tolerate more weather and disease stress than the old grasses. We expect to see a lot less turf loss in the future.



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