Aerification May 2013

The agronomy staff at Jupiter CC has implemented a process called Aerification. This process is done 3 times a year during the summer months to enhance turf quality. It is a complex process that involves specialty equipment as you will see in the pictures and videos below.


The photo above shows #3 tee box during an aggresive verticut. This tee, along with the rest of the tees, was verticut 2 directions up and back in the same direction. Essentially it was verticut 4 times. You can see the team member in the picture starting his second direction.




A close up of a verticut tee on it's first direction.




Above is #4 black tee after a 5/8" side eject coring tine. The dirt and thatch pulled up from the ground was dragged in with a steel drag mat and the thatch was blown off with a blower. The dirt from the cores was distributed back into the canopy of the turf and acted as a topdressing which provided a smoother teeing surface. You can see the team member walking the aerifier in the background.



Here you can see the pile of thatch that was pulled from the fairway and greens. Notice the walkie talkie in the foreground. It was placed in front to give the pile some scale.



The above referenced picture shows #1 green after it has been verticut 2 directions up and back, The depth of the verticutter was set at an 1/8" into the canopy of the turf to remove excessive thatch build up. This practice will allow for a denser, firmer putting surface.

  

This is a video of a machine called a triplex verticutter which was used for the tees and the greens. If you look closely you will see the thatch that is being ejected into the basket of the machine.

Here we have a video of our tractor slicer. This was used on the roughs and the fairways. It works by putting large slices into the ground and disrupting any compacted soil. The fairways were sliced 2 directions and the rough only 1 direction. This one machine covered 125 acres in just under 2 weeks.