PC Conversion Update 6/23/12

      One week in and the conversion process is right on schedule. We accomplished all of the goals we set for ourselves this week. The greens are prepped and ready for sprigs. The only remaining task before the sprigs arrive is to fertilize the putting surfaces. We have made a small change in our planting preparations. The sprigs will now be arriving on Monday June 25th, rather than Tuesday. Modern Turf, the company supplying the sprigs, had a conflict in scheduling. We were able to squeeze the extra day into this past week to accommodate their schedule. Here is a rundown of last week's work and a look ahead to next week.

Last Week 6/17-6/23

Monday

• Scalp greens to .070". Here is a detailed description of Mondays jobs.
• Verticut greens, 100% overlap, 4 directions.
• Clean-Up debris from scalping and verticutting.

Tuesday

• Aerified greens - We aerified the greens in one direction. This will provide a channel in the surface to allow the MiniVerde roots to reach the soil below.
• Began aerification plug clean up. First, we break up the cores using a steel drag mat. This separates the turf from the core soil. The soil will be left on the surface to provide a base for the sprigs. The organic matter will be collected and disposed of at our dump site.
• Started the collar leveling project. Here is a short video of our trial run in April and below is a brief description of this job. 

      The collar levelling project begins with aggressive aerification. We rented specialized equipment just for this task. The alternative was to bid this job to an outside contractor. The estimate for this job was in excess of $30,000 and they requested that we close the course earlier than June 18th. 

      The aerifier we rented uses hollow core tines that are 1" wide and 10" deep. These tines allowed us to remove the maximum amount of soil an aerifier will pull. We went around the collars two times. The areas that are severely mounded were aerified 4-5 times. To the right is a picture of the aerifier in action.

      After aerification we cleaned up all of the cores on the collars. Then we applied water to soften the ground. We then rolled the collars repeatedly until we reached our desired slope. The watering continued, as needed, throughout the rolling. At left is a snapshot of the watering/rolling technique. This results of this method far exceeded our expectations. We originally thought this task would take three or four days. We wrapped up on Wednesday morning.

Wednesday

• Completed collar leveling project
• Finished aerification core cleanup
• Remarked putting surface edge
• Verticut collars. This helped to break up some of the soil matting. We then used a turbine blower to move the debris off the collars.
• Began repairing damaged edges along the collars.

      To the right you can see a photo of a damaged collar after we repaired it. The yellow line indicates the green edge. The aerifier disrupted the turf past the point of turf survival. We filled the damaged areas with a sand/peat mix. Then we tamped the surface until the transition from green to collar was smooth. We will return and sod a 24" strip around the putting surface perimeters after the MiniVerde sprigs have matured. Waiting until maturation allows us to cut a clean edge around the green with a sod cutter.


Thursday

• Finished repairing damaged collars.
• Labor crew started clear cutting around all bridges.
• Applied pre-plant fertilizer #1. We applied an organic fertilizer to the greens. This is the first of many applications of fertilizers prior to planting. However, this will be the only fertilizer applied beneath the topdressing mix. This, and all fertilizers were selected based on soil type, chemical soil tests and Modern Turf recommendations. Each fertilizer we will apply was specifically selected for our site.
• Started topdressing greens. We topdressed our greens with an 87/13, sand/peat mix. We applied, roughly, 75 tons of sand over four acres of putting surfaces. Our goal was a quarter to a half inch of sand over the entire green.

Friday

• Finished topdressing greens.
• Finished fertilizing greens.
• Continued clear cutting around bridges.
• Calibrated the spreaders for each subsequent application. Three more prior to planting.
• Rested!!

Next Week 6/24-6/30

• Apply remaining pre-plant fertilizers to green.
• Remark greens edges with striping paint.
• Initiate a few side projects for closed summer
• Plant sprigs - beginning Monday at 12:00.
• Water, water, water.

      This past week was an extremely busy week for us. We crammed six days of work into five. The result was 19 greens prepped and ready for the MiniVerde sprigs. As stated, we will be planting the sprigs Monday at 12:00. I will post as many updates as possible through the week to keep you informed. Remember you can follow the blog on Twitter as well @stjamesturf.