Aerification Video - Why We Aerify

Aerification is one of the most necessary and basic turfgrass management practices.  As the video below illustrates, relieving soil compaction, improving oxygen availability and increasing penetration and percolation within the soil profile are just a few of the benefits of aerifying.  In our case at NCC, aerification also benefits the health of our turf surfaces (especially the greens) by allowing us to remove some of the negative elements that accumulate in the rootzone via the poor irrigation quality water that we use.  The aerification process that we implement today, aides our course conditioning in the future.



Aerification timing and methods vary from course to course depending on any number of factors: tournament schedules, amount of play, irrigation water quality, sand or soil rootzone construction, available sunlight and air movement to the green, weather conditions (cold and heat), etc.  The size of the aerification tines also varies with the desired outcome.  In or fall aerification, we use the larger coring tines that remove the cores from the rootzone.  In the summer months we use "needle" or small solid tines that do not pull out a core. 



The timing of aerification varies at different courses.  I have chosen the mid to latter part of September for four reasons:
1. Even though the weather can still be really favorable for play in the latter part of September, the volume of play decreases after Labor Day.
2. Aerifying while there is still a degree of warmer days allows for the aerification holes to heal and cover quicker.
3. Most significantly, next to aerifying in mid-August, September is the next best time for us at NCC because we have very clean, poa annua free, green's surfaces.  Aerifying later is a more optimum time for poa annua to invade our greens.  Keeping our surfaces clean with a pure stand of bentgrass is a key to our management and course conditioning program.
4. Aerification in the middle to end of September comes after all of the major tournaments at the club



Please take a look at the following video.