Venting

One cultural practice we perform during the summer months is venting our greens. Venting is opening the greens up so the roots can get some air. It also allows gas exchange in the soil and also lets the greens dry in wet conditions. For our venting, we use our aerifier with 1/4" solid tines.

Depending on weather and greens health, we will either load it up with 60 tines, or just go with a half load of 30. Today we loaded it up with 60. 

Our process today was a busy one. We started before daylight venting the greens and then immediately rolled them. We wanted to finish this part of the process before the heat of the day. 

Then we came in and topdressed them.  Since the weather was cool and the greens are healthy, we decide to drag in our sand. We usually don't do this in the summer because it can be very abrasive to the greens, but it was cool and cloudy for most of the morning so we decided to drag. This helps to work the sand down into the canopy faster so we won't pick up the sand tomorrow with our mowers. 

This is the green after the venting. 

This is the holes after the roller. 

This is our finished product after the greens have been sanded and the sand was worked in using the drag. 

It looks like the holes are closed up, but they are still open under the surface allowing the roots to get some air and allowing gas exchange. This was a very important practice to do with all of the rain forecasted this week.