Fairway aeration process.

Fairway aeration has come a long way in the last 15 years. The machines we now use are very similar to the machines used on greens and tees. Hole spacing used to be 4" apart both width and length where now our spacing is 2 1\2" by 3" with a depth up to 4" . This will remove more thatch and open up channels for root growth.

John Fleming shown aerating the 10th fairway at WVCC.

Jerry Stockmal is supplementing the process by using a walk behind unit to aerate the approach and fairway edges.

When the plugs are partially dried out, this large steel mat will break them up into smaller particles of soil. This process may go on 4 or 5 times to separate the soil from the thatch and help move the smaller particles back into the 5\8" wide holes.

As organic matter and soil that is too hard to break up accumulates, we use snow shovels to congregate the material into piles.

A smaller more maneuverable blower aides in this process by creating condensed piles for pick up.

Piles getting condensed even tighter.

Doug Miller and Joseph Steele manually shoveling thatch into carts for removal. If you wonder why we just don't blow the material into the rough. The accumulation of soil and organic matter would cause the rough areas to thin out.

After the fairway is blown off again and rolled with heavy rollers, water is applied as quickly as possible to prevent the grass from wilting. When fairways are aerated in the summer months, we tend to over apply moisture to prevent turf loss. It would be difficult to explain why we went through a summer with good looking fairways only to lose turf during the aeration process.