Friday, June 24, 2011
On holes 11 and 12, the turf on the green, blue and black tee boxes is obviously weak. Upon further examination, university research and soil sampling, we have found that the soils underneath the sand capped teeing grounds are acid sulfate soils. These soils have turned the sand growing medium so acidic that the turf cannot perform well. Testing has revealed that the 1:1 pH of these sands is anywhere from 3.95 to 4.15. pH needs to be greater than 6.0 and less than 7.0 to properly grow grass. If the pH is too low, the plant cannot take up nutrients and will fail. We have aerated the green, blue and black tee boxes on #11 as well as the blue and black tees on #12 and applied lime to help raise the pH. Lime will raise the pH slowly over time. The turf was removed from the green tee box on 12 a few weeks ago and now that we have a good idea about what is going on we will till 500 lbs of lime into that growing medium before we regrass that tee. The black and blue tees on 11 and 12 also suffer from being too shaded so they will be slow to recover no matter what. Either way, we have the root of the problem and the solution to this problem. If lime does not substantially raise the pH to a point where turf can thrive then these tees will have to be reconstructed with better subsoils. I do not anticipate the need for this.
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| Ben is solid tine aerating this tee with an old Toro Aerator. This machine is 5 years older than Ben but still in working condition. |
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| Hunter is applying lime to the tees on #11 to help raise the pH. Aerating prior to lime applications will help move the lime down into the soil profile. |
