Managing Organics for Firm Fast Greens

Plant an elite bent grass, Penn A-1, in good growing conditions and it will prosper. Good meaning; full sunlight, and a soil with large enough particles, like sand, so when packed together open spaces, voids or cavities still exist between particles. You see, these openings, become avenues that oxygen enters and lodges into. Understand, that it's a combination of oxygen and water that roots need to prosper, cut off the oxygen and the roots are going to die and the above ground grass will thin out.

But there is a catch, a catch 22 or a horticultural oxymoron, if you will. We provided the bent grass plant a great growing environment and it prospered in it, so much so, that its long thick root mass filled all those oxygen cavities forcing the very oxygen it needs right out of the ground. With out oxygen the bent grass will slowly decline, much like a pot bound plant, unless we intervene. If it were growing in a pot all we would have to do is take it out of the small pot, slice apart the encircling roots so they will grow straight again, put it in a bigger pot with more soil. Re potting won't work on the green, so instead, we create more oxygen filled cavities by injecting large sand particles into the soil profile, (DryJect operation pictured) and by slicing the green surface with a machine called the Planetair both of these practices allow oxygen a pathway to the roots. By the way, oxygen stimulates microorganisms that live in the soil and feed on the dead and dieing roots and by consuming this organic matter they create more openings for oxygen lodging. Very cool function, and it's all natural. You see, this is natures living cycle, it's going to happen, we just need to understand it and intervene at appropriate times to keep it functioning in a manner that provides us firm fast greens.

On Monday, May 10 we injected sand into the greens with the DryJect, (pictured above) it uses high pressure water blasts to create holes anywhere from 4" to 6" deep and than forces sand into the holes. We did 15 greens on the 10th and will finish the rest on Monday the 17th. We will repeat the operation on Monday, August 23 and again in November. This, along with periodic Monday slicing of greens with the Planetair, a Spiker or the HydroJect will insure a continual oxygen flow to the roots and the organic consuming microorganisms. Firm, Fast is Sustainable with Consistent Properly Timed Maintenance.