As spring approaches, many superintendents are preparing to aerate their putting greens. Spring is an ideal time for aeration on cool-season putting greens because the turf is at its healthiest and can recover quickly. Undoubtedly, aeration is necessary in most cases, but understanding how much or little aeration is needed can help guide these controversial and impactful decisions.
To determine how much aeration is necessary it’s important to recognize the primary reason for doing it – to manage surface organic matter (OM) content. With that in mind, it would be nice to know how much OM you actually have and an appropriate target range for OM. Aerating without this information doesn’t mean you’re doomed and destined for failure, but having OM data can help guide decisions and provide information to golfers and stakeholders to justify the aeration program.
Over the last four years, a committee of university researchers and USGA Green Section staff worked to develop a standardized method for OM sampling and testing. With standardized sampling and testing methods, lab results are more meaningful and can be compared to a much larger dataset from other courses to determine what an ideal range might be. Throughout the research process, USGA agronomists sampled putting greens from several hundred courses. As part of that process, we have identified ranges that seem to provide the best balance of turf health and playability for different grass types.
Typically, an aeration program is developed with the goal of reducing OM, but remember that if OM content is too low, greens can lose resiliency to traffic and mechanical stress. To provide greens with good firmness, turf density and a robust root system, managing OM within an ideal range is of the utmost importance. Aeration is a key component of doing so and before you commit to a particular program, consider contacting your regional USGA agronomist to take samples for OM testing and help develop a comprehensive plan based on those results!
Central Region Agronomists:
Zach Nicoludis, regional director – znicoludis@usga.org
Paul Jacobs, agronomist – pjacobs@usga.org