The benefits of putting green aeration are well known, but the disruption to golfers and extra demands on the maintenance team often prompt superintendents to look for ways to make the practice less painful. Pulling cores and disposing of them sounds simple enough, right? However, picking up aeration cores from all the putting greens in a limited amount of time without damaging the turf is not so simple. Sure, there are tools to ease the process, but they come with limitations. There are windrowers and collection boxes that can simplify removal by piling up cores to be hand shoveled into utility carts, but removing aeration cores with shovels is hard work. There are bulky, tow-behind core sweepers but they are difficult to maneuver and require a large utility vehicle to drive over surfaces that were just aerated to reduce compaction. Not to mention, tow-behind core sweepers don’t work well on wet cores or abrupt undulations. Thankfully, there is a new tool that addresses these challenges.
During my recent travels, I came across a new core sweeper that provided excellent results. The Hatsuta Core Sweeper is a self-contained, three-wheeled unit that picked up wet cores and debris to give a clean surface. This compact core sweeper has wide smooth tires, is easily maneuverable and did not disturb the turf. The collection hopper lifts high enough to dump into a large dump trailer, making core collection just a two-person task. Eliminating hand shoveling allows staff to complete other tasks to speed up the process or helps short-handed teams complete aeration when it previously may not have been an option. Depending on your location, there also may be companies that can help you with this machine on a contract basis, which frees up even more staff and eliminates the upfront and maintenance costs associated with purchasing one.
A machine like this will not only reduce cleanup time, your employees (and their backs) will be very grateful. For more ways to improve the efficiency of core aeration or any other questions, please reach out to your USGA regional agronomist.
Northeast Region Agronomists:
Darin Bevard, senior director, Championship Agronomy – dbevard@usga.org
Elliott L. Dowling, regional director, East Region – edowling@usga.org
Brian Gietka, agronomist – bgietka@usga.org