Winter Aeration
As Autumn draws to a close, the roots of the turf will be searching for food to renew the energy to store new plants for the following Summer.
These foods are stored within the plant and so the search for food for manufacturing leaves throughout the Summer months will go on from October to the following May, slowed down only by the very cold weather in December and January.
To function, the grass plant needs to be in a temperature of 42-45 degrees (5-6c). This is why it is vital to raise the temperature at ground level and every opportunity. When the dew (guttation) is on the grass, the temperature would be 35 degrees and it is below that required for the plant to function, i.e. roots searching for food.
With morning dew removal, this temperature will soon be increased to within the range of grass root production.
With a variety of different shaped tines, solid round, short round (sarrel) type, chisel, root pruning and slit tines, clubs have different equipment and therefore should not be too worried about the shape, but note should be taken that it is important to realise that the tines are of different lengths, so the depth hole made by the tine will vary.
The soil below the surface is similar to a food cupboard. There is plenty in there if the plant roots can reach it, hence the different length of tines.
However, solid tines should only be used from May and through the Summer months as these do not influence the run of the bowl, but only convey storm water down through the turf during the playing season.
I would suggest that sold tines should be used at two-week intervals during the Summer months.
The main aim of aeration is to allow oxygen, water and nutrients into the turf because the plant needs a solution of the nutrients to absorb for food. Lack of aeration will stunt the growth of the roots and even allow them to turn upwards to where they can find food and nutrients.
Problems then arise during drought with lack of root depth and plants easily die out. Soil organisms rely on oxygen to function as do roots which also get rid of their waste gasses through the soil air created by aeration.
Top dressing covers a multitude of problems. If there is a problem, address it. Top dressing is similar to a coat of paint. You must prepare the surface to receive it.
Once applied, further remedial work will obviously show. No longer can we use preventative fungicides.
Another point about top dressing is that it keeps the annual meadow grass growing if any has escaped the scarifying. The soil in the top dressing contains nitrogen, which softens up the grass blades just when the perennials need a rest from leaf production, so increasing fusarium attacks.
There is also an increased difficulty of drying off the green with brushes or switches. Neglecting this operation can increase fungi problems for a period until the grass has grown sufficiently through the top dressing.
Top dressing used on bowling greens are a mixture of sand, slit, clay and organic matter. Organic matter is animal, plants and remains that have died and are going through the process of decay. There is nothing else in top dressings (soil texture) except the way the particles are arranged (soil structure).
Sea washed lime free sharp sand – This is dredged sand, cleaned with shell particles removed. The remaining sand is graded through sieves to separate the sizes. If the shell particles were to remain, they would weather down and increase the chalk content (alkalinity) with the following effects:
1. Detrimental to fine turf which requires an acid soil.
2. Encourages worm activity, benefiting coarse grasses and weeds which are not require in Summer growing turf of fescues and Agrostic (bents)
Packing – Packing sands feel smooth and can almost bind together. Very small wind blown particles become rounded and can form packing soils. Packing sands are a mixture of all differing sized sands with a tendency to fit neatly into each other. This will restrict the space for water and subsequently air, to integrate into the soil for roots to penetrate for water and nutrients.
Non-packing sands – Non-packing sands feels angular, sharp or gritty. This is the type of sand required for top dressings. It is of a sharp gritty nature and 80% of this sand would be from 0.25mm to 0.75mm and the remaining 20% of the sand would be larger or small particles.
The reason being that this 80% particle size sand lets water through and allows air to fill the space left by the water so that the roots can then search for nutrients in the voids, called pore spaces.
Non-packing sands can be used effectively in Spring dressing of the green. Provided the surface is clean, having been cleaned out thoroughly in the Autumn, this will allow the particles of sand to mix with the existing top soil. The bowls will then move quickly over the green as the surface will be relatively hard and fast.
Players walking about will encourage the sand particles to rub together. This effectively bleeds the weeds, coarser grasses and annual meadow grass with thick fleshy roots, therefore restricting their survival.
When regular maintenance is carried out with a shallow spiker (Brayseed slotter/spiker), it can be very beneficial to the surface of the green. This relieves the light compression caused by bowlers.
Choice of top dressing can either:-
1. Slow down the rate of drying or
2. Increase the rate of drying.
Either result will affect the speed of the green.
Microclimate – This is your bowling green surface.
The microclimate is the top 25mm of playing surface that is affected by the exchange of air for water after heavy rain or waterlogging.
Try to recall the need to undo the cap of an oil drum to let air in before gravity allows the oil to run out of the tap. Restriction of air in the top 25mm of turf surface prevents water moving down through turf efficiently.
By using the hand held Brayseed slotter with spiker head fitted, it will take but a few minutes to bring the level back to normal if the green has been played on during rain, for instance at the end of rinks, particularly in front of the delivery mat.
During an average season, if there is a colour change of the turf in small areas, using the spiker will allow air into the surface and normally the original colour returns.
Within the microclimate the bacteria breed by the million. Their main function is to recycle debris and plant foods that are in the surface to form soil solution that the plant takes up into its growth pattern.
Silt – Silt is composed of very fine particles of slate-like material and is very unstable. It is one of the constituents of top dressing and was formerly sold for bowing green turf because it was called sea-washed turf.
The silt was sold as sea-washed turf and was supplied to bowling greens many years ago when the sand ideal for the job had been exhausted. This often shows itself as a thick layer almost impervious to water.
Clay – Clay is made up of very fine particles of flat plate like structures that can lock together holding water strongly by capillary action. These can absorb plant nutrients onto, but not into, plate surfaces.
Clay particles become very sticky when wet. If clay is integrated between sand, silt and organic materials in the right proportions, it will benefit water and plant food retention in the soil.
Sand and soil mix – Consideration must be given to how much material, apart from the sand, which you will want on the surface. Many greens suffer skidding or scuffing when woods are delivered from above the green instead of on the green, particularly those with a high annual meadow grass content.
These foods are stored within the plant and so the search for food for manufacturing leaves throughout the Summer months will go on from October to the following May, slowed down only by the very cold weather in December and January.
To function, the grass plant needs to be in a temperature of 42-45 degrees (5-6c). This is why it is vital to raise the temperature at ground level and every opportunity. When the dew (guttation) is on the grass, the temperature would be 35 degrees and it is below that required for the plant to function, i.e. roots searching for food.
With morning dew removal, this temperature will soon be increased to within the range of grass root production.
With a variety of different shaped tines, solid round, short round (sarrel) type, chisel, root pruning and slit tines, clubs have different equipment and therefore should not be too worried about the shape, but note should be taken that it is important to realise that the tines are of different lengths, so the depth hole made by the tine will vary.
The soil below the surface is similar to a food cupboard. There is plenty in there if the plant roots can reach it, hence the different length of tines.
However, solid tines should only be used from May and through the Summer months as these do not influence the run of the bowl, but only convey storm water down through the turf during the playing season.
I would suggest that sold tines should be used at two-week intervals during the Summer months.
The main aim of aeration is to allow oxygen, water and nutrients into the turf because the plant needs a solution of the nutrients to absorb for food. Lack of aeration will stunt the growth of the roots and even allow them to turn upwards to where they can find food and nutrients.
Problems then arise during drought with lack of root depth and plants easily die out. Soil organisms rely on oxygen to function as do roots which also get rid of their waste gasses through the soil air created by aeration.
Top dressing covers a multitude of problems. If there is a problem, address it. Top dressing is similar to a coat of paint. You must prepare the surface to receive it.
Once applied, further remedial work will obviously show. No longer can we use preventative fungicides.
Another point about top dressing is that it keeps the annual meadow grass growing if any has escaped the scarifying. The soil in the top dressing contains nitrogen, which softens up the grass blades just when the perennials need a rest from leaf production, so increasing fusarium attacks.
There is also an increased difficulty of drying off the green with brushes or switches. Neglecting this operation can increase fungi problems for a period until the grass has grown sufficiently through the top dressing.
Top dressing used on bowling greens are a mixture of sand, slit, clay and organic matter. Organic matter is animal, plants and remains that have died and are going through the process of decay. There is nothing else in top dressings (soil texture) except the way the particles are arranged (soil structure).
Sea washed lime free sharp sand – This is dredged sand, cleaned with shell particles removed. The remaining sand is graded through sieves to separate the sizes. If the shell particles were to remain, they would weather down and increase the chalk content (alkalinity) with the following effects:
1. Detrimental to fine turf which requires an acid soil.
2. Encourages worm activity, benefiting coarse grasses and weeds which are not require in Summer growing turf of fescues and Agrostic (bents)
Packing – Packing sands feel smooth and can almost bind together. Very small wind blown particles become rounded and can form packing soils. Packing sands are a mixture of all differing sized sands with a tendency to fit neatly into each other. This will restrict the space for water and subsequently air, to integrate into the soil for roots to penetrate for water and nutrients.
Non-packing sands – Non-packing sands feels angular, sharp or gritty. This is the type of sand required for top dressings. It is of a sharp gritty nature and 80% of this sand would be from 0.25mm to 0.75mm and the remaining 20% of the sand would be larger or small particles.
The reason being that this 80% particle size sand lets water through and allows air to fill the space left by the water so that the roots can then search for nutrients in the voids, called pore spaces.
Non-packing sands can be used effectively in Spring dressing of the green. Provided the surface is clean, having been cleaned out thoroughly in the Autumn, this will allow the particles of sand to mix with the existing top soil. The bowls will then move quickly over the green as the surface will be relatively hard and fast.
Players walking about will encourage the sand particles to rub together. This effectively bleeds the weeds, coarser grasses and annual meadow grass with thick fleshy roots, therefore restricting their survival.
When regular maintenance is carried out with a shallow spiker (Brayseed slotter/spiker), it can be very beneficial to the surface of the green. This relieves the light compression caused by bowlers.
Choice of top dressing can either:-
1. Slow down the rate of drying or
2. Increase the rate of drying.
Either result will affect the speed of the green.
Microclimate – This is your bowling green surface.
The microclimate is the top 25mm of playing surface that is affected by the exchange of air for water after heavy rain or waterlogging.
Try to recall the need to undo the cap of an oil drum to let air in before gravity allows the oil to run out of the tap. Restriction of air in the top 25mm of turf surface prevents water moving down through turf efficiently.
By using the hand held Brayseed slotter with spiker head fitted, it will take but a few minutes to bring the level back to normal if the green has been played on during rain, for instance at the end of rinks, particularly in front of the delivery mat.
During an average season, if there is a colour change of the turf in small areas, using the spiker will allow air into the surface and normally the original colour returns.
Within the microclimate the bacteria breed by the million. Their main function is to recycle debris and plant foods that are in the surface to form soil solution that the plant takes up into its growth pattern.
Silt – Silt is composed of very fine particles of slate-like material and is very unstable. It is one of the constituents of top dressing and was formerly sold for bowing green turf because it was called sea-washed turf.
The silt was sold as sea-washed turf and was supplied to bowling greens many years ago when the sand ideal for the job had been exhausted. This often shows itself as a thick layer almost impervious to water.
Clay – Clay is made up of very fine particles of flat plate like structures that can lock together holding water strongly by capillary action. These can absorb plant nutrients onto, but not into, plate surfaces.
Clay particles become very sticky when wet. If clay is integrated between sand, silt and organic materials in the right proportions, it will benefit water and plant food retention in the soil.
Sand and soil mix – Consideration must be given to how much material, apart from the sand, which you will want on the surface. Many greens suffer skidding or scuffing when woods are delivered from above the green instead of on the green, particularly those with a high annual meadow grass content.
Acknowledgements to Dave Bracey for this article