Muswell Hill Golf Club: Mini course maintenance

Over the last couple of days the greenstaff have been carrying out a mini course maintenance. Some of these works would normally be carried out in our main course maintenance weeks but due to the frosty conditions it was decided to wait until now to allow us to get the quickest recovery time to the putting surfaces.

If you look at the image below this shows the main reasons for carrying out aeration works to the greens.

The first task carried out was the solid tining to 4 inches

The good thing about using our pro core is the surface disturbance is minimal.

This was followed by an over seeder. We were fortunate enough to get a demo from Oliver's ( one of machinery suppliers). The units sit on a greens mower, making it more user friendly. If you look at the photo below you will see the pimple seeder with a brush behind it. This works simply by creating loads of small holes that the seed drops in from the belt system. The brushes then makes sure the seed goes down the hole.

Below is a picture of the units in action. We used 50kg of bent grass seed over the hectare.

We then followed this with an application of organic fertiliser ( I never managed a picture of this as Martin was working to quick to catch!). This application should help the Seed to germinate and give the greens a slight kick.

Next we top dressed the greens using another 10 tonnes of sand. This will help the seed but will also fill the holes made by the pro core and dyna seeder, giving a better draining and smoother finish.

Below is a picture of top dressing on 16th green.