Air2g2 or R2-D2

I know why I'm writing this blog with the title air2g2 people are thinking of images of R2-D2 from Star Wars but it's not from the future or a galaxy far away but from a British company called Campey who have got the rights to distribute in the UK. 

The Air2g2 machine uses compressed air  which it injects into the ground using three deep tines. This then fractures the soil below creating gaps in the soil structure for oxygen to fill. 

I was lucky enough to find a machine (as in great demand) a haulage company and a window in the weather to allow us to use this new machine. Thanks must go to Nick at Camberley Heath for willing to arrange his needs around ours and Sports metals for sorting out the hire. 

Air2g2

So why have we hired it in? 

Following the wet period towards the end of December a couple of the greens started to show slight discolouration. This is called hypoxia and is basically when the soil is saturated. This is nothing to worry about and the spring will help us to repair any impact but something we have had to battle with. 

Our moisture readings went over 40% because of the high water table, meaning we had hit a very wet period and the air was being pushed out of the soil profile. 

 

Record-breaking rainfall and all the Irrigation water during the hot summer have left the soils wetter with no oxygen (unlike 2012 another wet year were rainfall was high in the summer, 2014 started and ended wet but had extra due to irrigation water from the borehole). 

One thing to note: the greens which we added drainage to in the past couple of years have shown now signs of this problem as there is somewhere for the water to go meaning the water table doesn't rise to high. Is this a coincidence, no. These greens were the wettest ones at the start of our drainage plans.

At this point soils are just unable to supply the grass plant with what was required in some areas. They are running on about 70% of there capability so we need to step in. 

So, the answer was for us to aerate the soils using the air2g2 machine. This machine was the main choice (following dicussions with our agronomist and other course managers) as standard aeration would mean punching thousands of holes into the greens which would just fill up like test tubes should it rain. It is normally so important to keep the profiles sealed during these winter months if possible but sometimes mother nature throws you a curve ball and you need to address it. 

Never a truer statement! 

Now we have completed the work on the greens our moisture readings came down to 32% which within an hour, this was still higher than we wanted but it's been going down since and infiltration rates have improved. 

Mother Nature then decided to help us with a week of frosts. This helps us because any water that moved through the profile following the aeration would have froze, meaning it expanded (like an ice cube does from a small drop of water) in the soil structure helping to increase the size of the gaps between particles. 

We then gave the greens a little foliar feed. This meant giving the plant the same food it would have got from the soil but direct to the leaf, meaning we were cutting out the need from the soil. 

Ok, that enough from me, just thought I would keep you informed on some of the ups and downs of our winter but let's hope we don't need to call in C3PO (Star Wars reference...again) 

Matt