#3 Collar- Part I

The collar and edges on #3 green have been a constant issue here at Fieldstone. Take a look at the thinning that occurs during mid-summer:

There are several reasons this occurs. They are shade, compaction from foot traffic, lack of air movement and a poor rootzone. These factors in combination are the cause of the problems. However, by alleviating any of these influences we can improve the turf health. By entering the green from the front we can improve compaction from foot traffic at the back of the green.

The next issue is the rootzone. Below is the same picture, the first without markups and the second with. The markups will be explained underneath the second picture.

The red arrows point to layering, most likely from previously sodding of these areas. The yellow rectangle highlights an area where algae is growing due to lack of oxygen. All of this makes for very poor conditions for root growth.

So, what are we going to do differently to improve this? First off we are using washed sod. This is basically soil less sod that does not create a layer when laid over the sand. To the left of the red line is this photo is the washed sod. The roots are clearly exposed from the washing process. The right side of the line is sod as it is normally cut with soil still on it.

In the next few days I will follow up with the actual process of changing the rootzone and laying the washed sod.