Core aerator question

[justractors]

The primary purpose of the sand is to help keep the greens firm for more consistent ball roll and to help control thatch build up.
The top dressing sand is just sand and the critical part of it comes in with the size of the sand grains. If they are too large they fail to work their way through the canopy, which is pretty much the fancy name for the blades of grass and the stems, if they are too small they will plug up the openings that allow the water. oxygen, and other nutrients to get to the roots.
The sand we use where I work costs about $85 a ton delivered. We actually have two different piles of sand one for top dressing and the other for filling the sandtraps/bunkers. The bunker sand is also a special sand that has been devleloped over time to help insure that the golf ball stays on top of the sand and does not allow the ball to sink into the sand so far that the golfer can not more easily hit it out of the trap.
You have to remember on a golf course time is money and although it looks like the maintenance staff tries to make the course more difficult, the opposite is true in that we try to keep the play moving along as rapidly as possible
About the only grass growing in top soil is in the rough area. The top soil would allow diseases and more importantly critters a place to live and multiply. Critters such as grub worms which in turn bring in the moles looking for a meal.

 

[Turfman]

The purpose of top dressing is to reduce the thatch layer. The courses use sand because it provides a firm playing surface. The addition of soil over top of the turf will increase the microbial activity above and inside the thatch layer and increase the speed of the decomposition. This creates a healthy mat (the layer below the thatch) where the growth points of the grass plant reside. Reducing the thatch layer will also aid in getting water to the root system and require much less water on the area. Contrary to popular opinion, mulched grass clippings don't substantially add to the thatch layer.

Turfman

 

[skipperbrown]

How do you spread the topcoat?

 

[longway5]

Topdressing is usually spread through the use of a topdresser (go figure). On the Toro utility-vehicle-mounted one we have, this is a hopper with a conveyor belt running along the bottom. A gate controls how much sand (or other topdressing material) is being carried out of the hopper by the belt. At the very end of the belt (at the end of the vehicle) is a large spinning brush that sweeps the sand off the belt and into the air, where it falls to the ground in a uniform distribution. Depending on the position of the gate, it can put a very small amount of sand out (where I could topdress 4 or 5 greens on one load) or a lot (where I get two or three passes at a green). Larger topdressers exist for topdressing fairways, and get pulled behind a tractor. Some even have a separate conveyor belt on a boom so one could place material, like filling a bunker. A lot of equipment in the golf course maintenance industry seems to be very expensive, so when you can get multiple uses out of one piece of equipment, money is saved.

 

[Turfman]

I throw it out with a shovel and work it in with a leaf rake.

 

[justractors]

We also have the Toro TD1800 like you are describing and recently purchased a Ty Crop Pass Pro 180 unit that also mounts on the same Workman style vehicle. It also has the conveyor belt to move the sand to the rear but instead of a brush to distribute the sand this one use two spinners which throw the sand in a wide path up to 35' wide depending on vehicle engine rpm and control settings on the spreader.
We also just purchased the Ty Crop MH 400 which can be used to fill the bunkers and also has the twin spinners to top dress the fairways.
You are very correct in saying they aren't cheap the 180 cost about $11,000 and the 400 about $24,000. They will save many man hours however and should have a life expectancy of about 15 years if properly used and cared for.
If anyone is interested in the Ty Crop equipment you can do a seach for "Ty Crop" and find their web site.

 

[skipperbrown]

I need a lot of topdressing to fill in some ruts and low spots and the shovel/rake method seems too manual labor intensive and the topcoat machine seems too expensive.

I was hoping I could fill my fel w/ topcoat and somehow run it through a grid and evenly spread it. I had some gravel dropped on a dirt road once and the dump truck guys locked a board through the dump gate providing a steady dump rate. I wonder if we could employ something like that?

mark

 

[Kodiak]

I don't think that you want a loaded dump truck driving on your lawn. Talk about ruts. Actually you might want to order a load of composted topsoil with a high sand content. Roughly spread it with your loader. then use a drag to smooth. It will find the low spots. I use an old railroad tie with 16 ft of chain attached to each end in a loop. then seed and roll it with a water filled roller. If its hot there and no shade then cover with a layer of straw, and water.

 

[NYTrainer]

I'm ready for my autumn core aeration and wanted to "topdress" afterwards. I have two questions:
1. Should I make a "blend" of some sort with sand, peat and compost? (What percentages of each)
2. After throughly mixing, do you think that a 3ph mounted hopper type spreader (at maximum opening) would act as a poor man's topdresser? I don't have one (yet) so I'm not sure what you can pass through one of those things.
Thanks.

 

[Will]

I think that what you'll want to put on depends on what you've got. For instance if you've got decent soil, and just want to improve drainage, sand is great.You'll use a lot of topressing material. For example, if you want to put on 1/8" on 100' x 100' lawn, it'll take about 100 cubic feet of material. That's a lot of stuff to run through a spreader.