| What
you're going to do Aerate to reduce
soil compaction by punching small holes in the turf.
Why
you do this
This allows air and
water to reach the roots to maintain healthy turf.
The holes will be filled with the topdressing, seed, and fertilizer in
following steps.
This is one of the best things you can do to improve your turf.
How you do this
It is best to run
an aerator in an X patter across your turf.
Here you see two players
aerating their high school infield. It takes about 30 minutes to do this
in one direction. So if you can get two players and two aerators, you
can do the X pattern in 30 minutes. A high school size outfield will take
2-3 hours to aerate.
Tips & Hints
- There are several
kinds of aeration methods. The two most common are solid tine and hollow
tine.
I prefer the walk-behind machines that mechanically drive the tines
into the ground. This approach provides a more even distribution of
aeration and allows the depth of the tines to remain constant.
You want to
see cores of dirt left all over your field. Younger players who've never
seen this before think cats went poop on their field. I bet you can
get a few good laughs by pretending to go along with them.
Check
here for info about machines to aerate your field.
- Let the cores dry
out for a bit. They will crumble up when the field is dragged in later
steps. This is a good time to edge the field if you planned to do that.
- Allow the plugs
to dry, but do not remove.
Mistakes to avoid
Aerating lets air
in and moisture out. If you're going to aerate on a hot day, be sure to
run the sprinklers earlier in the day and be prepared to run them mid
day to keep the grass from drying out. I aerated once in August on a 95
degree day.
It's surprising how fast the grass dries out. You're trying to improve
it, not kill it. Be careful. |
