3/10/2017 - By Dr. Raymond Snyder

Aerification season is fast approaching much of the U.S. turf industry.  Each year at this time turf managers begin unleashing their favorite coring equipment to help alleviate compaction, reduce organic matter, and promote oxygen infiltration into the root-zone.  Aerification is also a great way to “wake up” turf and promote an optimum environment for root development.

Aerification also provides a unique opportunity to amend the root zone due to abundance of unobstructed openings created by coring equipment.  The opportunity to improve the less attractive features of sand based rootzones, such as low CEC and poor nutrient content, should be fully exploited by turf managers at aerification.  Amendments which can be utilized at aerification include:

1. Polyon 0-0-50 - Designed to provide predictable and consistent controlled release K for up to 12+ weeks.  Utilize Polygraph to easily determine lb K/week desired and overall longevity.  Polyon 0-0-50 also reduces aerification recovery time.
2. MaXand – Designed to increase soil CEC, improve nutrient and water utilization, and facilitate recovery from aerification.
3. Verde-Cal – Improves soil available Ca and balances base saturation percentages.
4. Other products-Elemental sulfur (reduce soil pH), granular minors/ fertility packages, or granular pesticides (see labels).

Finally, recovery from aerification can be enhanced by utilizing beneficial foliar applications.  Utilizing foliar components that contain seaplant extract, phosphorus, and fulvic/humic acids such as EarthMAX can reduce recovery time without promoting undesirable, excessive growth.