Deep drill aeration- Q+A summary is a blog put together off the back of Turfchat community live Q+A we had with EcosolTurfcare Bretton King. Please find below a brief summary about deep drill aeration.
1)There are two types of deep drilling one called deep drill and one drill and fill.Drill and fill only takes place on cricket squares during renovations , as a dry surface is needed to backfill loam.
2)Deep drilling is suitable for the seasonal aeration season of October-end of January.
3)Main reason for deep drilling of any kind is to pin together root breaks, that would possible lifting during by other forms of aeration.
4)Another reason to deep drill is gas exchange within the soil profile, as all plants inc grass require oxygen and the removal of carbon dioxide to flourish .
5)Deep drilling is also a excellent way of breaking through compaction pans/layers, which other machines may struggle to impact .
6)Deep drill channels also provide a perfect route for roots, to encourage deeper rooting and encourage more root mass.
7)Drill diameters are 12- 25 mm in diameter, for a cricket squares.Bigger drill diameters are used on sandy rootzones .
8)There are a variety of drill diameters though for differing jobs and EcosolTurfcare make the drill bits themselves to suit the purpose .
9)Deep drilling done in autumn will create surface debris (loam/soil) which can be swept into the sward. The longer they hold stay open the better.
10)Deep drilling and drill and fill is also used on other sports surface with great success.
11)Deep drilling will drill to a depth of 18 inches.
12)The drill and fill will go in to a depth of 12 inches.
13)Deep drill holes can be left open and soil conditioners such as humic and fulvic products can be applied to take advantage of the holes and easier infiltration of them.
14)Deep drill aeration can be a good tool for new squares, if done once or twice over a two year period. This can help build root mass and then the square will be more resilient to withstanding the use of solid tine type machines.
15)The cost of deep drilling is often more expensive than solid tine techniques due to the slower speed of the operation, but not massively.
16)Newly constructed squares can easily form a root break between the imported loam and the native soil.Deep drilling represents a great opportunity to prevent that.
17)Deep drilling new squares once or twice will assist the roots down into the native soil, more important on shallow constructions.
18)Typically it takes 3/4 hours to deep drill a cricket square, speed of operations depending on how hard the soil is.
19)Deep drilling aeration can start as soon as the grass cover has thickened up after renovations, which is usually into October.
20)A good canopy of grass is required to ensure no wheel marks are created, although machines have very low impact on the surface at only 7psi.
21)The key is to identify what form of aeration you need, is to determine the problem and where it is located in the soil profile-root break, inadequate root mass, hard pan, soil break etc?
Top Tip-Diagnose the problem if there is one and then select the appropriate machine .
Summary of the above questions answered by Bretton King from ecosolTurfcare
We hope you enjoyed the blog and if you have any questions, please leave them in the below comments box.
Brian
2 comments
Something to think about when trying to disrupt long formed root breaks
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