With aeration happening differently for everyone this season, Wiedenmann UK and its dealers are ready to help as and when they can.
Having come through one of the wettest starts to the year and then only benefiting from a short period of dry weather prior to lock down, plans and flexibility have been turned upside down. Some turf professionals will have completed aeration prior to restrictions but reduced staff numbers and guidelines will have forced others to postpone.
‘Little and often’ still seems to be the preferred choice of aeration programme, but how little is little and how often is often? Wiedenmann UK offers a huge variety of tine option to accommodate the “little” including 5 mm, 8 mm, 10 mm, 12 mm, 16 mm, 20 mm and 25 mm solid tines.
The narrower you go with tine diameter and length, obviously, the less invasive the procedure. On golf greens many course managers report they can just about get away without the need for a follow on cut when they use an 8mm tine down to depths of around 15 mm. In days ahead, with possibly fewer staff available, these might be necessary trade-offs to make best use of resources.
For those wanting to hollow core, and use multi tine heads for finer work the Terra Spikes can be fitted with multi tine holders on up to eight legs, each tine head holding either four needle or coring tines in sizes 6 mm, 8 mm, 11 mm, 12 mm and 17 mm inside diameters.
With regards to how often, if time is not on your side, then the range of belt driven Terra Spikes answers that question. Several models achieve outputs of a hectare of greens’ surfaces with the classic “2 x2” pattern within a normal working day. A fast machine is capable of exploiting even the narrowest window of opportunity, so in prevailing weather the decision to ‘go’ can be taken at the shortest of notice. Indeed, everything about a Terra Spike is geared to encourage frequent use. It brings a host of class leading H&S initiatives, like shock absorbing and anti-vibration mechanisms which keep all actions smooth with the operator safe and in control.
We all know aeration is a vital part of turf maintenance but how do you do it discretely without attracting attention and with minimal disturbance? Set the machine correctly for the soil type and condition in front of you on that day; do not try and force the issue. If the ground will only allow 15 cm deep then set the machine for this, if you set it for 25 cm what won’t go in the ground will bounce into the air, causing surface disruption and potential damage to the machine.
Use “heave” action as your friend rather than be frighten of it; all machines cause a certain amount of heave even shallow pedestrian models. With some machines you can set the heave differently relevant to depths, speed and soil types that are being worked on. A clean pattern and surface will be down to the conditions and how appropriately you have set the machine relevant to want you are trying to achieve.
Terra Spike parts and spares are available via Wiedenmann UK dealers and by courier delivery. Wiedenmann Sales Managers Chas Ayres (07768 704773) and Mike James (07770 730641) will continue to work in line with legislative guidelines.