In the past week and a half we have been aggressively seeding bare areas in the rough, in fairways, and on greens. The rough was slit seeded with a mixture of rye and Kentucky bluegrass. The greens and fairway areas where slit seeded with 4 different varieties of
bentgrass. The hope is to get germination in these areas to allow them to fill in ... that being said, we may have to do subsequent seeding later this year and/or early next spring to allow these areas to succeed. The picture on the right is of Assistant Bill Meyer running the slit seeder through the bare area left of #18 fairway. The slit seeder makes a series of small rows or "slits" that drop seed directly into the ground. This allows all of the seed to make it into the ground making germination more likely then if applied over the top of the ground itself. The left picture is taken from #12 green with all of the slit marks going in 3 different directions.
Along with slit seeding we have been plugging areas on greens like #13 where we have some weak areas. The reason for plugging instead of seeding is because the areas are larger and will take longer to heal. The picture below is of Tony plugging areas of #13 green. By plugging we hope to get more uniform turf coverage and healing before winter.
