Puffy seems to be the word of the month in the Mid-Atlantic region. If you have not vented your greens, you are in the minority. With the ridiculous amounts of rain and how many days where it rains period, everybody keeps saying the same thing. " I need to get some air into the turf!'. To me what is interesting is the high humidity seems to be affecting the new varieties of bent grass even more than in the past from humidity. Obviously, the saturated soil is having an impact.
Many have said they have been able to keep green speeds up to reasonable expectations but a few are at the point where if the rain doesn't stop soon it won't be pretty. I have spoken to a few Superintendents who said the already had some "boiled" turf from standing water followed by some high temps. Ugh!
So what can you do? As I said, many are using needle tines as often as possible. If you have not tried a bayonet tine, I would suggest giving that a shot. Many have raised the HOC and what seems to be helping the most is going to a full roller to stop any digging in on soft turf.
I spoke to a turf manager the other day and he said he was using a pitch fork to try and dry out some areas. At this point, whatever works!
WJC
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