Backtrack Verti-Groom, Mow And Topdress

 With the forecast for much warmer than normal temperatures for at least the next ten days , we decided to perform a "verti-groom" process on our greens on January 9. We used a John Deere 2500 with the John Deere vertical mowing units equipped with the standard (not carbide-tipped) blades. Due to time restraints, we only went in one direction - but you will see in the video that we "backtracked" each pass, meaning we made a pass and then turned around and went in the opposite direction on the same pass again. This is very important in this process to ensure you maximize your effect on existing grain. We set the blades to go 1/16" below roller line.

After the verti-groom, we mowed the greens with our Greens Perfection, LLC brushes on. The brushes help further lift some of the stolons that were partially lifted by the verti-groom process so they will be better removed by the mower.

 Next we topdressed the greens lightly with our #65 sand, using old rotary fertilizer spreaders in the wide-open position, followed by two turns of the irrigation heads to settle the sand into the greens' canopy.

 Here is a close-up of the final results. The verti-groom lines are barely visible.

 Here is a small sample of some of the material we are purposefully removing. These are long stems and stolons that contribute to poor ball roll, grain and thatch development.

 This last photo is a cartload of material straight out of the vertical mower collection buckets. We filled this cart twice, and then mowed nearly as much material off with the mowers.  All-in-all, a very productive day!

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