This is the putting green we will be de-thatching. It is being cut with a Toro 1000.
Best Turf West's Vice-President Suzanne Davis Getting Ready To Do Some Mowing
The operator is mowing and de-thatching the green in one operation. The mower is set in the high clip rate and the de-thatcher is in the reverse direction
This is a close up of the green being de-thatched. The picture is a penny size area of grass taken with a macro setting on the camera. Notice the quality of cut of this green, the dead leaf material and leaf deification from the poor quality of cut. It is also very easy to see the lateral growth which will help hold moisture at the surface.
This picture is to show how small of an area the close up pictures are taken of.
A standard practice of topdressing to deal with thatch just compounds the problem. When amounts of sand as this is present most mowers will dull in a few holes and the quality of cut will diminish.
Here we have de-thatched in one direction. This green is in poor shape with the lateral growth, poor quality of cut and dead leaf material, so we will de-thatch in two directions.
Here we have de-thatched in two directions. It is easy to see the excessive lateral growth in this green even after de-thatching in two directions.
This is the material taken out of green. Look at the long blades of grass and how high the crown of the planet is on some of the grass removed. Also note the amount of dead leaf material removed..
Many grass catchers full of material removed from the green.
Many grass catchers full of material removed from the green.
One more picture to give one the since of how much material was removed from this green. The Baroness is the only mower in the industry that can do this in one operation.