Christopher Thuer, CGCS said: Awesome machine.
We got tens, fours, and the needle tine holders with ours about 12 years ago.
The needle tines broke too easily if we tried to start and stop on the clay collars so they are collecting dust. We like to get into the collars to help with LDS.
We used the tens with 1/4 inch solids for a few years. Made quick work of the monthly venting, about 5.5 to 6 hours to do 20 greens. We could not go very deep though as the tighter spacing would try to lift the sod, even with the turf guards.
After several years we needed to increase depth to get through a compacted layer just below tine depth, on sand greens, so we have since been using the 4 tine set up and going full depth. The drawback is due to the slower ground speed for spacing, it takes about 8 hours to do all greens. We now do the front 9 and practice greens the first day and the back 9 the second.
Now that we have been deep tining the last 3 Aprils, busting through the compacted layer and helping grow deeper roots, we are considering going back to the tens to help with staying ahead of play.
Chris how many acres of greens do you have? Trying to get a feel for the speed of the 648. We have the old Toro aerator before the 648, and we average 1/2 hour per green during core aerification.
We do deep tining / venting with a vertidrain, which we share among 3 courses. I'm wondering if we could get the 648 for core aeration and venting, using the deep tine one month, the 648 the next month.
Question for all. How often do you all vent? We currently shoot for once a month in May, June, July, and August, September is a maybe depending on golf schedules and when we do our fall core aeration.
Thanks!
Mel