Brushing Greens Cancel The title field is required!

1. David Brudwick

   

   1 posts
   
   12/29/2014 8:12 PM

   Happy holidays everyone! Just wondering if anyone is on a greens brushing program ? If you are how many days a week are you brushing? Have you seen green speed improve, if so are you able to mow at a higher HOC ? What other benefits are you seeing with brushing????? Thanks for your time .....

   
   
   
   
2. Jeffrey Sexton

   

   0 posts
   
   12/30/2014 6:12 AM

   Dave,
   
   We have brushes mounted on our walking greens mowers. We brush at least 3 days per week during the spring and fall. I tend to lay off the brushing during the summer months. I manage bentgrass in the transition zone. The bushing does allow you to mow higher. I have found in southern indiana that if you brush during the summer, anthracnose pressure increases. Our greens tend to be tighter with the brushing and the leaf blades do stand up straighter and are thinner than if you do not brush. If you are on a weekly topdressing program like we are, the burshes tend to keep the sand in the way of your mowers longer. Prepare your mechanic. Hope this helps.
   
   Jeff Sexton
   Evanville CC

   
   
   
   
3. David Brandenburg

   

   3 posts
   
   1/1/2015 8:01 PM

   I had used the brushes right behind the front roller on the Jacobsen Triplexes for years and got away from it when we switched to Toro units and forgot all about it.
   
   When I switched jobs we had groomers on our Jacobsens for a few years before using nothing for about ten years. During this time we would drag greens with a brush or cocoa mat every few weeks and verticut regularly.
   
   This summer I heard Dr. Karl Danneberger from The Ohio State University discussing his research on brushing greens. He is having good luck with faster smoother surfaces with regular brushing and shows how you can raise your height. You can google his research results but he does have another year to do.
   
   It does extend sand wear on the reels and knives but we do raise the brushes up for the first few mowings after topdressing. With three greensmowers we are going to put brushes on two of them for this season.

   
   
   
   
4. Ross Miller

   

   0 posts
   
   1/2/2015 7:01 AM

   David,
   
   We are on a greens brushing program here, very similar to Jeff's. See below for a basic outline of program:
   
   1. Topdress every 7 days (Mondays).
   2. Move sand in to canopy with either a drag brush, hand pull behind tennis court grooming brush, or greens roller (Works great with dry sand in mild weather).
   3. Day after topdress, mow with 'Sand mowers' (Flex 21s) .005 higher than normal cutting height.
   4. Tuesday - Saturday: Walk mow greens with brush kits (JD 220E) --- Tranzformer brush kits only!!!
   5. Sunday: Mow greens w/o brush kits.
   
   Now, we are on pure Alpha Bentgrass greens, and we have not necessarily increased HOC ---- we cut at .095" - .105" with the JD 220E mowers (Granted we are in Michigan, so our weather isn't the extremes that some have to work thru). We do reduce the amount of brushing in the summer as well with 2-3 days/week vs. 4 consecutive days. We also change out the brushes to the least aggressive brush (one of the beauties of the Tranzformer kits). We are on an extremely aggressive grinding schedule, where every 7-10 days of mowing, we are grinding bed knives & reels --- no backlapping. Very fortunate to have 2 equipment managers here that do an exceptional job and take pride in the details.
   
   From this program though, from September to close this year, we did not stimp below 11.4, and only rolled every 10 days or so, and didn't mow those days. I am a firm believer in this program, and am about ready to trash verticutting reels...
   
   Feel free to contact if you need any more information!
   
   Best of wishes for a safe & successful 2015!
   
   Regards,
   
   Ross Miller
   Golf Course Superintendent
   Country Club of Detroit
   419-410-7326 (Mobile)
   rmiller@ccdetroit.org

   
   
   
   
5. David Stout

   

   0 posts
   
   1/5/2015 11:01 AM

   We recently remodeled our brushing program towards the end of summer/early fall. We had been using forward rotating brushes on flex 2100's. When it came time to replace the brushes after almost three years of use, we switched to the greensperfection model (white bristle for warm season grass).
   
   The difference was noticeable right away. The brush being new in and of itself was a good start, but the greensperfection brush was much stiffer than the OEM toro unit. It took a few days on a practice green to find a setting that worked for us, but I do think you could raise heights and still achieve better ball speed and smoothness. I know there had been some controversy with this model of brush, but for us we experienced no issues. Again, setup is crucial and as long as you take your time no issues should arise.
   
   As others mentioned, sand can be an issue, so timing will be critical. When it comes time to replace our fleet of greensmowers, I will opt for reverse rotation. The guys using reverse rotation seem to have a lot less bedknife issues. Good luck!