What are micro receivers for?

Micro sanding of greens is a very common practice that provides important agronomic and playable benefits to the surface.

It achieves important benefits such as more firmness, fewer problems with build up of organic matter o more oxygenation of the soil profile through a good micro-irrigation programme.

Why is a frequent micro-recovery programme important?

Sand is an excellent medium for grass growthThe gas exchange with the atmosphere is excellent, and allows the water circulates freely avoiding waterlogged areas. In large areas such as golf courses, when joining the sand with organic matter the tandem improves as qualities such as nutrient retention, improved firmness and moisture uniformity are added.

Grass is a great fixer of organic matter in the soil, faster than its natural degradation, therefore, and to prevent it from accumulating in excess in the same stratum, micro topdressing is applied. The fine layer of sand provided generates another new area where the organic matter can accumulate by diluting its concentration.

To stimulate their degradation, there are products on the market such as OxyTurf which increases the rate of decomposition. It is based on the sustained application of oxygen over time due to a catalase-type reaction, in addition to the bioactivation of enzymes and microbiota.

What happens if we don't schedule micro-recovery often enough?

Do not carry out frequent light top-ups may not have an immediate negative impact, but in the long term the thatch will accumulate more densely, causing disastrous problems low infiltration and low oxygenation. It will also greatly reduce the firmness of the surface leading to major problems of tyre marks, ball pitting and trampling.

The measurement of agronomic variables such as infiltration, infiltration rate, water depth of thatchThe micro-pruning programme helps us to estimate the evolution of the micro-pruning programme. A well topdressed soil increases its infiltration and the thach will be much less compact and more distributed across the profile.

Measurements of surface mechanical variables such as firmness, speed, rolling or reliability are also affected by micro-precipitation. The tools that allow these variables to be monitored are:

• The clegg hammer or the trufirm for firmness.

• The stimpmeter for speed

• The parrymeter for rolling and kicking reliability.

Not all arenas are suitable.

The selected sands for the fields and also for the topdressing is key. They can be calcareous, feldspathic, siliceous, and rounded or more angular in shape. The use of calcareous sands is not recommended because of their basic reaction and their great buffering capacity which will not allow the pH to be modified downwards.

Regarding its granulometry, sands with D50=230 micrometres are recommended for football pitches and with D50=330 micrometres for greens. In both cases, uniformity values lower than 3.3 are recommended.

At Tiloom we offer accurate sand analysis to help you choose the best sand for your field.

The most important advice on the use of silica sand is that the texture of the sand should resemble as closely as possible the fine fraction of sand that was used for the construction of the green.