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| Protective plant blanket. |
What the "heck" is that? "The heck" is a product called Seed Guard. It is a cover or a turf blanket that manipulates the "local environment" underneath offering protection against the dessication effects of drying winds and provides cooling shade that keeps temperatures more uniform both day and night. It also minimizes moisture loss as a result favoring seed germination and establishment.
Probably the greatest benefit of the blanket is that it keeps both men and machine away. Golfers walk around it and mowers can't mow it. Sweet. You can both chip and put over it. (It probably is less bumpy than trying the same over thin turf.)
The blankets will be moved once a week for inspection and to mow the turf below. It will be several weeks before the blankets are lifted any where from two to six weeks. That is a best guess on my part as my only experience with them are in the spring of the year when temperatures are a lot colder. They will be lifted when I feel the young turf is capable of withstanding traffic.
I did take air temperature readings and as a precaution made a chemical application to prevent Pythium formation when I found the surface temperature 20 degrees above air temperature.
It has been only one week past aerification and I'm detecting the emergence of seedlings in aerification holes. Now we need the weather to cooperate and this plant to establish itself and grow spreading out and filling in all weakened areas.
The seeded "ulcers" should be thought of as the same as a new greens construction. In the "grow in" phase of a new golf course under construction or renovation a green seeded in August is seldom ready for play until June of next year. Heeling takes time.
