Travels with Terry: Equipment Ideas

Sink drain soil profiler
Jim Phelps, superintendent at the Gateway Golf and Country Club in Fort Myers, Fla., has excellent Tifeagle Bermudagrass greens that are very tight to get a standard soil probe to penetrate through the surface – and a wedge-shape soil profiler produces too large of a soil sample. Phelps conceived a unique soil probe profiler made out of a 1 ¼” diameter x 12” long chromed sink drain extension pipe, with an 1” diameter x 16” long wooden dowel placed inside, that effectively pushes the soil sample plug through the end of the pipe. This nice size plug provides viewing of the soil, thatch, organic matter and turf canopy much better and it is much easier to replace the plug than when using a standard-size soil probe. An added bonus is the end of the pipe is like a knife blade and it penetrates the dense turf canopy producing a clean, sharp hole. The materials cost about $10 and there was no real labor involved.

Higher and higher