Pruning to increase productivity

Trees often add to the ambiance of a golf course. They have often been standing for decades and members oppose efforts to remove them. But their roots can be problematic. They can intrude on the lines of play and absorb nutrients intended for the adjacent turfgrass.

The axiom “You can grow grass or you can grow trees, but not both” is often heard in the turf industry. But superintendents have an effective tool, the Imants RootPruner, to help them maintain healthy turf while at the same time preserving the trees that members revere.

Imants, which is headquartered in the Netherlands, introduced the root pruner that bears its name roughly a decade-and-a-half ago. It was introduced in North America, where it’s distributed by AQUA-AID, a little over five years ago. Mounted on a tractor, the Imants RootPruner cuts roots to 4 inches in diameter to a depth of 10 inches.

Azalea City Golf Course in Mobile, Ala., a busy 18-hole public facility owned by the City of Mobile supporting 45,000 rounds annually, has been plagued by root issues since Hurricane Frederic obliterated its tree lines in 1979. What the storm took out, the city replaced with pine trees; considerably more than were necessary as it turned out. Earlier this year, superintendent Brian Aaron approached Jeff Pilcher of St. John’s Turf Care in St. Augustine, Fla., about the Imants RootPruner.

“We had the contractor come in and go around between the fairway and the tree line and make one pass on each hole,” Aaron says. “They didn’t do anything for the roots from where they pruned back to the tree, but from the point they pruned back out to the fairway, it eliminated most of those roots plus it greatly impacted the turf. It made it a lot a lot healthier.”

The process took a day-and-a-half with minimal cleanup required. Pilcher says dealing with root issues has a profound impact on turf health. “The root is the bully on the farm so to speak,” he says. “He takes what [nutrients] he wants and then leaves what’s left for the turfgrass. If we can eliminate that surface root stealing from the turfgrass … It really doesn’t affect the tree at all because it’s got way more deeper roots feeding it.”

Aaron says facilities that choose to invest in the RootPruner might trim their roots as many as three times a year while those who choose to outsource the job might bring in a contractor every other year or every third year because of cost issues.

Pilcher says he works with superintendents who have excess roots removed annually. He recommends that whatever the interval, it’s best to follow a slightly different line with each pass.

“They’ll see a massive change if they come back the next year and don’t run it in exactly the same lines and run it maybe 20 feet in one direction or the other,” he says. “You’re going to cut some different roots that may not have gotten affected the first time.

“Maybe you do it twice a year, maybe with a 20-foot difference, or 30-foot difference, or 50-foot, or whatever. You’re going to have a greater effect in each spot.”

Rick Woelfel is a Philadelphia-based writer and frequent GCI contributor.