Is XGD Like a Fine Wine?

What? You are probably wondering if I am writing this after partaking in a bottle of the grape nectar. Not so fast there, I am referring to the fact that certain wines need aging to bring out their best properties. Some vino’s need as little as 6 months while others may need 20 years.

As our clients know there is always an immediate impact to our subsurface greens drainage process. Once the first heavy precipitation event occurs, and the fairway or greens soils are pushed to field capacity, the fairway or greens drainage systems will empty extremely quickly(usually in less than a half hour), while the rest of the day at the outlet a trickle of water can be observed. Folks, you literally have to be at the outlet near the end of the rain event to observe this. It is at this point, where XGD is most advantageous to the green or fairway. As the quick emptying of the pore space happens, and the gravitational groundwater table is lowered, oxygen is literally sucked in to the soil profile, which is paramount to greens or fairway health, especially during those hot, humid nights in the midst of summer. The greens can breathe again, and so can you as a greens manager.

To get the most bang for the buck for your XGD installation, clubs need to stay as aggressive or become more aggressive with their cultural practices such as topdressing, aerification, dethatching, deep tining etc. I believe our clients get 70% effectiveness of XGD right off the bat, with 100% effectiveness coming in the next 5- 10 years, as the effect of the cultural practices take effect along with worm channels/frost heaving which creates subsurface channels in the greens subsoils to allow the groundwater easier access to our drainage laterals. All of our clients will take that percentage effectiveness right off the get go as it is such a dramatic improvement over what they had previously.

So as that Chianti, Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon ages it just gets tastier and tastier up to a certain point, just like XGD Systems, which gets more productive with the aging process. Our oldest XGD System has been in the ground 18 years, and is still performing admirably. Please contact us if we might be able to age your greens, like your favourite vino has been aged.

Age finely, Poor Old Dirt & Grass Farmer