Turf Nut – posted 09 September 2002 15:17
Someone out there must know the answer to this. I have worked on several courses over time and every one til now has called it aerate. I get to this new course and they call it Aereate(Air-e-ate). Did I miss something along the way? Is aereate an older term? I can’t find Aereate in any dictionary and the only one I find is Aerate. Someone please set this straight and supply me with an educated answer to this please. Thanks!
seed – posted 09 September 2002 17:51
Turf Nut, in the beginning there was aeration, the processes by which air is exchanged between the atmosphere and the soil, including the pores and soil tilth.
Then in 1947 the word AERIFIER was filed for registration as a trademark of West Point Lawn Products, who invented and manufactured a mechanical apparatus under the same name to punch holes in the soil without damaging the turfgrass.
For years, many turf managers talked about “aerfying” as the process of cultivating the turfgrass soil by whatever mechanism, such as coring, spiking, slicing, grooving, etc. And they described devices to do this as “aerifiers.” That wasn’t right, any more than to call all facial tissue, “Kleenex,” and the other manufacturers were had to catch up with other words.
Today the scientists seem stuck on the word “cultivation,” of which there can be “core cultivation,” normally what is referred to as “aerator” or the recent “aireate” that you have come across. For all other methods of cultivation, e.g., “spiking,” people will normally refer to the specific device, e.g., “spiker,” or use a brand name.
“Cultivation” has the utility that it can be attached to whatever apparatus does the job, such as “water injection cultivator.”
I have not previously come across “aereate,” but it is appears to be a new variation for those who prefer not to say “hollow core culitivation” or hollow tining.
Phil