On Monday of last week, Mr. Glenn Black, inventor of Air2G2, and Jeff Kadlec (GLK Turf Solutions) performed a demonstration of the Air2G2 on Toyota Stadium in Frisco, TX. Toyota Stadium, home of FC Dallas (MLS) is one of the most high traffic professional grass fields in the USA. The field plays host to 3 Frisco High School football games each week, 3 concerts a year, the NCAA Division 2 National Championships, and several other high profile events. Mr. Allen Reed, CSFM, is the Sports Field Manager for the stadium. Allen wrote a guest piece for Growing Green Grass in 2013. “How Our Grass Field Takes More”

Air2G2 has gained exciting attention over the last year. The concept of pushing high-pressure air into the soil to fracture it to allow plant roots to breath certainly makes sense.

Mr. Reed is currently aerating the high traffic areas on the field 1-3x/ week. (Yes.. you read that correctly. 1-3x/ week). Now that’s aggressive aeration! The results are evident too, nearly through high school football season the field is still magnificent.  With such aggressive aeration being administered to the field, the expectation could have been that the Air2G2 machine would not make a significant impact.  But not so!  Even on sidelines that had been knife tined on 2″x 2″ spacing only 30 minutes before the Air2G2, the high-pressure air forced up through the sand still made a visible impact.

More about the machine:
Mr. Black shared the background on the idea for the machine very passionately. If you get a chance to talk with him, do so. He is a positive, solutions based man that made the Air2G2 his life’s work. Here is a video that Turf Republic produced on the machine following the Tennessee Turfgrass Field Day last month:

Depth:
The Air2G2 has 2 options on probe depth: 5” and 9” probes. There are 3 probes that can cover an area up to 5’ wide. The machine inserts the probes into the soil until they meet their first level of resistance.  At that resistance, usually around 4”, the first blast of air is released. The probes, having softened the ground with the initial blast, then push down to the full depth where a 2^nd blast of high pressure air is made.

Operation:
The Air2G2 machine is built with easy of operation in mind. Pressure is simply set for the pneumatic cylinders to push the probes into the soil. Pressure can be set equally as simple for the amount of air pressure to be pushed into the soil. An air tank on the base of the machine stores air to reduce the workload on the air compressor and the quiet 19-hp Koehler engine. The machine is very simple and comfortable to operate.

Results:
Using a pentrometer, we were able to register a percentage of additional de-compaction on the field from the machine. There is scientific quantitative data becoming available from University of Tennessee on the compaction and surface hardness reduction. The results were somewhat obviously though from being able to witness the visible rising of the entire sand profile when the air was released 9” down. Amazing!

Conclusion:
The Air2G2 is a well-built machine using a fascinating concept of using high pressure air to de-compact or “air-ate” soil. This machine is sometimes being compared to the old Toro Hydroject, but overall it is nothing like that. The Hydroject was forcing high-pressure water into the profile, but only at the top. The Air2G2 de-compacts from the bottom up. Air2G2 is simple to operate and to maintain, with probes lasting for up to 15 acres. Yes, using the machine is a slow process, taking 6-8 hours to do a field. But really any good aeration takes time. The benefit far outweighs the time. If you get a chance to see a machine, take that opportunity!