I keep seeing mention of chain harrows cropping up on the message section. What are the uses of these on a fairly well-grassed football pitch? Would a Countax 600 be powerful enough to pull one? Finally, what do they cost?
Thanks for any info.
Re: Countax C600(H?) - No.
Re: Uses etc - appropriate input from suitably qualified members will be forthcoming after the bars close in Harrogate...
Hold on to your hat!
GOGGA
I paid £200 for my 4ft wide one whcih my ransom 213 pulls ok
What do I do? I just cut the grass.
I have a 6' set off e-bay for less than £200.
I pull them with a 2L Diesel Mondeo with no trouble. I can drag them across turf by hand, so if one man-power can do it, however many HP can do it too.
They can perform many purposes from light spreading of worm casts through divot leveling all the way up to more significant soil moving - e.g. spreading mole hills around. With spikes down they can have a kind of scarifying action.
The ciderman rolls
Chain harrows are now preferred to rolling for levelling, they can stand the grass up prior to cutting & to allow better air circulation after being trodden down. Also if you want a stripe for presentation but aren't mowing use the smooth side down. They can also be used for scarifying areas prior to seeding & general grass scarification.
i would advise a short tooth chain harrow as this will have the advantage evening out the surface and leveling footmarks when the surface has been churned up
It will also help to reduce thatch and encourage finer grasses which in turn will improve your drainage.
It is also the environmental way of controlling weeds and helping to prevent disease.
It also helps to reduce thatch which in turn can effect your drainage , and playing surface by slowing the ball speed down and allowing the grass to become shallow rooted.
23 Jan 2009 by juls
My advice would be to stay away from the lighter makes of harrows. I made the mistake of going for a light set that I felt the JD 355 would have no problems pulling, snag with being light they therefore do not penetrate a thick sward very well. I ended up strapping weight to the topside which inevitably came loose after a while.
I personally feel that they are a piece of equipment that is under valued so consequently under used. If you have a limited budget they can provide a cheap alternative for managing the wider expanses.
Ive got a reasobaly heavy one that my triple can pull but Ive stayed away from using it teeth side down on my outfield in the winter cos it looks a bit drastic. I have some yellowish moss that I intend to get sprayed but I was wondering if it might be good to aerate the grass now?
What do I do? I just cut the grass.
Barry, aerate when the conditions are correct. I've not been over to my grounds today but looking around I'd guess that it'll be too wet to aerate the outfields at the moment - fingers crossed for tomorrow.
I always use the harrow teeth down in the winter - it's meant to rip it up a bit, if it doesn't then it's not doing a lot.
Of course there's no bounce, bend your back and put some bloody effort in.
Cheers Jon
Have you any further idea about this yellowish moss that is on the outfield? Probably stupid but Im going to ask anyway, if I harrow the outfield, could it spread the moss further or actually help to get rid of it? I know I have to get it sprayed in macerh butr not sure what I tell the contractor to spray it with
regards
Barry
What do I do? I just cut the grass.
I've not go around to identifying what I've found in my outfield at the moment. If it's a moss then I'll probably spot treat with Fe.
Yes, you stand a risk of spreading whatever it is. But equally, you can end up with a thicker sward which reduces the ingress of moss in the first place.
If it is a moss then you need to find out why it's there then you can look at what is needed to treat it.
Of course there's no bounce, bend your back and put some bloody effort in.
Jon
Excuse my ignornace but how do I find out what it is? As far as how it got there, I presume it is a combination of the wet summer and winter frosts? In the summer I noticed more fairy rings than normal but they went when the winter arrived and then maybe in November the moss arrived
What do I do? I just cut the grass.
Identifying weeds of any kind is a case of trawling through books, websites and seeing if something matches. Quite often I find just posting pictures on here lead to close enough answers to allow treatment to be decided.
Mosses tend to exist for a couple of reasons;
compaction problems, excessively wet, too much shade, too much thatch, low grass coverage.
It's not always straight forward to identify why the moss is there, but if you don't address the reason why then it's just going to keep coming back over and over.
Of course there's no bounce, bend your back and put some bloody effort in.
I might try the posting one, seems enough knowledge on here. Ive not had this problem in the 8 years Ive been looking after the outfield. Must be weather related, done nothing else different.
I suppose the heavy frosts may have had something to do with it because we havent had anything like that down south for many a year.
What do I do? I just cut the grass.
My guess is that it's likely (as you said) due in part to the wet summer that we had. Couple this with compaction in your outfield and any thatch that's present and you've got good growing conditions for moss. I don't believe (though could be wrong) that frosty conditions are good for moss.
Though you've not done anything different, compaction and thatch are cumulative. So it is possible for things to just appear to have suddenly occured but the conditions have been building up for years and just needed the rainfall to make things just right for invasion.
Of course there's no bounce, bend your back and put some bloody effort in.
well we ve had heavy rain here for a couple of days but its due to be dry for a few days this weeks so I was thinking of scarifying withe harrow over the outfield in a couple of days time but dont wont to spread the moss by doing so. To be honest Ive havent used the harrow teeth down on the outfield cos it looked a bit vicious to me when I tried it, I am probably being too cautious
What do I do? I just cut the grass.
Something to think about:
When we scarify our squares (in the autumn) we try to be as vicious as possible. Why should working on the outfield be any different.
It does take some getting used to - the mess that a chain harrow can make. But you'll be amazed at the difference such a simple operation makes to the actual sward come spring time.
Of course there's no bounce, bend your back and put some bloody effort in.
I see the logic but we re-seed the square dont we? Wont be doing that to the outfield but i ll gve it a go when its hopefully a bit drier this week
What do I do? I just cut the grass.
25 Jan 2009 by Christopher Proudfoot
I agree that it is a much under-rated piece of equipment. How many CCs have them rolled up and dis-used behind the groundsman's shed?
I tend to use chain harrows teeth down in April and September. I worry at the time I am being too harsh in April but a week later one wouldn't even know they had been anywhere near the outfield.
Did my outfield today - no, I lie, Tom did. His first driving lesson, harrowing the outfield. Only one skid mark where he got too much trittle on.
The ciderman rolls
25 Jan 2009 by Charles Johnson
Good point Barry, if you scarify the outfield hard you would have to over-seed at 35gsm + rates, so you don't leave bare patches which fill with weeds, moss or poa. That would be very expensive over the whole outfield every year - but perhaps worth an experiment on your worst patch ?
If you are broadcast overseeding without dressing this will be very wasteful of seed compared to machine seeding, and I would wait until I know the ground is going to be ideal for germination - 10C+ and moist unless you can irrigate. And give it 3-4 weeks before you let anyone on it pre-season.
As to your earlier question I would want to treat any moss (with iron or the new weed/moss killer from Scotts - anyone tried this yet ?) before scarifying - you might end up just spreading it around !
Hi Charles
Well theres going to be no money for overseeding but another questiion. If I get it sprayed with moss killer, will grass grow back ok where the moss was? Or will I have to re seed where the moss was? As I said the cost wouuld be a problem.
What do I do? I just cut the grass.
Like most I don't have the budget to overseed the outfield.
Using a chain harrow you're not going to remove enough stuff to need to overseed - it's not designed for that sort of operation.
I've only ever overseeded very small areas of an outfield. I find that any slightly bare areas don't take long to fill with grass just via it's normal spreading process.
The way I think of a chain harrow working is that it is breaking laterals within the sward leading to a thicker sward over time. It's not really the same sort of operation as scarifying as you're not really removing loads of matter from the ground.
Of course there's no bounce, bend your back and put some bloody effort in.
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