Message Board - Natural Turf: Black Frost relieving Compaction?
23 Dec 2009 by korky
Will the present hard frosts do anything to relieve compaction in the top of a rugby pitch?How low will temperatures go if air frost? is -8?how does frost heave happen?
23 Dec 2009 by jontaylor
Korky,
Did you study geography in school. If so you may remember glaciation and frost damage above the ice line. The sharp jaggedy high peaks are largely made pointy by a freeze:thaw cycle. Water gets in to a crack in a rock and when the water freezes it expands, opening the crack a little. When the ice thaws a little more water can get into the wider crack and when that freezes the crack opens wider. Eventually, over thousands of years, a whole slice of rock is broken away by this cycle.
Exactly the same applies to soil. When the water in the soil freezes, it expands. This expansion lifts the soil a little. If the ice thaws, more water can fill the new voids and if that then freezes, a little more lift occurs.
In this prolonged freeze we are only getting one heave. The longer the cold snap, the deeper the ice goes, but what we really need is a series of cold snaps. For best effect, freeze hard for a week, thaw hard for a week and get a bit of gentle rain, then freeze all over again.
The ciderman rolls
23 Dec 2009 by Grassman2011
I only hollow cored my frozen ends yesterday. The frost was only at about 6-8mm.
My guess is that it will take approx a day for the soil to thaw, but much depends on how deep your frost has got and how warm the thaw is.
23 Dec 2009 by Mal
Snow is a good insulator dont forget and if you recieved a good cover of snow and it remained before the freeze set in then the chances are that your ground will have been insulated against a deeper frost (than if you had no snow at all if you see what I mean?) The mear thought of spiking your frozen end 
brings tears to my eyes Bath. 
Geography is everywhere
23 Dec 2009 by Grassman2011
Grass was frost free and green Mal. Soil solid to 6-8mm.
23 Dec 2009 by aturnbull
Thought you might like to see what real frost heave is. Taken in Iceland in March 2009, the Course Manager of Reykjavik GC says it is the best aeration he has.
Best regards
Andy Turnbull
23 Dec 2009 by aturnbull
And another
Andy Turnbull
23 Dec 2009 by aturnbull Last edited 23 Dec 2009
Last one. They just roll it level once the frost has come out of the surface.
Best regards
Andy Turnbull
24 Dec 2009 by Grassman2011
Well if my squares went like that during the winter Andy, definately no need to spike. Hope you are keeping well.
24 Dec 2009 by Ken Barber
Even better results from your aeration practices are created during frost. For example, large aeration holes such as those made by the verti-drain will permit cold air to the bottom of each hole. The moisture in the soil around these holes will freeze and expand, causing an improvment in the surrounding soil structure.
Seasonal greating to Pitchare and all its members.
KB
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under who’s shade you do not expect to sit.
24 Dec 2009 by Grassman2011
Mal, you will be pleased to know, that having read your reply again, i missed the point !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so no tears please.
24 Dec 2009 by Mal
Sorry, my wierd sense of humour lol
Geography is everywhere
24 Dec 2009 by korky
Thanks folks,
As always great advise from Pitchcare subscribers. Wishing all a happy,healthy and safe Christmas.
Jim
24 Dec 2009 by Gateshead Cleveland Hall
Gents I,m confused!!!
Before the snow and frost came we had one of our pitches really churned up after a game. We have left it for a couple of weeks but I need to do something before Jan.3rd. to get rid of the bumps etc. caused by the mud.
I was thinking of dragmatting or solid tining down to about 3" when there was still a little snow on the surface.
Any thoughts?
Bob
24 Dec 2009 by Grassman2011
You will probably make a mess of your dragmat. If your aerator has a roller attached then spike, otherwise i fear it is one of those occasions that you give the surface a light rolling. Next time the pitch is that wet cancel the game. If you continually roll the surface your problem will only get worse. Spiking the pitch after every roll might help, but as i say, if the pitch gets that torn up it is far to wet to play.
24 Dec 2009 by Mal
Hi Gateshead, the trouble with this time of year with the low air and ground temperatures the grass does not grow and when it doesn't grow it is not re-generating. So when a pitch gets trashed you have to live with the consequences for the remainder of the season untill the spring rennovation period. As Bath points out if you roll your surface it will only get worse. I would drag mat and spike what surface you have, but with a trashed surface it will only look bad again very quickly into the game with little or nothing to hold the surface together. Not to mention the extrsa difficulties of trying to mark out on mud. You will invevitably pick up a lot of trash on a roller too. Of course you will be limited to drag matting and spiking on days when the surface is relatively dry to avoid making a lot of mess. Looking after your pitch early in the season and making a sometimes difficult call to call a game off, will be the difference in having to call of a lot more games off further down the line.
Geography is everywhere
24 Dec 2009 by Gateshead Cleveland Hall
Thanks for the comments boys.
We have training on our pitches all thro the summer and sometimes 3 games on a pitches on a Sunday so having reached December without having to cancel any games is we think quite remarkable.
A great deal of work is carried out during the spring,deep aeration, addition of sand/top soil and of course re-seeding,alongside a regular programme of spiking,brushing etc.
1 Jan 2010 by Jim Henderson
Gateshead we stop playing in March/April, at which time we feed/aerate/top dress. We do not allow anyone to play on them until September other than with trainers. We used to cut the grass short but now leave it longer and have drastically reduced usage of the pitches.
It has proved cost effective in terms of repairs as we used to let a lot of pitches but when you weigh up income/expenditure to repair/usage it doesn't add up.
We now can play when no one else can at Club level and can demand a price for one off games. The youth level train on the "dead ball" areas so its not a case of forbidding access, its just careful use of our most valueable asset.
We are also based in Scotland not the best for weather either.
3 Jan 2010 by Gateshead Cleveland Hall
Jim we have 26 junior sides who need to train and play all year round on 4 grass mini soccer pitches, 2*11 a side and 1 1/2 size 3rd. gen which is under 5" snow. All of the 12 11 a side teams start back this coming week and will need somewhere to train.
It,s tough at the top of the pile but a hell of a lot tougher at the bottom.
Could be a difficult week!!!
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