Message Board - Not Turf Related: Pitch maintenance.
23 Feb 2010 by Diggerman Last edited 23 Feb 2010
I have recently taken over as groundsman at a secondary school that is in the process of being converted into one of these new 'academies.' I am a bit of a novice on the decision making side of how and when is best to do things with regards to football and rugby pitches.
The two existing football pitches, and one rugby pitch were in a terrible state when i arrived, and although i have done what i can, the lack of machinery and equipment has been a serious problem all through autumn and winter, meaning a lot of the work was done by hand.
I recently rolled both football pitches, although it was against my better judgement, i had to do something to keep them playable. They are used at least 3 times a week, and have suffered from birds, deer, rabbits and moles wreaking havoc on them as well as the weather.
I now have a budget to operate from, and machinery on order, but it leaves me with the question.....
Do i write the pitches off this season and start treatment in the closed season, or is there any treatment that anyone can reccomend to me that i might ressurect these pitches before the end of the season?
I plan to rotate both football pitches 90 degrees in the summer anyway.
24 Feb 2010 by wicketdevil
If you can spike them i would especially as you have rolled them this will help with water/air exchange especially with this wet weather. Id leave reseeding etc until the end of season. Best of luck. Ian
Can you just is the longest sentence in the world !!!!!!!
24 Feb 2010 by Mal
Hi Diggerman, Basically in your situation you can never write them off for the rest of the season as it sounds as though you are still having to get games on so for now your are in a care taking situation i.e. there is nothing you can do to get graass to grow in a part of the year where growth has slowed so you are limited to ensuring that the soilto the best of your abilities is free draining and to nurture what grass cover you have through the rest of your season. I can't imagine that any one will expect you to create miracles so soon after taking over in such a situation but you will need to have a clear plan in place for your end of season rennovations. Effectively what you manage to achieve during the coming growing season will determine how well your pitches play during the closed season, given the correct seasonal maintenance. In a academy situation it is a very good idea to have the ability to move your pitches around so that you can rest areas to ensure that they do not become stressed and I am glad that you are thinking along those lines (Portable goals help in such situations). As wicket devil suggests keep them airated as much as possible but carry out the work when the conditions allow without causing the grass to be pushed down into the soil. Basically brushing, surface spiking interspersed with some deeper spiking will help to get you through. If your grass is looking stressed then you may think about an application of some seaweed or turf tonic. This won't help the grass to fill in those bare areas but will help what grass you have to withstand and survive the stresses that high use and the winter causes. If you have had a soil analysis completed recently than you may be able to apply a light fertiliser application in line with your results ( we are after all coming into March and something like a low nitrogen 3:10:10) this may help but apply only in the right coditions and choose an alalysis sugested by a recent soil test. Any thing else, have a look at the football diaries for some more information.
Hope this helps
Geography is everywhere
24 Feb 2010 by Diggerman
Thanks Wicketdevil and Mal. I have a spiker coming in on friday. Very helpful these local farmers! The soil itself is pretty well drained, as its only 8-10 inches of soil on chalk downland. Think Salisbury plain. I have purcased a soil analysis kit today that i will be using tomorrow, and will then consider fertilising based on those results. Cheers for the advice guys, will keep you posted!
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