5 Mar 2010 by Skippy
Hello all.
New member.
Our club play on a council ground and the club has taken over the preperation of the square/wickets over the last 2 years.
The council has offered to verticut the square for us before the start of the season. From my reading I see this is to help with thatch removal.
I am just looking for some information if this is ok to do before the start of the season and if there is any specific dangers I need to be aware of or to inform the council?
The council has previously done this on the local golf greens but never on the cricket square.
Any advice greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Hi Skippy.
Nice of them to offer, but personally I feel that aggressive scarification or verticutting should be avoided this close to the season start. This work would ideally be done at the end of the season during post season renovations.
A non-invasive light scarification BEFORE pre-season rolling to remove surface thatch is acceptable IMHP.
The problem is that once pre-season rolling is commenced, anything that tears into the compacted surface is undoing any consolidation work you are undertaking and trying to achieve - wasting you and your teams time and money, fuel etc. It also affects the way the pitch plays and performs.
What kind of condition is the square in? Do you have specific problems that need addressing? There are alternative ways to deal with these issues.
Applying a Liquid iron treatment (aka Turf Hardener) at the appropriate conc. will help kill off any moss (which seems to have loved the conditions we've been having!) and green up the turf grasses, strengthening the turf grasses against disease attack. Once the moss is dead, then a light verticut, or a vertigroom, or even a well managed powerbrush will help pull out the moss and weak growth, as well as the horizontal and stolonic growths that are present in the sward.
If you find that you do need light scarification or verticutting, make sure that you or the contractor never verticuts in the direction perpendicular to that of play, and never at 90 deg to direction of the previous pass. This ensures that you are not left with little fissured "blocks" on the soil surface that come the season under ball impact can easily break away from the surface, severely affecting bounce and pace, and leaving the pitch uneven, unsightly, and a nightmare to maintain.
Hope this helps you out, good luck with season ahead mate! Bring on the sunshine!
James
James, I'd suggest that it is common practice to verticut (or rake) a cricket square before the season starts - just as it is throughout the playing season.
Verticutting shouldn't be invasive really - you want to be close to the surface but not actually in it.
I won't be doing mine until temperatures rise a little - tempted though I am.
When I do start I'll be taking the lawnman over the surface a few times - I prefer not to use the verticutter preseason and the lawnman will help get me used to walking up and down the square again :)
Of course there's no bounce, bend your back and put some bloody effort in.
Wait for temps to rise, set the verti cutter so it IS NOT touching the surface, carry this out on a weekly / fortnightly basis
5 Mar 2010 by mario
If I can just add to Neils point "..........throughout the season".
Hope you don't mind, Mr Dixon!
I know no boundaries.
JL - I think we are in fact talking the same language here.
I was just insuring that we were talking about the same process, as I've heard people call verticutting and scarifying by each others names, thats all.
Verti- yes, scari- NO!!!!!
I think a lot of us will scarify and verticut before the start of season, they are after all completely different procedures, as explained in the artical in the magazine last year, verticutting is to remove lateral growth, which is unwanted on a cricket square, scarificatiojn is for removal of thatch, both these procedures could be carried out pre-season depending on what condition the square is in, but it's very important that pre-season both are carried out with blades set just off the surface, JL's idea of going over the square with the lawnman will also remove a lot of rubbish pre-season and will definately ensure you don't get cold.
5 Mar 2010 by Skippy
Hi guys.
Thanks for the info, very handy and has put a couple concerns I had to bed.
I think the main point I will confirm with the council is that the verticut wont tear into the surface. That was my main concern as my guy said about doing this.
We have done a light scarification before the start of the season for the last couple of years and it didn't seem to do any damage.
James - The square is pretty much frozen still! We are to the east of Edinburgh so the ground is pretty solid still. No work done just yet apart from general brushing of the square when have been at the ground.
We've no serious problems really. Before we took over the square I don't think the council had scarified it for about 10 years so our work over the last 2 autumns have concentrated on that. The square was very much sand based and not much clay in it so we have worked on that also.
We have also worked on the moss issue and seem to be on top of that now.
Thanks for the tip on light scarification before rolling. This had been done the other way around but was due to getting access to the machine from the council.
This looks a great site for tips & advice - not sure my wife is too happy I've found it though!
Thanks again all, I'm sure I'll have plenty to ask as time goes on.
Mark
Mark most topics have been covered on here over the years either on the message board or in the magazine, use the search box at the top to find old threads or magazine articles that will give lots of usefull info, but never be affraid to ask as there are lots of experienced people willing to help.
5 Mar 2010 by brboro
do not mark the surface of the table, if you do you run the risk of creating weak spots when you prepare pitches and dry the out, leave the scarifaction until end of season. You can verti cut though to remove any dead plant matter. I normally do this before pre season rolling so you are reducing the amount of dead veg. being pushed into the surface of the table.
brboro
All great advice from everyone, just one other point, you should wait until you have some growth from your sward, scarifying/verticutting without any regeneration can lead to bare areas and ingress of moss and weeds.
The healthier the grass plant is the deeper it will root the better it will help you to dry your pitches to a depth, so remove the dead/dying rubbish from the sward, dont go into the soil and encourage your grass to grow healthily but not to overfeed,water as you dont want to encourage excessive thatch build up.
Anyway, how about that? A council offering to help ;)
Regards
Steve
Don't talk to me about Contractors Wonka, I am one myself......
6 Mar 2010 by Skippy
Cheers Andy. I'll definately look at previous threads for info.
Brboro & Steve, sounds good advice, cheers.
Once you have done the verticuts & starting cutting, do you do any further overseeding at all, in order to help clear any bare spots?
Or is it just better to do all the seeding during the autumn renovation?
Steve - to be fair, our local council have been great. They supply all of our seed, fertiliser & top dressing that we ask them to order.
They have also put in a water supply to the side of the square so we can water it, when required.
Thirdly, we use their machines, free of charge, for the end of season scarification and they have provided us with several tools to use as & when needed.
AND, because our clubhouse was burnt down a couple of years ago due to arson, the council have not charged us a penny for the use of the ground over the last 2 years!
I think they were happy with the fact that we have taken an interest in the ground and are now assuming responsibility for the square. It's amazing what you can get if you put some effort in. We just hope htis continues once all the cuts come after the election!
lol,
I was being a little ironic Skippy, i work for a local authority and sometimes we get a bad press for what is usually a difficult situation grounds maintenance wise.
We have a partenership relationship with the bowling clubs which has improved things enormously over the last five years, we may be looking at something similar with the cricket and football clubs, but it is two way relationship, too many clubs want everything for nothing and moan if it isnt good, pity they are not prepared to meet the council halfway sometimes.
regards
steve
Don't talk to me about Contractors Wonka, I am one myself......
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