19 Aug 2010 by Ryan
Need a little bit of help. I have recently taken over work on our square (although its a council ground but they do no end of season work) out wicket ends are very high can anyone advise on best way to bring ends level ?
Many Thanks
19 Aug 2010 by vid
Welcome to the message board Ryan! The cheap way to reduce the saddles on the wickets is to use a 'ferret' type tool for repairing the ends to make a tilth and seed bed rather than adding new soil anywhere other than in the deepest foot holes. Next cheapest is to hollow core the ends once or twice at the end of each season. Both these will see a gradual reduction over several years, I have done this myself with great effect but it has taken 10 - 12 years!!
If a speedier result is required at a budget cost the ends can have the turf removed in various thicknesses with a good turf cutter, and a smooth seed bed made by repeatedly spiking and scarifying or cultivating the top shallowly with a rotovator or similar. A thin layer of good loam should then be used to fill in discrepancies and cover seed.
The most expensive is to have the square relevelled professionally using a Koro or removing the turf and lasar levelling the whole square before reseeding and top dressing. If addressing the whole square care must be taken not to disturb the consolidated substructure more than absolutely necessary or you may not be able to use the square in the following season and make sure any layering is either removed or left sufficiently deep not to affect the finished surface
19 Aug 2010 by Keith Blake Last edited 19 Aug 2010
Not that i've much experience as a groundsman but i do have experience of your exact predicament.
3-4 years ago we had saddles evident on a length, i'm guessing due to prior rolling upto but no further than the crease and loam repairs to bowlers marks. Our PT groundsman asked the council to address the saddles as part of seasons end renovations, which was duly done. Since that date the pitch has struggled to play well (consistant bounce) and there are 2 noticeable tracks running across the square where seed hasn't taken.
If the council is not willing to Koro and laser level the surface (expensive) then my advice is to accept the saddles for now, hollow tine the ends to de-compact them over and again. You might not see a change (in saddles) for some years but at least you wont have shooters round the ankles or spitting up round the ears.
I'm wondering if any of you professionals de-compact as normal end of season works?
19 Aug 2010 by vid
Thats what I said I think Keith! We have been doing this on several squares and not only is it successful but the grass that grows in the hollow core holes withstands considerably more wear
Carry out as Vid suggests above. In the past i have hollow cored high ends as many as three times out of season.
Forgot to say, i have also had very good results using the Harley power rake.
22 Aug 2010 by pacman75cricket
Was planning this last season but conditions never right, how far forward would you go was thinking 5ft
Back from 5ft mark is a good place to start, if that is where the saddles start.
Conditions are very rarely ideal pacman. I carried out one hollow coreing while the ground was still frozen. A very clean tidy job it was to. Never left a mark.
22 Aug 2010 by Mike
Guys - i'm considering hollowcoring some of our saddles later on in the winter. Can I just ask the question of what size and type of tines you are using - would side discharge tines be too fragile to undertake this on a cricket square?
Mike
22 Aug 2010 by vid
5/8" before Xmas 1/2" after although I use the short 5/8 ones on a GA30 on cricket all the time, side ejectors will work once the profile is wet and decompacted. If the ground is hard lower down the tines can still snap, but any partially soaked soil that is still hard and compacted will block all tines and I wouldnt recommend tines longer than 75mm as these cannot cope with the clay content and again will block. Make sure they are clean and internally smooth and not worn to the point where there is little or no taper left
Slightly disagree with that Vid.
I use 1/2" side discharge @ 3" centres and always aim to get as deep as possible. Never had one break yet. Ask JL, hollow tined his whole square last Sept before we carried out the renovations. Achieved maximum depth as well.
In my opinion, side discharge are less likely to block Mike than the top discharge. Especially slightly damp clay loam.
Unless your squares have been properly constructed, it is unlikely that you will have 4"+ of clay loam. Now damp silty indigenous soil can help to block hollow tines, so as vid says, make sure that the tines are clean and shiney.
22 Aug 2010 by vid
I bow to superior practical knowledge rather than my second hand knowledge Gordon - I think the GA30 I use however can be pretty severe on these side ejectors due to the extra weight and operating speed. However I used the side ejectors on bowling greens - never on cricket so I am being guided by other peoples experience not my own - also I think the GA30 side ejectors are the standard 3 3/4" length. I always err on the cautious side as I dont fancy trying to find the broken tine and digging it out!!
Cheers
22 Aug 2010 by Mike
Thank you guys. I can see that this one is going to be fun... but I have to do something to address them.
We will be using a Groundsman 8120 to undertake the work. We have twin holders fitted with 3" centres. We don't have any suitable hollow tines at the moment, so will be ordering new tines - hence the question as to which are the most suitable. I can do some dummy runs on the outfields to put a shine on the tines before introducing them to the square.
The squares weren't constructed, but there has been serious over application of loam to the ends over many years, including a layering problem due to repairing ends at the end of the season with kaloam and then dressing over them with kettering loam - my hope is that the hollowcoring will help with this as well as reducing the saddles. The body of the square's are between 2 - 3 inches deep with loam depending on which square and the particular areas of one of the squares. Where the saddles are, there is much more than 4" of loam due to the nature of previous renovations.
Mike
hollow core the ends a couple of times during the winter Mike. Soil will be plenty moist enough and the new grass may well have developed enough root to help hold it together. If it falls apart then i suggest you purchase the turf retainer kit that is available for he 8120.
By the way, same machine as i use and you can vary the depth, hence using the same tines.
I would still go with side discharge.
23 Aug 2010 by Mike
Thanks Bath. Will be purchasing a turf retainer shortly with a bit of luck, along with the tines (side discharge it is). We have been repairing the ends all through the season as there had been problems during previous years renovations as 'plates' of loam were being lifted out (poor root growth and layering due to the kettering loam). I figured that if we repaired the ends as wickets came out of use, and forked the ends as the grass established, along with a feeding regimn to promote root growth, we would have sufficient root to ensure that no 'plates' of loam would lift out during aeration... will soon find out if it has worked or not!
Might have to tap you up for a bit more advice as we near the time to undertake this one.
Cheers,
Mike
23 Aug 2010 by A J
Talking of retainer kits, does anybody know if they do one for a verti-drain 7110 ? Was going to inquire at saltex.
Cheers.
Grow in grace...........
I can confirm that Gordon's machine had no problems with the side discharge - all the cores came out cleanly.
Of course there's no bounce, bend your back and put some bloody effort in.
Mike
RE polishing tines on outfield - is the outfield stone free? I hollow tined parts of my outfield last winter - mainly to try to level the mole runs. I bent several tines on stones. (You can hammer them straight again two or three times). You wouldn't want to bend the tines before you even got to the square.
Interestingly, no moles this year - yet.....
The ciderman rolls
23 Aug 2010 by trubs
They're down here holidaying on the Essex Coast Jon. Have had 3 or 4 for the past couple of weeks. Which is surprising cos the Ground's still rock hard.
Yes but it has rained and there food scource is rising to the surface again.
23 Aug 2010 by paul.
Up late Bath,Very Mole like!
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