Message Board - Natural Turf: Airation frequency
12 Mar 2004 by Mickey - R
Airation frequency
Hi,
I maintain a football pitch for a local amatetur club. I use a sisis outfield auto slitter for airation on a once/twice weekly basis, depending on conditons. Is it possible to airate too much, also what are the pros & cons of verticutting v cylinder cutting during the season (I have a Dennis cassette system mower at my disposal ) 
12 Mar 2004 by Chris Parry
Aeration
It is possible to use your slitter too much. Which can cause problems such as the surface breaking up because of the knife action into the soil surface slicing through your grass root structure.
Personally I dont like the slitter, I prefer to use a solid tine aerator. But unfortunately this is all I have where I am. so I use it when I have had quite a few games in a short period when I have frequently been using the Dennis mower or trailed roller on the surface to which it can get a little compact and rainfall is forecasted. This helps in surface drainage.
Vert-cutting is excellent for leaf pruning to encourage a tighter grass sward, also for thinning out the grass sward of the annual meadow grasses. Use in conjunction of each other. Perhaps v-cut once/twice a week as well as cylinder cut. V-cutting also helps to clean the surface up after matches (as does the brush).
12 Mar 2004 by Anthony Asquith
aeration
like chris said you can aerate too frequently to the point where you can disrupt your levels.also presumably you have indeginous soil which will probably be a soil or clay profile on which using the slitter on heavier soils could cause cracking if done in the wrong conditions or the slits opening up impairing your pitch.i am head groundsman at a tennis facility and i wouldn`t take it onto my courts in my experience.i also possess a dennis ft with interchangeable cassets and it`s a fantastic bit of kit.i start verticutting around aprill making sure that i have a dense coverage of disireable species if by any chance your cover is weak leave this operation out untill coverage is improved and i verticutt about once/twice a week as chris says removing dead and decaying matter and allowing the surface to breath and removing coarser grasses and stoloniferous growth.this has greatly improved my playing characteristics.i then stop or greatly reduce my verticutting during periods of heavy play as i don`t want to encourage any more stress as i cannot aerate during the playing season.during times of stress ie during hot weather leave this operation out as players will kick a certain percentage of debris during the season which will be collected when cutting.good luck
19 Mar 2004 by Mickey R
Aeration frequency
Thank you Chris and Anthony for your helpful advice. I must say that since starting my aeration regime, I perceive an improvement in the pitch's drainage and recovery performance.
15 Apr 2004 by John
Aeration
Few questions...how often should you aerate a soccer pitch?
How much would you pay for a suitable machine?
Any used machines ever come up?
22 Apr 2004 by Mickey R
Aeration
John,
A lot depends on the condition of your pitch and its make up I have aerated on a weekly basis over the last season with good results, method of aeration is also important. Read the magazine articles on this site(football,consultant) which are very informative and check out the used machinery section
26 Apr 2004 by John
Aeration
Many thanks Mickey, sorry for not getting back sooner.
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