April Cricket Diary 2011

After a winter of snow, rain and freezing temperatures it is surprising how quickly the weather can change and influence ground conditions. With spring on its way and summer just around the corner, soil temperatures will soon begin to rise, stimulating some much needed growth.

This is the busiest period for groundsmen. With pitch preparation and outfields to maintain, time management is vitally important. I know many of you will be under pressure to get your facilities up to speed now with probably less than a fortnight left before your first game. You will soon catch up once the weather improves. Planning your workload to meet your objectives will help in this task. Squares that are lying wet are best left alone until they dry out enough to get on without smearing the soil.

You will do more damage trying to work on the square in these conditions. Rolling in wet conditions will not achieve any consolidation. It is best to be patient and wait for favourable ground conditions. Lest the haste, the more the pace.

Diary compiled by Robert Stretton
Massey Ferguson Sports Club
Coventry

April is a very busy month and often a very stressful time for cricket Groundsmen. In most cases there are only a couple of weeks to complete all the preparation work before the first match, often starting in the third week of April.

However, with the evenings not getting dark until around 8.00pm this does allow additional time to complete necessary works. If you haven't managed to retain your corners to the square, the square must be "squared off". By using semi-permanent markings, this operation can be made very simple using the 3, 4, 5 system or templates to produce your right angles.

Set up your square for each pitch to be used and number them. This will be a useful guide when coming to select your programme of pitches. Pitch preparations should be started following the 10-12 day guidelines

Pre-Season Rolling. It is not necessarily about how much rolling you carry out, it is ensuring that the rolling is undertaken during optimum conditions by having enough moisture in the soil profile to allow good consolidation. There are some new guidelines on rolling aimed at both professional and volunteer groundstaff, and are available to download from the Cranfield website at www.cranfield.ac.uk/sas/sst/rolling or from the ECB website at www.ecb.co.uk/rolling

Pre-season rolling involves gradually building up the weight by moving onto the next size of cylinder mower or adding weights to the grass box. The big roller should then be coming out of the shed to really get consolidation right for the start of the season. Ideal rolling conditions would suggest the soil be in a state of plasticity, or "plasticine" like.

Consolidation is your aim and the quality of your pre-season rolling will show when you produce your early season pitches. Pitches are required to be consolidated throughout to a depth of no less than 100mm. This can only be achieved with gradual build up of roller weight, speed, conditions and timing.

The use of covers is extremely helpful in the preparation, the ability to control the drying out of the soil profile is essential in the production of good wickets. However, there is a considerable skill in using covers. Knowing when and how long to keep them on, ideally having access to either flat or raised roll on roll off covers enables you to have greater scope in controlling the needs of your square.

Flat sheet covers are usually used at the start of pitch preparations to control the moisture in the pitch during your early rolling, whilst the raised covers are used primarily for drying out the pitch before play. See Pithcare Magazine; It's a Cover up. July 2009 issue 25

Soil and air temperatures should begin to rise substantially as we move into April, thus stimulating grass growth both on the square and outfields. There will be a need to increase the regularity of cutting to maintain designated cutting height.

The application of spring and summer fertilisers will also increase the vigour and rate of sward growth. You should be able to begin to apply some low Nitrogen based fertilisers. Ideally, get your soils sampled for nutrients, organic matter content and soil pH where possible.

This information will help decide on the appropriate course of action with regard to applying the correct NPK balance for your site. Liquid fertilisers are becoming popular again. Modern products have been refined to act more efficiently, their mode of action allows the active nutrient ingredients to get into the plant tissue more quickly, and thus you tend to see a faster response to plant growth when using these products.

Granular products have to rely on the granule breaking down, becoming mobile in the soil and then taken into the plant via the root system. Aerating the outfield prior to this operation is required but not necessary, but is always good management practice.

Wetting agents can now be applied; this is usually done on a monthly basis. The use of wetting agents will be a good tool for ensuring that any rain has the chance to soak deeper into the soil profile and not simply run off the playing surface.

Also, the Scott's Primo Maxx growth regulator has shown a lot of promise and may be a good product to control plant growth, whilst at the same time reducing the amount of clippings produced and also reducing the amount of water lost through the stomata by respiration.

Always keep an eye open for turf disease. Prevention is always better than a cure. The combination of moist soils and surface moisture on the leaf blade can make the plant susceptible to disease attack.

Many turf grass diseases, such as Fusarium and Red Thread can be active at this time of the year.

Symptoms of Fusarium (Microdochium nival), the most common and damaging disease, are orange/brown patches 2.5-5cm across, increasing in size under suitable conditions as the disease progresses. Active patches have a distinctive 'ginger' appearance when viewed early in the morning. Creamy white mycelium resembling cotton wool can be seen in the centre and towards the outer edge of the patch.

Grass in the active patches is often slimy; once the disease is controlled the scars will remain until there is sufficient grass growth to fill in. Regular brushing in the mornings to remove the dew from the playing surfaces will reduce the likelihood of disease outbreak.

Red Thread is ill-defined bleached grass with Pink mycelium visible in early morning dew. Close inspection will reveal red needle like structures which are attached to the leaf blades. The needles become brittle upon death and are easily detached allowing fragments to spread the disease.

Systemic curatives and protective fungicides such as Chlorothalonil and Iprodione, applied in liquid form with water as a carrier, can be used to control any outbreaks. By mixing two or more products in the same tank can help reduce the potential for disease resistance developing.

Fungicides are selected with different modes of action so that resulting mixture will attack the target disease on two or more fronts. This makes it more difficult for the pathogens to develop resistance to treatments.

Pests: - Worm can be very active at this time of the year so treatments can be carried out, if needed; the use of Carbendazim is the only active ingredient for controlling worms. All personnel should be suitably qualified in the application of chemicals.

The 12 day prep shown below is only a guide; most groundsmen will have their own interpretation of these activities

DAY 1 String out pitch lines to ensure correct width, 10ft; mow out at 8mm. Always double mow (up and down the same line), using an 8 bladed pedestrian cylinder mower for maintaining the square. Test the pitch with a key or knife for moisture. Water the pitch thoroughly in the event that the pitch has dried out through pre season rolling.

DAY 2 Brush / light rake, mow at 8mm, light roll to consolidate surface levels

DAY 3 Power scarify or verti cut to remove lateral growth and surface thatch avoiding deep surface disturbance. Mow at 7mm. Remove biomass, continue medium light rolling 1000kg for 10-15 minutes.

DAY 4 Test for moisture. Roll pitch increasing to consolidating surface with 1000kg roller if available.

DAY 5 Scarify with hand rake to remove any thatch build up Set and mow at 6mm. Roll.

DAY 6 Light scarify (lawn rake) to lift sward, mow, roll 20-30 minutes.

DAY 7 DAY OFF

DAY 8 Light scarify by hand, mow at 6mm, increase weight of roller to 1500-1700kg, continue rolling 30 minutes reducing speed to consolidate surface. Test for consolidation with key or knife for plasticity.

DAY 9 Continue to mow and rolling at slow speed to achieve consolidation. Cover pitch overnight to encourage moisture to rise to surface.

DAY 10 Brush/rake lifting any lateral grasses, reduce mower (with a shaver blade) to 4mm, try to avoid scalping. Roll using heavy roller slow speed (crawling) morning and again late afternoon where possible. Cover pitch overnight.

DAY 11 Brush and mow pitch, roll morning and afternoon slow as possible (crawling).

DAY 12 Brush, mow and roll to polish surface, test bounce with an old ball along edge of pitch. Continue rolling to consolidate surface. Cover pitch overnight.

DAY 13 Brush, mow and roll to polish up pitch. Your pitch should effectively have take on a straw like colouration, a sign that the preparation has been achieved. String and mark out as in accordance to E.C.B guidelines.

Rolling: The purpose of rolling is to squeeze any remaining air out of the pore spaces and to consolidate the surface up to 100mm. Rolling is best performed when there is sufficient moisture in the pitch before the ground dries out. In the event of drought, syringing is advisable to assist keying the surface and helps polish the pitch.

Outfields

Outfields areas may be looking a bit forlorn and in need of some attention, many may not have been cut during the winter months. Check the outfield for damage before carrying out any maintenance. Repair any surface damage caused by vehicle wheel tracks, pests or vandals. Rabbit damage can be quite severe once they become active looking for food. Rabbit scrapes and holes must be repaired and over seeded. Try and get on and give it a uniformed cut followed by some aeration and feed.

Some cricket outfields are often maintained as winter pitches, so the amount of work required to be carried out may be determined by whether the outfield is being used for other sports (football/rugby). If not, a light harrowing/raking helps restore levels and keep surfaces open. Then aerate to improve surface drainage by form of deep slitting, solid tine by verti-draining or hollow coring.

The core,s when dragbrushed in, create a topdressing for surface levels. Overseed bare areas where budgets allow, and apply balanced fertilisers such as a 9-7-7 as part of your annual maintenance programme to help stimulate growth and recovery.

Aerating the outfield will help to increase aerobic activity and get some much needed oxygen around the grass plants root system. Regular spiking and, if possible, an application of sand dressings to the profile will definitely improve soil water movement in the top 100mm.You may wish to hollow core your outfields and then brush the cores back into the surface (recycling the existing material), this helps to restore levels, reduce thatch and help speed up the surface.

By the end of the month the height of cut for the outfield should be reduced to around 15-18mm. Outfields which have been predominantly overseeded with rye grasses are subject to stress if mown too short. Fescues and smooth stalked meadow grasses are quite tolerant to close mowing and are less likely to be stressed out.