SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/107950
TODD TRIBBLE Athletic Field Superintendent Oklahoma State University Like most athletic fields in the transition zone we are forced to overseed our bermuda stand with perennial ryegrass. We have to stay fairly lean on our nitrogen inputs on our baseball field in mid-September and October when the overseed is somewhat weak and hasn't yet begun to tiller and mature. During this time we supplement once a week with a light foliar application until November. As soon as fall practice is over the first of November we push out a starter application of 18-24-12 at 0.75lbsN/1000. Our other go-to product when the soil temps begin to drop to the upper 50's at a 4" level has always been an IBDU product at 1.5 lbsN/1000. This is a can't-miss product for us here. It is perfect for cool season grasses such as rye as it is slowly soluble and the release is based on moisture availability, not temperature or the activity of microorganisms. Usually we will come back 8 weeks later at 1lbN/1000 of the same product to get us through the end of February when our soil temps are warm enough to use more conventional fertilizer methods such as ammonium sulfate. If I see a 4 or 5 day window of warmish weather for Stillwater during January or February (mid-upper 60's) we will usually go out at light www.stma.org rates (.25-.33lbsN/1000) of a soluble product to give our rye a quick kick of growth and allow for some recovery from the daily practices and games. Unfortunately, after this winter draws to an end we will be forced to find a different slow release source that mimics IBDU as it is more or less unavailable to us now. Beyond the end of February, we use a 13-2-13 at 0.75lb rates to help with repair and color maintenance until early June when the season comes to an end. We know that with fairly low nitrogen rates for that 7-month time frame our team is playing on rye we can keep growth where we need it[DASH HERE]not too lush but still be able mow each day and remove some tissue. We have been fairly fortunate here in Stillwater to not have great winter disease pressure. We do get snowfall each year but in all years but one it has burned off within 4 days or so. In the winter of 2010 we did get 9" of snow and in our right field corner at baseball snow drifts piled up 3+ feet of snow. It took about 2 weeks of good temperatures for this to burn off and we did see some light instances of snow mold. Consequently, I will only spray preventatively for snow mold if we have a storm coming that will blanket us fairly heavily with snow and the 10-day forecast does not allow for melting. In such cases I will use a chemical with a combination of the active ingredients chlorothalonil, propicanozole and fludioxonil before the storm arrives. The practice of topdressing is important for many reasons, including quicker recovery from turf injury/damage, enhanced overseed, thatch decomposition, and smoothing out our playing surfaces. We are always sure that the material we use is of a similar or slightly coarser particle size than our overall rootzone. If you really want to take a sci- SportsTurf 23