T
he fall season is the most ideal time for cool sea-
son field cultivation and overseeding. Consistent
rainfall and cool night temperatures help existing
cool season grasses recover quickly, while higher soil
temperatures created from the summer heat make
an ideal time to get quick germination and growth on seed.
However, fall is also one of the most high traffic times of the
year on many cool season fields. To avoid having to close fields
completely, grass field managers are challenged to be creative and
pro-active on fall field maintenance practices to meet the demands.
Let's re-examine some cultivation and overseeding approaches.
CulTivaTion
Fall is a wonderful time for cool season turfgrass to recover
from summer stress and grow roots for fall and winter play. But
black layer from consistent watering, thatch from clipping and
stressed or dying turfgrass and compacted soils from limited
Field Science
Pro-active solutions
for fall overseeding
16 SportsTurf | December 2014 www.sportsturfonline.com
Editor's note: This article, written by Jerad Minnick (growinggreengrass.net), is reprinted here with his permission as well as
the permission of the Ohio Sports Turf Managers Association, which originally published it in their chapter newsletter.
De-compaction allows for deeper
rooting of existing turfgrass, allows
better irrigation and rainfall infiltration...
Image
©Istockphoto.com/NIkada
