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: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/306114
From the Sidelines Eric Schroder Editorial Director eschroder@specialtyim.com 717-805-4197 V erticutting, also known as dethatching, was a victim of budget cuts and personnel losses over the past few years, according to Glenn Musser, president of TurfTime Equipment in New Holland, PA. "If a manager had to choose between aeration or dethatching the manager would most often choose aeration," Musser said. "Many fields were able to survive a few years without dethatching without seeing significant turf problems. However within the past 2 years those fields were starting to see fungus and insect damage. The accumulated thatch layer prolongs highly humid conditions, which favors diseases. The neglected thatch layer will also cause the grass to develop a shallow root system which makes it less able to survive tough conditions, especially in the heat of summer." Musser said now he's seeing some sports field managers adding back dethatching as part of their management practices. "They realize that aeration without dethatching is not the Best Management Practice. To control diseases and push the turf roots downward, dethatching is a valuable part of the schedule." We exchanged emails with James Bergdoll, CSFM, the turf manager and maintenance superintendent for Elizabethtown Sports Park in Elizabethtown, KY on his verticutting prac- tices. Why is he now verticutting? "We like to lightly verticut our bermudagrass fields at the beginning of the growing season to stimulate lateral and vertical growth and remove any dead material that could be matted into the canopy," he emailed. "In the growing season, a deeper cut removes more material to allow moisture and oxygen to reach the rootzone more easily as well as control thatch. We also like to verticut follow- ing core aerification to help break up the cores and redistribute that material into the soil pro- file. Verticutting can also aid with overseeding by opening the canopy giving ryegrass a place to make soil to seed contact. Adversely, verticutting aids in the transition by removing ryegrass and stimulating bermudagrass growth." Another verticutter is Darian Daily, the sports field manager for the Cincinnati Bengals. "We verticut our fields to promote lateral growth of our bermudagrass, help control thatch and organic build up, and to help 'wake up' the ber- muda as is comes out of dormancy, by opening up the canopy to allow sunlight and heat down to the ground," Daily said. Bergdoll: "In the past we verticut only one or two times a season but we are planning to increase to hopefully three or four times a season. I have found that we need to be more aggressive with the bermuda to keep it stimulated and give it room to grow. We actually had an issue last summer where the bermuda was growing almost too aggressively and the runners were growing on top of the canopy." Daily: "We verticut three or four times a year depending on field use. Most of the time it is in the spring and early summer because I have found the Patriot bermudagrass in my area doesn't respond well once the temps get above 90°. We use 1 mm blades in our verticutting because they don't damage the bermuda as bad as the 2 mm blades did. We used the 2mm blades when we had cool season with success, but the 2 mm seemed, I felt, too aggressive for the warm season grass and took more time to heal." We asked Bergdoll and Daily for any tips for others to get best results when verticutting. "Watch your timing; obviously you want to verticut when the turf is actively growing due to the aggressive nature of verticutting. Verticutting too late in the season can weaken the turf going into dormancy potentially making it more sus- ceptible to winter kill. Periods of heavy field use Is verticutting making a comeback? 6 SportsTurf | May 2014 www.sportsturfonline.com 1030 W. Higgins Road Suite 230 Park Ridge, IL 60068 Phone 847-720-5600 Fax 847-720-5601 The Official Publication Of The Sports Turf Managers Association President: David Pinsonneault, CSFM, CPRP Immediate Past President: James Michael Goatley, Jr., PhD President-Elect: Allen Johnson, CSFM Secretary/Treasurer: Jeff Salmond, CSFM Vice-President Commercial: James Graff Professional Facilities: Phil McQuade Academic: Jeffrey Fowler Higher Education: Tim Van Loo, CSFM Parks & Recreation: Sarah Martin, CSFM K-12: Andrew Gossel Commercial: Doug Schattinger Elected-at-Large: Mike Tarantino, CSFM Elected-at-Large: Bradley Jakubowski Chief Executive Officer: Kim Heck STMA OFFICE 805 New Hampshire Suite E Lawrence, Ks 66044 Phone 800-323-3875 Fax 800-366-0391 Email STMAinfo@STMA.org www.STMA.org EdITORIAL Group publisher: Jeff Patterson Editorial director: Eric Schroder Technical Editor: Dr. James Brosnan Art director: Brian Snook Production Manager: Karen Kalinyak Stma Editorial Communications Committee Phil McQuade, Brad Park, Jim Cornelius, CSFM, Jason Henderson, PhD, Gwen Stahnke, Cale Bigelow, PhD, Jamie Mehringer, David Schwandt, Mark Frever, CSFM, Joey Fitzgerald SportsTurf (ISSN 1061-687X) (USPS 000-292) (Reg. U.S. Pat. & T.M. Off.) is published monthly by Specialty Information Media at 1030 W. Higgins Road, Suite 230, Park Ridge, IL 60068. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Sportsturf, PO Box 2123, Skokie, IL 60076- 7823. For subscription information and requests, call Subscription Services at (847) 763-9565. Subscription rates: 1 year, $40 US & Poss.; 2 years, $65 US & Poss.; 1 year, $65 Canada/Foreign Surface, 1 year, $130 Airmail. All subscriptions are payable in advance in US funds. Send payments to Sportsturf, PO Box 2123, Skokie, IL 60076-7823. Phone: (847) 763-9565. Fax: (847) 763-9569. Single copies or back issues, $8 each US/Canada; $12 Foreign. Periodicals postage paid at Park Ridge, IL and additional mailing offices. COPYRIGHT 2014, SportsTurf. Material may not be reproduced or photocopied in any form without the written permission of the publisher. Continued on page 49