www.stma.org June 2014 | SportsTurf 33
John Mascaro's Photo Quiz
Background
illustration
courtesy
of
istockphoto.com
John Mascaro is President of Turf-Tec International
John Mascaro's Photo Quiz Answers from page 15
The reason why this sports complex has snow
cover on the field on top and not on the field
on the bottom is actually not an easy question
to answer. The 419 bermudagrass field on the
right was overseeded with a specific perennial
ryegrass/chewings fescue blend. The field was
then topdressed with USGA sand. The remain-
ing 11 fields of the baseball/softball/football
complex were not overseeded or topdressed.
In addition, all of the complex fields were con-
structed of the same materials. The sports turf
manager thought it odd that the snow melted
on the overseeded field some 2 hours earlier
than the non overseeded fields. Due to the harsh
winter in the Southeast, the turf color on the
overseeded field did not come into play. I con-
sulted with Dr. Tom Samples from the University
of Tennessee and he suspects that the soil tem-
perature of the overseeded bermudagrass field
was higher than that of the dormant bermuda-
grass field alone (since the perennial ryegrass
had probably been transpiring water from the
soil before the snow, and the soil was drier). He
also continued on that a second consideration
would be the greater insulation value due to the
increased stand density of the bermudagrass
and perennial ryegrass mixture versus that of
the dormant bermudagrass alone, causing the
quicker snow melt on the overseeded field.
Photo submitted by Bryan M. Farris, Parks &
Recreation Supervisor at Ridley Park, Columbia,
TN. Dr. Tom Samples, University of Tennessee in
Knoxville, TN also contributed to the answer.
If you would like to submit a photograph for John Mascaro's Photo Quiz please send it to John Mascaro, 1471 Capital Circle NW, Ste # 13, Tallahassee,
FL 32303 call (850) 580-4026 or email to john@turf-tec.com. If your photograph is selected, you will receive full credit. All photos submitted will
become property of SportsTurf magazine and the Sports Turf Managers Association.
