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/318924
www.stma.org June 2014 | SportsTurf 9 hurdles that Tony and his crew face . In addition, the pro game is played by the largest athletes in all of sport. The fact that they play the bulk of the game in a small area of the field causes a variety of maintenance problems. Tony has adjusted by changing his field over to bermuda grass during the warm weather months. This allows him to get through most of the season on a very durable surface. As the weather cools the bermuda is removed to the depth of 1.5 inches and thick cut bluegrass sod is installed to finish out the late season schedule with good turf cover. This process has been very successful for Tony and the Eagles. While this may be a good answer on the professional level, what about those of us on the high school or park and rec level? Are there answers to the problems we deal with on our football fields or are we facing a future with plastic football fields as the solution? I don't claim to have all of the answers, but we have had a lot of success with the maintenance of our football fields at Overbrook. Our maintenance program doesn't begin and end with the football season but rather focuses on a yearlong approach. The new season begins as the old one ends. Enjoy an Early spring Spring is a very important time for football fields. The fall season really wears out most fields and springtime is usually the time that significant recovery can take place. This process can be slowed by lacrosse but recovery must be taken into consideration regardless. March 1 in New Jersey is the first day you can apply fertilizer legally and we do; at least .5 lbs of N per 1000 sq. ft. are applied through an application of ammonium sulfate. This provides food for the new turf planted at the end of last season and promotes growth of established turf also. In addition to an early application of N, there must be a con- centrated effort made to begin mowing to remove dormant turf and promote new growth. It is tempting to allow football fields to lie dormant in early spring. There are a lot of other things going on and football is not one of them. Don't fall in to this trap. The quicker your turf is actively growing, the quicker it has the ability to establish and endure the stress of drought and pest pressures that are coming later in the spring and summer. Fertilizer is provided on an as needed basis during the spring with the intention of not applying more than .5 lbs N per 1000 sq ft. per month. aEration Aeration is something that is very important but commonly overlooked. In our case, we have a core aerator but have no good way to clean up the messy cores. In addition to the mess, coring during the football season may not always provide the results you are looking for. Problems occur during the season if you open up a worn field by coring. Sometimes because of a busy schedule there is not enough time for the field to recover before the next game is played. This can cause a poorly rooted field to suffer damage even though that was not the intention. At Overbrook we have found a nice window of opportunity right after Memorial Day. Early June is after our spring season and usually before the weather gets too hot. The fields seem to really respond well at this time of year. The turf is actively growing and our activi- ties are limited. We try to make up for the few coring opportunities that are available by using our slicing aerator when we are seeing signs of compaction. This aerator provides us the ability to open things up without disturbing the playing surface. It is a very valuable tool that also aides us in our fall over seeding program by providing a nice seedbed. Another added benefit of slice aerating is the ability to find grub damage quickly during August and early September. It is much better for us to find grub damage and treat it, rather than an injury occurs due to field conditions. Ultimately, it is up to the turf manager to find the right time and aerator for your site. summEr strEss Summertime is a time of rest for our football turf. We are lucky that there is very little activity during the summer months until football camp opens around August 15. Our cutting height is raised to 3 inches and mowing frequency is set at 3 to 4 times weekly. The thinking is that I don't want to put any extra stress on the turf. Higher cutting heights do cause other issues though. Suppressing dollar spot with nitrogen often causes brown patch to develop when the weather conditions are right. In an attempt to break this cycle we tried an organic-based prod- uct. It is not a pure organic product but rather a bridge product that is easy to use and can be applied at workable rates. The results last year were very interesting. We had both diseases pop up last summer but in very small amounts and with no noticeable damage. I am going to use this product again this summer to see if we can obtain similar results. Fungicides are not part of our maintenance program so we are constantly making adjustments to see if we can suppress disease without their use. With that in mind, our irrigation routine is based on need not schedule. This sounds like common sense but it gets complicated with tricky summer weather. The fields are checked daily for soil moisture and then irrigated or not based on this information. I have found that it is ok to get a little dry over the summer. Proper water management is crucial for surviving summer heat and humidity. Please don't set your timer box and forget it. thE sEason bEgins Football season at Overbrook starts around the middle of the month but it actually begins for us around August 1. This is when the fields are laid out. Before the fields are painted we cut in a foot- ball pattern consisting of end zones cut in the same direction and every 5 yards cut in the opposite direction. This is done to burn the pattern in without having to waste paint before field use begins. The weather has been pretty unpredictable over the past couple of years. We have had wet weather that causes a lot of damage due to the repetitive nature of football practice. Our coaches do a great job of moving around but sometimes damage is inevitable. After a wet practice we will sometimes use a light roller to push down damaged turf and broadcast perennial rye seed. This process