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/32290
seed. Application strategies included apply- ing 100% of the total seed in one applica- tion (100), 70% of the total seed in the initial application plus 10% of the total in each of three successive applications 10 days apart (70/10/10/10), or 25% of the total seed applied in four events applied on ten day intervals (25/25/25/25). Before seeding, a flexible steel drag mat commonly used for baseball infields was used to open the bermudagrass canopy, as opposed to verticutting. We found that verticutting a football field in the northern climate before the start of the season weakens the stability of the bermudagrass, essentially setting up the possibility of field failure. This is due to the shorter window for bermudagrass grow- in, where our fields typically do not reach 100% coverage until mid- to late July. It is possible verticutting would be an acceptable practice on a baseball or softball field where there is less demand on the turf. Initial seeding dates for both locations were 24 August 2007 and 25 August 2008. Plots were lightly topdressed with rootzone sand after each seeding and brushed into the turf canopy with a stiff bristled broom. RESULTS Perennial ryegrass coverage rarely in- creased at seeding rates higher than 50 pounds/1000 ft2/year regardless of location, seeding strategy, or rating date. The 12.5 pounds/1000 ft2 /year seeding rate consis- tently produced the lowest coverage in this study and would not be recommended, but 25 pounds/1000 ft2/year was occasionally amongst the top grouping for PRG coverage in this study. The seeding strategy of 25/25/25/25 consistently produced the most PRG coverage, nearly 20% greater than that from the 70/10/10/10 and nearly 50% greater than that from the 100 strat- egy. This could be due to the fact that both the 25/25/25/25 and 70/10/10/10 strategies introduced PRG seed on more than one oc- casion to counteract the seedling mortality from disease and cleat traffic. Another interesting discovery from this study was when disease conditions were fa- vorable, any one time seeding amount that exceeded 25 pounds/1000 ft2, resulted in high disease activity. Therefore, based on this study, it is recommended to seed a total of 50 pounds/1000 ft2/year in four equal applications 10 days apart to maximize PRG overseeding coverage on bermudagrass athletic fields in the far northern transition zone. Ultimately, it will be your budget and level of maintenance that determines the total amount of seed you apply at your fa- cility. For a more comprehensive look at this study, see “Strategy and Rate Affects Suc- cess of Perennial Ryegrass Overseeding into Bermudagrass Athletic Fields Located on the North Edge of the Transition Zone” in the Applied Turfgrass Science Journal. ■ Brian F. Bornino, MS, is the Graduate As- sistant Sports Turf Manager, Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, Purdue University. www.stma.org SportsTurf 13