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/575944
T he challenge for sports turf man- agers and other professionals responsible for maintaining sports field surfaces can be daunting. Providing a safe and well maintained sports field has its share of daily chal- lenges including scheduling and overseeing numerous activities such as mowing, fertilization, irrigation, check- ing soil fertility, watching for pests, searching for diseases or weeds, etc. And these are but a few of a long list of things required to ensure a field's playing sur- face is safe for the athletes. But before any of these standard maintenance chores come into play, of which there are many, there's another critical component: the turfgrass that is going on the field. What 10 questions should a sports turf manager or groundskeeper ask of their turfgrass provider? When we asked a sports field pro- fessional and a handful of turfgrass producers to list those 10 most impor- tant questions, we got a wide variety of responses. The fact that the responses var- ied wasn't a surprise; what was surprising was just how diverse the questions were. It became obvious that coming up with a 10 "basic questions" was a challenging proposition, somewhat like limiting the ingredients of a good recipe. One of those we asked was Julie Adamski, director of retail & professional development for Sod Solutions in Mount Pleasant, SC. Adamski suggested that sports turf managers need to think back to the basics; communication, mowing and fertility when talking to a turfgrass producer. She said that communication plays a huge role in the end product. "By communicating effectively, the turfgrass producer will know exactly what's needed and the timeframe that's required. They can talk about the height of cut of the grass. That way when the grass is installed it is uniform with existing turf, and doesn't need to be trimmed to get the height down. The turfgrass producer can gradually take the cut down on the farm to meet the sports turf managers request. Having a conversation about fertility is also beneficial. This way both parties will be on the same page with what nutrients the grass is receiving prior to installation. The sports turf manager should also be aware of his/her timeline. They need to ask what type of soil the farm has, and whether thick or thin cut sod will be the answer," said Adamski. Jerad R. Minnick is a long-time sports field manager and founder of Growing Innovations, parent company to the new Natural Grass Advisory Group. NGAG is an independent education and support firm dedicated to high-use natural grass fields. When presented with the challenge of suggesting what 10 questions he felt sports turf managers should ask he sug- gested that turfgrass variety should be on the list. "New varieties are coming into the market with amazing results. If you are using the same old grass and it is needing to be replaced time and time again, why not start trying a different variety?" He also echoed the comments of Adamski regarding mowing height. "We see unlimited issues with sod coming in at a height above the field's maintained height, leading to scalping and setbacks," he said. A third issue he deemed important had to do with thatch. "Historically, older sod with more thatch was thought to be better for fields. Our collected data now supports that younger grass with less FIELD SCIENCE 16 SportsTurf | October 2015 www.sportsturfonline.com FACILITY & OPERATIONS 10 QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR TURFGRASS PROVIDER ■ BY JIM NOVAK Jerad Minnick performs field test. Photo courtesy of Growing Innovations, LLC "By communicating effectively, the turfgrass producer will know exactly what's needed and the timeframe that's required. — Julie Adamski