SportsTurf

January 2017

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.

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FIELD SCIENCE 12 SportsTurf | January 2017 www.sportsturfonline.com games or events, I highly encourage monitoring soil tempera- ture and Growing Degree Days (GDDs) for applications of fertilizer, macro/micro and bio-nutrients, and PGRs. If you let the calendar dictate your fertility program, Mother Nature will often fool you. Knowing the time that the plant is ready to spring to life can optimize granular and foliar applications, whether that is earlier or later in the spring. Even as experienced professionals, we can easily overlook some of the simple things that cumulatively enhance turf health. I believe sports turf managers have become carried away with repetitive mowing patterns at the expense of turf health. Rolling the plant the same direction for weeks at a time is an unhealthy cultural practice. Diminished sunlight on the plant canopy in- hibits photosynthesis. You want healthy turf? Then rotate your mowing patterns, make sure your reels and bed knives make great contact, and have the guts to lower your height of cut. It is documented that players in all sports like a faster surface, and grass that stands up instead of lying over, will "stand up" to the rigors and demands of play with quicker recovery. The in-season demands on sports turf managers can compro- mise your work ethic, attitude, and physical and mental state of mind. No matter your age or level of facility where you work, there is a time when you have to grind away and get the job done, and also a time to walk away and re-charge the battery. Balancing the two, personally and as a supervisor of full-time and seasonal staff, is a challenge that is only made easier through experience and incorporating innovative management practices that work for your staff. My motto as a sports turf manager is that "hard work can be a substitute for knowledge, but rarely is knowledge a substitute for hard work." Lastly, as we look forward to spring, make the commitment that in 2017, you will work harder than ever to give your turf the best opportunity to succeed. Do the research, negotiat- ing, and purchasing necessary to have all the tools in hand to have a strong fertility program. Plan out your 2017 program applications and cultural practices, taking into account your scheduled game dates, events, and off dates, maintaining the mindset of flexibility and practicality based on the weather. If you put these pieces together, you will be able to "grow grass, not replace it," and isn't that what being a sports turf manager is all about? Keith Winter is head groundskeeper for the Fort Wayne Tincaps. Put seed in the ground when it had the highest germination probability.

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