vital asset for clearing rainfall away swiftly, yet the team have to balance this with the problems of nutrient leaching away from where the natural grass needs it.
To help address the problem, Darren is trialing a new product, a nutrient-rich volcanic rock that holds four times its own weight of water. “The very nature of Desso pitches means they are free draining but, as a result, we do lose nutrients extremely quickly, so have to work hard to keep the good stuff in the soil,” he explains. “The product was recommended to us by Symbio and formed part of our desire to look down a different avenue. New
advancements in playing surfaces throw up fresh challenges, so we constantly have to keep on our toes.” Maintenance of top flight football surfaces is a different animal to other forms of turfcare, Darren believes, with microclimates and the strictures of modern stadia meaning groundsmen are forced to fashion world-class surfaces in conditions largely unsuited to the process - something he knows all too well. “People just don’t realise the huge variables that play their part in maintenance from site to site,” he insists. “When I joined from Highbury, I discovered that none of the things that worked for me at Arsenal worked here. I was forced to just go back to basics and learn my new environment.” Disease is also a problem with the mix of climates produced across the pitch, Darren explains. “Under-soil heating,
irrigation and warmth from the growing lights all help to produce the perfect conditions for disease to thrive, so we have to be always on our guard.” “We were hit by nematodes a few years back - a problem I’d never experienced before,
so it all goes to show that, even when you’re doing all the things required at this level, you can’t guard against everything, and there’s no guarantee that a good pitch can be reproduced year on year to a consistently high standard - something that’s often hard for many groundsmen to get across to management.”
The differing microclimates at the club’s various sites spread out across north London mean that choosing the right seed is no easy feat either, he admits. Mixing it up between several suppliers and adopting an approach of trial and error to discover what works best is the best solution, he believes. “We now use a combination of Johnson's Stadium, Limagrain and Barenbrug Bar 7, having also trialed new coated seeds earlier this year. Whilst we are enjoying the best germination rates
we’d ever seen, we confronted problems with flow rate when we applied the mycorrhizal coating,” he explains. "As the coating is used primarily in golf for overseeding, the problems we experienced with flow would not have been encountered in that sector. Because we seed from scratch, and the flow rate is larger, we found that we needed twice as many passes to apply the same amount as untreated seed.” “On the training ground, applying
three different seed types, each coming out at the same rate, and with the same tractor settings and the same seed size, we still found flow was slightly different every time.” Many groundsmen would say that
Darren is in an enviable position - commanding the ear of the decision- makers at Spurs. “Having the club chairman as a ‘go to’ is fantastic, and I’m honoured that both him and Harry really listen to what I and my team have to say, and that they respect my opinion and professional judgment,” he says proudly. “It’s invaluable for me to know that, if I ask for something and I get told ‘no’, I can rest easy that its either my fault for not pitching well enough or it’s a financial constraint. Knowing no other forces are at work preventing things happening is a good feeling to have for all of us.” Darren’s career at the club could have progressed far differently, and he recalls
Boomer series
• Compact Tractors • Utility Tractors • Ride-on Mowers • Attachments
T4000 series T
T3000 series NEW HOLLAND TOP SERVICE 00800 64 111 111
OUR GROUNDCARE RANGE IS VERY WIDE GROUNDC ARE : CO VERED
TZ series
G6000 series
YOUR SUCCESS - OUR SPECIALTY 17
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