Faster surface
Steve highlights that the team’s goalkeeping coach has been particularly impressed with the speed and zip off the grass surface in training this year and helping the keepers develop faster reactions. “We are looking to keep that perfect shine on the surface all the time. I think we are now getting faster ball speed from the same length of cut, and we are able to maintain the high standard for longer, which keeps the players happier.”
Although Steve originally started out at Highbury, and managed both the club ground and training facilities for a time, he is now dedicated to the training ground where he can devote 100% of his time and attention to the ten pitches for first team, reserves and youth team training, along with the dedicated goal keeping area. With the heavy demand from coaches and management it is always a tight run thing to get pitches extensively and properly renovated before the start of pre-season training. “Continued success in Europe is fantastic for the club, but extends demands on the training facilities for longer and puts extra pressure on the ground staff to achieve the renovation in even less time.” Steve delays renovation of one of the first team’s three primary pitches until after the early pre-season training, when player fitness building is a priority and imposes very heavy wear on the established turf, rather than use a newly renovated pitch. It does, however, leave a very short gap over the late summer to successfully re-seed the last pitch before the area is required again in the training schedule, usually by mid-October - but this approach seems to work well, he reports.
All the pitches are re-sown with 100% dwarf ryegrass and, although they can all be irrigated over the summer, he highlights the crucial importance of getting seed sown early and growing well. “This year we have been trying Primo MAXX on newly renovated pitches at various intervals after germination, to see how quickly they will thicken out and fill the base of the sward.”
Renovation techniques
Steve’s recipe for renovation is to start within hours of the final scheduled
final vertidrain minimises the risk of the soil surface capping and prevents surface water movement during periods of high rainfall while waiting for the seed to germinate, “the last thing we want at this stage is for the seed to be washed away.”
Improved establishment
“We are normally waiting for the early spring growth spurt, once day length starts to increase in February and March, but really didn’t need it this year”
training session finishing on each pitch. The existing sward is quickly killed off with paraquat, followed by an intensive rake and scarify to remove as much vegetative material as possible. Then a mighty flail - built to Steve’s design and nicknamed ‘The Beast’ - skims off the remaining material to soil level, with a topmaker used to plane off any surface trash. Typically 60 to 80 tonnes of sand is top
dressed per pitch, with sand injection machines to incorporate the sand below the surface to improve aeration and drainage in areas that receive the most punishment during the course of the playing season. The surface is then spiked to a depth of 6 inches and sand brushed in. Seed is sown with both a disc and a special vibrating seeder, passing in three directions for each machine to achieve as even a spread as possible. A
Seeking to improve the rapid establishment of the new turf and encourage a denser structure, Steve has experimented with Primo MAXX at different rates and grass growth stages. He found that a rate of 3.2lts/Ha worked best for him at his site, starting as soon as the new seed is growing vigorously. However, he points out that, whilst this works well for his intensive regime, the rate and frequency of application may be different at different sites. “Initially, trials looked very good and we wanted to continue to assess how they perform over the winter under intense training pressure.” Steve’s key concern was that it wouldn’t be able to recover from damage inflicted during winter training. In fact, he reports that, despite the incredibly wet conditions and the intensive demand on the pitches, there has been no difference in recovery rates and, if anything, the dense turf surface was better able to withstand training activities. “We are normally waiting for the early spring growth spurt, once day length starts to increase in February and March, but really didn’t need it this year,” he added. The mild conditions in December meant there was no need for the undersoil heating, which is installed on two of the first team’s training pitches, but, when it was switched on in January, there was a real surge in grass growth, which encouraged Steve to make an early application on one of the pitches to compare the effect, with very pleasing results.
He believes that getting the grass into
regulation as it came out of the winter has made life easier for managing the cutting regime, giving more flexibility when rain delays mowing operations. With attention, and also some manpower switching to the mammoth renovation task in early spring, minimising labour chasing mowers is a big benefit, he points out.
The training pitches are constructed with a higher proportion of silt in the topsoil than would be conventional in a
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