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SPORTS TURF CONTRACTORS
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Sand and Topdressing
ARE YOU CHOOSING YOUR SAND CORRECTLY?
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So, you’ve chosen the sand for your topdressing and rootzone - is that it? Andy Law of Whitemoss Eco thinks not!
ll sports surfaces require maintenance inputs in the form of feeding, irrigation, aeration and, of course, surface treatments such as topdressing; all of these are advised and recommended to achieve a top class finish, whatever division or leaguer or class of surface you are preparing.
A
When looking for information, on bulk materials in particular, the usual options all concentrate their attention on the sand content of topdressing and rootzone alike. Okay, given that, in most cases, this makes up 70-95% of the overall mix, this approach is acceptable and expected; but what about the plant’s requirements for macro and micro nutrients, and even mycorrhiza, the actually tool that holds tight onto nutrients and, in fact, actually attracts them to the plant’s root system? Given that sand is, essentially,
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an inert material offering no nutrient value at all, merely in fact a drainage medium when fully considered and, on a well balanced sand, also a good home, having both air and water pore space. Sand though is like a house without furniture, or gas and electric. In terms of a rootzone situation
for instance, if you decided to ‘save costs’ and build a new green using only straight sand, what would the ongoing implications be?
If we take a medium grade
sand, where the majority of the particles fall between .25 and .150 microns, with very little below 0.075 microns, this would, typically, have a percolation rate of around 700mm/hour! Imagine how dry the surface
would be... brilliant, or what? Well no, not really, because what happens in an ideal world, immediately after you’ve applied fertiliser, is that it rains and washes the feed into the profile. Given the open profile of our ‘ideal’ sand, the feed you have just applied will end up very quickly in the drainage carpet!! So, what do we do to stop feed and irrigation water simply leaching straight through our rootzone?
Organic amendment is the simple answer. However, the tough question is - which one is best? In the UK market there are currently three main options for amending a rootzone or topdressing mix. These are, Topsoil, Sphagnum Moss Peat and Green Compost. I would like to tackle each independently and give their plus and negative points and then assess at the end that which, in my experience, is the best, not for all, but for the vast majority of applications.
Topsoil: Plus: Availability Negatives: Inconsistency; Price;
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