Winter Sports - Football Germination best on sand based pitch
was out and it was turning into a hot day. We started an irrigation sequence and, whilst that was going around the pitch on a three hour cycle, we erected the goals, the practice goals and safety nets. We continued to water the middle of the pitch in three minute bursts right up to the point that the players came out to start their warm-ups at 2.00pm. Both teams had brought their full squads and we counted seventy-one players, coaches and officials warming up. Not what I wanted to see seven weeks after seeding, but hey-ho. At half time, we noticed how dry the middle of the pitch became and watered again, the grass was going black and laying like a mat. As soon as the final whistle went, we got the water going again through the middle, whilst we repaired any damage. We then set the timer to come on and give it a couple of really good soaks through Saturday and Sunday evenings. By Monday morning, the grass in these areas had recovered well and the whole pitch was standing up and looking healthy. For me, working with a new
Clay surrounds waterlogged Four weeks after seeding
pitch, particularly as it was free draining, was another challenge to understand and get the moisture content right for match days going forward. Clearly, we hadn’t got it right for the Cardiff game, but with Birmingham City on Tuesday, we had more time before matchday to flood it. We cut and repaired the pitch on Monday and, on Tuesday morning, Richard and I were in early to double cut and mark out, leaving ourselves six hours with which to monitor and water the surface. Although we were enjoying some decent weather, an evening game meant cooler temperatures and less evaporation and we managed the water situation much better than the previous game. Fortunately, Birmingham also had a team playing at Northampton town that night, so they brought a smaller squad. Again, the pitch played very well and there was minimal damage.
We brushed and mowed the
pitch after repairs on Wednesday and again cut it on Thursday. The weather was dreadful on the Friday and we decided to leave it well alone, knowing we’d have it all to do on match day. Richard and I agreed an early
Richard fertilising 74 I PC OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015
start and it was a race to see who got in first on the Saturday morning, much to Richard’s annoyance I beat him by ten
“
The increase in organic activity that we’d been encouraging with the various products applied also encouraged the worm fraternity back as well
minutes as I had the kettle on at 5.20am! We had a coffee, got the string lines out and started mowing at 6.03am. By 9.30am, the pitch had been double cut and marked out and we concentrated watering on the middle of the pitch. The previous day’s rain had already helped us out. The sun was back out and the pitch looked good. Again, we had seventy odd people warming up on the pitch for nigh on an hour before the game started. The pitch played the best it had
considering it was the third game in eight days. We now had a two week break before the first league game against Millwall. All through the previous seven weeks we had been throwing water and nutrients on the pitch for fun and now we needed to establish a decent root system to help us get through the majority of the season. The break in games enabled us to start putting the grass under a little stress by reducing the watering to encourage the roots downwards. Monday 27th July - repaired the
pitch, mowed it at 28mm and spiked it with a Baroness aerator to 6” (150mm). We went nice and slow in a low gear and got a 4” (100mm) x 2” (50mm) pattern. We left the pitch alone on the
Tuesday, cut it again on Wednesday at 27mm and, on Thursday, reduced the height of cut to 26mm. It was cut on Friday and the pitch left alone for the weekend. Monday 3rd August - pitch cut
and we applied 10l of Sea Action Seaweed and 30kg of water soluble Everris 15:0:37+Fe. On the Tuesday we reduced the
cut to 25mm and continued mowing through the week at this height. I should say that we used string lines to keep our mowing
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