Winter Sports - Football
Some roots down to 200mm
bands straight on the final four cuts before each game; outside of this, we would mow the bands and do our best to keep them right. The first League One game of
the season was upon us, root growth was now averaging around 125mm across the pitch and the sward was 100%, the goalmouths and touch lines still looked as new. The expectations of the team and supporters, being in a higher league, were soon put in perspective as Millwall won quite comfortably; the divide between the two clubs, from a financial perspective, was apparent. However, the pitch played the best yet and damage was limited to a few heel marks and stud tears. Monday 10th August - the one blemish on the pitch in the build up to the Millwall game was worm casts, I couldn’t believe that we’d been hit with them so early in the season. I suppose that the increase in organic activity that we’d been encouraging with the various products applied had also encouraged the worm fraternity back as well. We held back on spraying because I didn’t want wheel marks to spoil the presentation of the pitch, so we delayed it for a few days. The worm suppressant was applied at 4l per hectare. The pitch now, in terms of colour, health and
vigour, was where it needed to be, so we followed the Caste Off with a separate tank mix of 30kg of water soluble 15:0:37 and 800ml of Primo Maxx (growth regulator). The next day, the pitch had
well and truly been checked in terms of growth and there didn’t appear to be any new casts on the pitch either. We didn’t mow, choosing to get some more slow release fertiliser on in the form of 180kg of Lebanon 25:0:5. On the Wednesday, we aerated the pitch again to a depth of 6” (150mm) at 2.5” x 2.5” centres, maximising new air space for the grass roots to take advantage of the Primo. We didn’t cut the pitch again
that week, but the weather was again dreadful on Friday morning, with nearly 2” (50mm) of rain falling in just a few hours. We put on some conventional feed, 260kg of Maxwell Advanced Generate 12:3:9+2MgO+2Fe in the rain, which took a bit more time as we had to keep the hopper covered and bring it round under a stand each time to top up. Still, it was worthwhile as the rain washed it in perfectly. Monday 17th - Cut the pitch
taking around eighteen boxes off, the rain and fertiliser maybe starting to help the grass kick on again. Tuesday 18th - double cut the
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