Winter Sports Pitchcare Classifieds
The Art of Divoting
A groundsman’s job is often a thankless one. When an immaculate pitch is unveiled on match day, it will often go unnoticed. Yet, if a divot on the pitch causes a player to miss- kick the ball or injure themselves, the criticism is deafening. Mark Laffan, Pitchcare Ireland, offers some pointers
Groundsmen know that player safety is the most important thing to a club, and a safe pitch is crucial. A safe pitch has an even surface with no bumps or crinkles and will, ideally, have 100% grass cover.
During a competitive game, especially on a wet day when the soil is soft, it is inevitable that divots will be torn up. The most important job for the grounds team is to replace them and repair pitch damage as soon as possible. In a country where pitches have high levels of usage and are required to be playable virtually all year round, divot repair is a really important part of sports pitch maintenance. The match day divoting teams should be trained and clearly shown exactly what is required, as poorly repaired divots can be a safety hazard.
In the cold winter months, it’s all about damage control as it becomes important to save every blade of grass, and that means replacing divots and doing everything you can to help the surface re‐establish.
Divots have a better chance of repairing themselves when they are fresh and should,
therefore, be repaired as soon as possible after the damage occurs.
When it comes to divoting whilst a competitive match is being played, it is an essential practice to get out on the pitch at half time and straight after the final whistle. These are the best and most successful opportunities to replace divots and repair damage.
Where there are tears and scars created by boots shearing the turf from the surface, a fork can be used to lift the turf slightly and tap the surrounding grasses to help fill the gap. Where the divots are still available, providing they are not too large or deep, they can be reset with the use of a small hand fork or pitchfork. The soil base should be loosened and then the divot can be pressed back into the hole from which it came. Large divots can sometimes be replaced, but time is of the essence.
Once a divot has been replaced, firm the area gently to help the grass reroot; use your foot and a divoting fork to maximise the contact between the divot and the soil. Re‐establishment is going to depend on how quickly the divot was repaired and keeping the re‐patched turf irrigated. Moisture is key; if the divot is allowed to dry out, it will die.
In the hotter months, divots will dry out quickly and may not survive before being put back. Use your forks to gently lift the surface and surrounding area and create a soil tilth, then fill in with some rootzone mixed with a small amount of seed (a divot mix) and firm into place. This retains the integrity of the surface and allows the seed to germinate and colonise the space. It is important to keep these areas of repair damp to enable germination and help establishment.
With larger, deeper divots, and where the divots are missing, removing the divot and filling the bald spot with a previously prepared divot mix is the best practice. Once the divot and all other thatch has been removed, the bare area may be filled with a mix of soil, sand and seed. The mix should also be supplemented with some pre‐germinated grass seed.
When preparing your divot mix, the base soil material in your mix should be a good match for the rootzone of your pitch. For both sand based and natural soil pitches, a mix of 50% sports sand and 50% moist top soil is best. When the soil in the divot mix is moist, it gives the resulting mix more binding strength and body, so repairs are less likely to be kicked out and newly established grass is given the best chance to survive.
140 I PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018
After you choose your base soil material, you need to add a suitable seed to the divot mix. Obviously, it’s a good idea to have a species that’s a good match for the existing sward, but a fast establishing species is just as important. For sports pitches, dwarf perennial ryegrass is typically recommended by most experts.
The key here is to get the pitch ready for the next game as quick as possible and most species of ryegrass, with a bit of fertiliser and constant irrigating, will begin to germinate in just three days.
Another plus for perennial ryegrass is that it can also begin to grow in colder temperatures, from around 5O
Celsius.
In the colder months, when growth has slowed right down and your divots are taking longer to recover, a good practice is to give your divot mix a boost by adding some pre‐germinated seed to it. This exercise can really speed up recovery time.
A tried and tested practice of pre‐germination, is to use an old wheelie bin to make the seed mix. Punch some holes in the base and body of the bin to allow the water to drain, add the grass seed and spray hot water over the seed at least once a day, keeping the lid closed. If you do not have access to hot or warm water, add cold water and then store the container in a warm area. The seed needs to be soaked for about three days, certainly over 24 hours, before being used and, once the seed has been doused, it will die if allowed to dry out again.
This pre‐germinated seed is perfect for overseeding, bare spots that need attention quickly and for putting down on pitch‐scars straight after a game. Another option for speeding up the recovery time of your divots is to coat the seed with liquid fertiliser, seaweed or another bio‐ stimulant that can provide a boost nutrition, to help the new seed develop.
Parts of the pitch that have a lot of divots, bare spots and thin turf can be covered with growth blankets or seed germination covers. If it is viable, using turf covers retains the natural heat and moisture in the soil that speeds up seed germination and promotes deep root development.
On top of all this advice, just remember to box smart when it comes to looking after your pitch repairs. Limit foot traffic on the pitch after games and talk to the management about keeping training sessions off the pitch or, at the very least, off the parts of the pitch that are under repair.
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