FOOTBALL/RUGBY
What I inherited is getting old or in a state of disrepair, but I fully appreciate that things take time, and I can’t expect the club to go out and get everything I require straight away
the end of the growing season though.” “If we have football on Saturday and rugby on Sunday, we will just tidy up the pitch after the game and choose not to cut so, by the game on Sunday, the height is at around 28mm.”
“Since I started here, we have given it a weekly tidy up with the verti-cut cassette on the Dennis G860. We only have one unit, so it takes a little bit longer but does a great job. We also use that machine to cut the pitch on a regular basis.”
rugby league season has just ended so, for now, his main concern will be getting the pitch through winter. Niall explained his maintenance regime to achieve this. “Through summer, the height of cut was at 28mm. As soon as I started, my first thought was that it was a bit too long, so we went down to 25mm. I will lift it to 26mm at
Walking into the groundsman’s shed with Niall, I notice he has a stock of fertiliser in the corner. This prompted me to delve a bit deeper into whether he has a fertiliser programme in place for the pitch, what are the main diseases that affect the pitch, and does he like to use a preventative programme when it comes to disease, rather than be reactive?
“Leaf spot has been the big one since I came in. We suffered really badly with it in the middle to end of September, but now it’s been treated, it seems to be at bay with no visible signs. I used Instrata Turf Disease Control and followed that up with Instrata Elite a few days later just to make sure it was all wiped out and give it a clean bill of health. Going forward, we will have a disease programme in place which will be added to our fertiliser programme.” I asked Niall about his fertilising regime in the coming months and does he have a set number of NPK he is looking at for the rest of the season?
“We have had soil samples taken from the pitch, and we have drawn up a programme from those results. The tests came back with deficient levels of magnesium, but everything else was fine, to a certain extent. We put down a 3-month slow release
PC December/January 2019
93
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