FOOTBALL


In addition to our full-time staff, in the three primary winter months we hire in four additional operators exclusively for the placement and removal of thermal blankets. The machinery is one hundred percent owned by the club and we continually renew and look at the best and most modern options on the market. There are some tasks that we outsource to local specialised contracting companies, as and when needed, for large works or renovations.


Tell us more abouth the pitch’s surface?


In the climatic zone where Valladolid is located, the most suitable type of grasses for quality sports pitches are cool-season grasses. We use a mix of Smooth stalked Meadow Grass (Poa pratensis) and English ryegrass. We have recently started a project to test the suitability of fine fescues. Our stadium pitch and the two training camps right now consist of a mix of Fiesta4, Rinovo, GreenLand, Nuglade, Prafin and Jump Star. This is a mix of perennial ryegrass, Kentucky bluegrass and smooth stalked meadow grass.


The pitch is a 100% sand construction system with reinforcing mesh, which is something we took a gamble on and we are


This is followed up with two further passes with the Dennis Pro34 to clean up the clippings, if there has been any training, and helps sharpen up the line between stripes


” 50 PC April/May 2021


pioneers of what, at this current time, is a novel idea in the industry. I am happy to share this information with Pitchcare readers as I think they will find it interesting. It is not a hybrid; it’s a natural, but not a conventional natural pitch. We could call it a reinforced, but being new, different, and a little unknown it escapes the current classifications. From my point of view, it possesses all the good attributes of a hybrid and a natural pitch, but is devoid of the handicaps of both.


The system was developed by Sport


Relva, a construction company who specialise in Portuguese football pitches. They have renovated the pitch for the last two years and we have developed a good relationship with them; they understood our need for a healthy/robust grass system. The rooting profile is pure sand, which is immediately stabilised by a specific mesh, 3- 4cm below the surface. The roots grow through and around the mesh providing a stable playing surface. We have achieved root depths of between 10-25cm. Personally, I find the system to be


extraordinary; it provides a great talking point and, most of all, is performing at a high level with intensive use and maintenance. The construction allows the grass to be grown in a similar way to hydroponics; with a very high amount of oxygen in the rootzone, minimal compaction and rapid response to fertilisation and treatments. We are experiencing very low incidences of fungal disease and a high drainage capacity because of the construction’s 0% organic matter content. Organic matter will be generated by the turf itself little by little, and we will manage it to keep it at the lowest possible levels.


The idea behind building a profile without organic matter is that, despite its virtues as a colloidal complex, in my experience, and I think most of my peers will agree, it is the cause of most of the problems we suffer on sports turf. Here, we are developing and checking that, on a high maintenance pitch, the organic matter is expendable and replaceable under construction if certain aspects are taken care of. We are collaborating on our findings, and I


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