First signs of Winter- November update

November

Now that the day light hours have shortened and temperatures have dropped, growth has slowed considerably. At this theme of year, turning pitches around between training sessions and games takes a bit more work.

In the height of summer, the turf almost recovered itself. Somethimes it's a simple as putting a mower over to tidy up and a quick walk over to knock back any small indentations and scars created during the training session. With soil based pitches, we do get indentations from heel marks and boot footprints if it's a bit soft or a decent amount of rain has fallen during the session. If these depressions are not lifted out, like you would do to a pitch mark on a golf green, then they will thin in the centre and go yellowaround the edges. The weakened area is also more susceptible to disease.

Fortunately, most of the training ground is open with plenty of access to light. Air flow is good as there are mainly surrounded by open fields.
At the stadium it is a different story. This month we have really noticed the lack of sunlight on the stadium pitch with the grow lights reminding us of the reason we have them cluttering up the car park during the summer. Turf growth has slowed considerably across the pitch, except under the light. As we are cutting across the pitch and hit an area where the lights have been, the clippings start to fly into the box. The sward is stood up, dense and has a healthy vigour about it.

Stadium pitch in late afternoon gloom

We have applied a slow release fertiliser this month (sierrablen 15-0-18) that we are expecting to last 8-12 weeks and a conventional release (7-0-14) which we apply approximately every 4 weeks at this time of year, depending on weather conditions. We are also applying our biostimulant mix as a liquid sprayed half rate every fortnight. I have played with the mixtures of this over the last couple of years and have settled with something that is really working for us.
The academy pitches don't have the same spec feed due to costs and I've always struggled to find something for the late autumn/ early winter to apply. When we are into the winter proper, we will apply a 4-0-8, which is a relatively inexpensive product in comparison (to the 7-0-14) but never seems to be quite enough nitrogen at this time of year and the pitches look a bit hungry. It seems the last few years that we need to keep the pitches going with the feed up to around the new year until we really do turn into winter.
So, this year I am going to try the "proturf" 12-0-15 on the academy pitches which should release over a period of a couple of months. With the cost being double of the 4-0-8, but lasting twice as long, I figured that it will fit in the budget, providing it does last the 8 weeks... we shall see.

The worm deterant sprays continue with average results. I keep telling myself they could be worse if we didnt spray at all..
Our U23/18 match pitch (pitch 6) at the training centre is still looking good with very close to 100% grass coverage - minus worm casts. This year we were able to have infield irrigation installed, which was a big upgrade from travelling sprinklers to irrigate. This has enabled us to have the surface removed (koro'd) during the renovations, removing the thatch layer which has slowly built up over the years, and for us to be able to work 80 tonnes of sand into the surface to aid the movement of water through the root zone. This is the trial pitch for the Barenbrug RPR stadium seed mixture. Early signs are very promising, but I will reserve full judgment for later in the season.

With 4 1st games on the stadium pitch during December, we hope the weather is on our side and the lights still do their thing to see us through to the new year.

Worms, Not my friend...

Worms, not my friend...

What is the answer to the worm cast problem? do we all need to have sand constructed pitches to deter worms? It's not an option for everyone.

We all knew it was coming one day but hoped it would last another year or two. I heard of the brave groundsmen and greenkeepers who decided to go carbendazim free as soon as it was announced the licence was being revoked at the end of August. Not me, I brought as much as I needed for one last spray on the 31st August and hoped it would see me though as long as possible! 

It didn't last long... I never thought Carbendazim was great any way, but it was better than nothing. It's better than what we have now, although we have trials ongoing with two products, Clear Cast supplied to us by Rigby Taylor and StimZyne from Sheriff Amenity. by creating a barrier on the surface the worms don't want to pass, should in theory work, until rain/irrigation dilutes it or washes it though, but It's a little early to tell whether this is going to be a solution, or even a compromise. I'm all for protecting the environment, but I'm also striving to produce the best turf I can. 
  
The recent game versus Norwich City on Sky showed up areas of casts which have been squashed by the mowers rollers and left it looking like a teenager with acne.. for a time in the morning, we knocked the areas back, trying to lift buried grass from the cast. Fortunately, this couldn't be seen really from the edge of the pitch or from the cameras. But I knew it was there.
Clear Cast had been sprayed 5 days before the game.
I gather only 3 species of UK worms come to the surface, therefore cast. I'm pretty sure most of the national population are in the Ipswich area!

 

 

This autumn the pitches are the best I've seen them. They have a dense sword, are a good colour and all are showing good health. There also seems to be considerably less annual meadow grass about this year for us. I'm putting that partly down to the purchase of a new koro field top maker. The old "green and yellow" was struggling to get through a renovation season with constant breakdowns and spilled half of the arising out of the back. We weren't getting as clean a pitch after stripping the surface off as we would have liked. Technology moves on and keeping on top of the latest equipment isn't a cheap conquest. We are hoping to buy 3 pieces of renovation equipment over the next three years. 2017 was the Koro and I'm hoping to add a vredo twin disc seeder to our kit in the spring of 2018. It was trialed last year with great success, all of the pitch germinated without any missed lines where the seed hadn't drilled in evenly.

Despite good progress this year, there is always something we can do better and we strive to achieve the next goal. Let's hope it starts with reducing the casts this autumn.