Renovation Begins

April 2018

Renovation Begins

Is it just me, or have we had all four seasons in the last month? Freezing temperatures, then summer happened for about 10 days, to finish the month, High winds and heavy rain fall. Is this a blip or are we seeing a change in annual weather patterns?

Renovations began in earnest on 16th April with the first two small pitches being Koro'd off. I'm always a little apprehensive at the beginning of the renovations when the kit comes out of the shed as to whether we will pick up mechanical problems as it hasn't moved for 9 months. We always have a service and a mechanic will look over them, but until you start to actually use them on a full days work, you never know..

Due to the early start in renovations and with the weather usually a lot cooler during April, I opted to sow a perennial ryegrass tetraploid 50%/diploid50% mix as the tetraploid seeds are advertised to germinate quicker at lower temperatures and from soil temperatures of 4 degC.

As it turned out, we were having a mini heatwave and soil temperatures had risen to over 18 degC. We had germination in 6 days... usually we are around two weeks before we see anything at this time of year.

Once the surface is removed, approximately 12kg per SqM is applied. This works out around 80 tonnes per full size pitch.

The next job is losing it in the pitch. I opt for two methods. Firstly, the groundbreaker (linear aeration) goes over creating lines for the sand to fall into. Secondly, the pitch is vertidrained with 1 inch solid tines and then the sand is brushed into the holes. This method has helped the drainage of the pitches no end over the last few years. (Detailed renovation next month!)

All pitches are planned in to which week the renovation will begin on them so I have a pretty good idea to which week they will be available to use once the Academy and senior teams return from the summer break.

Typically, once the irrigation was started up, faults appeared. Even though we get fully drained down on the Academy pitches for the Winter to prevent the pipes freezing up and cracking, something is usually a problem. something usually electrical! 

I am planning for the upgrade of the system to run on only pop ups, so no need to pull hoses out onto the pitch for watering. this has been completed on three pitches so far - 9 to go.

The stadium pitch is looking back to what it was pre Winter, albeit with a lot of poa annua now instead of rye grass, which has filled the gaps. We did over seed with 200kg in March and fleeced, which was successful, but the poa is ruthless and gets in quickly when conditions are suitable. Many of us will take a bit of poa given the circumstances.

The end of the season run in to renovations brings a lot of games in the form of cup finals and club use of the stadium pitch. Once the 1st team has finished, I relax over how the pitch is used until the renovations start.
The pitch is weed killed to prevent all species of grass from regenerating after it has been koro'd. this has worked well for us over the past few years and updating our Koro machine has helped further still.

We are now in the best time of the year when we start all the pitch anew, we look forward to the long sunny days of Summer, a time when the Groundman feels a lot more in control of the destiny of the turf.