Close Season Improvements

May 2019

Close Season Improvements

The close season is one of the busiest time for the Groundstaff as we are deep into our renovations season. By the end of May, we have just two pitches left to renovate.

The Stadium Pitch will be renovated around the 13th of June, taking about 5 days, once the stage has been dismantled and moved out of the stadium after the Rod Stewart concert on 7th June.

With now only two pitches left in the renovation programme, we are getting the first pitches we renovated in April, back in play. The early pitches we renovate take a good 8 weeks to be ready because of the lower temperatures in April, but the pitches we renovate in late May/early June, can be ready with in 5 weeks. The Stadium pitch takes a little longer to strengthen so we have to be very careful what it is used for before it is fully ready.

On the first team training area, along with the removal of ball stop netting, we have also taken out some old dug outs and are in the process of removing the concrete pads. These areas will be filled with soil and seeded to improve the appearance of the area. The site is an old company sports ground for Fison's fertilisers and one of the concrete pads is an old cricket net which had been built with reinforced concrete to last a long time!

The grow in on the early renovated first team pitches is going well. We have another few weeks until they return and will have two pitches for them to train on until after they return from pre-season tour in July, when they will have all of the training pitches renovated and back in play. 

Even though we have a semi automatic irrigation system, there are some training areas which the water doesn't reach. For theses areas we use portable sprinkers on a 20mm hose and move them around manually. These sprinklers are just as effective but labour intensive. This is the first year that we have renovated on the outsides of the pitches giving a better appearance across the whole site. 

The Training Ground match pitch has had its renovation and is growing back in nicely. We have another 5 weeks until it will be used from the last photo below. After applying about 80 tonnes of sand, we have aerated it with the Groundbreaker, below, and worked the sand in to the slits helping with drainage throughout the season. The Verti-Drain also punches holes through and the sand in worked into the holes too, until we have lost all of the sand.  

The "Sweep and Fill " brush is brilliant at pushing the sand into the holes and lines the aeration machines have created. 

Pitch 6 (match pitch) is growing in , as seen in the picture above. by the next blog in a month's time, it will be almost ready to play. There will be an intensive feeding programme on it between now and then, with weekly applications of water soluble nitrogen, sugars and carbohydrates, trace nutrients and seaweed.  The growth retardant, Primo Maxx, will be applied when the plant is established after about 4-5 weeks. This product will help reduce the top growth and put the plants energy into sward density and root development. 

The new lawn area, which was koro'd at the end of march has grown in but with a lot of weeds through as well. The weed seeds which were in the soil waiting to germinate when space allowed are showing themselves . They have now been sprayed off with Greenor selective weed killer and we will let them die off for a couple of weeks before we ove-rsow with some more seed to fill the gaps. Once the sward is thick enough, it will be able to out-compete the weeds better and we may be able to manage the population by removing by hand when they emerge.

In another 5 weeks or so, all of the Training Ground pitches will have been renovated and grown back in. The first team and the academy will have returned and we will be in full swing in to the new season