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Emergency measures have reduced access to public green spaces
KEEPING THINGS TICKING OVER
Staying safe and protecting others should be everyone’s primary concerns at the moment, but there may be some tasks you can carry out to keep your grounds healthy for now
By Alex Vickers GMA technical turf consultant
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Guidance on interim works on sports turf - football, cricket, rugby, horse racing, bowling and croquet. Visit www.thegma.org. uk/covid-19-0 T hese are strange times with sport
cancelled for the foreseeable future as our playing surfaces emerge from the wettest winter in years. At this time, the GMA cannot advise on anything other than good practice in maintaining playing surfaces and staying safe while doing so, in line with Government guidelines. What is clear is that if you don’t need to be out, then don’t go out! The pitches will always be there and it will be possible to get them back – surprisingly quickly – once the restrictions are lifted.
First, do the minimum needed. The pitches are not going to be played on. They do not need to be striped up or cut to match length. Keep the grass at a length appropriate for the non-playing season. Letting the grass grow will not harm it, certainly for the short term. In fact, it will allow the roots to grow longer which will help with soil structural development, nutrient cycling and, in the case of cricket squares, it could help stabilise structural breaks or layers in the soil profile. In turn, the grass will be less stressed and it will withstand drought more effectively if we encounter a long dry spell.
If your pitches are not marked out, don’t mark them out – you can do that if things are relaxed and it looks like play may resume.
Having no play will, as time goes by, increase the likelihood of thatch forming, especially on sites with few worms to mix the organic matter produced from dead leaf and sheath material as well as old roots. For a few weeks this is unlikely to be an issue, but occasional brushing, slitting and grooming will help. On cricket squares where it may impact playability more significantly, occasional raking of the surface, brushing and verticutting will help to control things. If play resumes, more time will be needed to clean pitches and to remove thatch.
BRUSHING UP On sites with lots of worms, occasional brushing will also be helpful to break up worm casts and, for cricket, occasional raking and brushing will keep on top of this. If you can’t get out to do it, don’t worry, the casts can be lifted during pitch preparation - though you may end up with pitches that are a little patchy from smeared casts or areas where casts
“The pitches will always be there and it will be possible to get them back – surprisingly quickly – once the restrictions are lifted”
have been lifted and taken grass with them. So long as you can keep the pitches even, a few bare patches are not the end of the world. Lots of pitches will look like that this year.
Renovation of winter sports pitches may be delayed or missed depending on Government advice and/or contractor availability. Spiking or decompacting will further aid rooting and offset the impact of play during a wet winter. Overseeding high wear areas will also be helpful but, again, don’t worry if you can’t. Weeds can be treated once normality returns and even if the only grass that germinates is poa, it is at least something!
NEW GROWTH Overseeding in late summer is not ideal but it will enable new grass to germinate and grow quickly for the new season. Indeed, many non-irrigated parts of the south east have been doing this for years as spring overseeding often fails due to dry summers. If you have some seed but no means to drill it, then concentrate on things you can do. Fork over goalmouths, penalty spots and centre spots. Restore levels by lifting the soil with a fork and base dressing if the depressions are shallow, or digging over if they are deeper, followed by hand seeding.
As the aim should be to minimise the time spent away from home, there is no sense in fertilising pitches as you normally might as this will just require more frequent mowing. Soils are highly efficient systems that recycle nutrients from dead leaf matter so, if you are not collecting clippings, they will tick over quite happily. Only fertilise if you need to and, if you do, use a controlled release product to slowly provide nitrogen to the grass over two to three months.
If you continue to work on sites follow Government advice to ensure your safety and the safety of others
Cricket grounds managers may have concerns about rolling. Pre-season rolling is not critical if no play is likely to happen in the next few months. Indeed, you could roll now as normal but a few rainstorms with drying periods in between are likely to undo the compaction you achieved as the soil will swell when it wets and shrink when it dries and therefore release the compaction achieved by rolling. If you have two weeks’ notice of play resuming, then rolling as part of your normal pitch preparation will give perfectly good results – just as it did in the spring of 2018 when we came out of a cold, wet winter straight into the start of the new cricket season. Pitches were fine without any preseason rolling.
Once restrictions are lifted and play is due to resume, it will be a big effort to make up for lost time, especially on grounds where no work has been possible in the intervening period. The key tasks will be to gradually reduce the length of the sward to playing lengths – but don’t hack it down in one go. Remove no more than one third of the leaf length in any session and give the grass a few days to recover before mowing again. Verticut or lightly scarify, brush and rake to remove thatch, worm casts, lateral growth and crowned grasses. Apply fertiliser and for winter sports look at overseeding in late summer.
Ultimately, you can only do your best. The pitches of the UK will still be here and can be brought back quickly and I cannot imagine anyone complaining if the surfaces are not quite as good as usual given the unparalleled situation we find ourselves in.
