October Cricket Diary 2022

General Maintenance

Renovations

All clubs have their own methods of working and renovating their squares. In most cases the level of work will be dictated by what budgets and resources they have available at the time and what they are trying to achieve.

Make sure your machinery is up to the task with regular services. In the main, most club groundsmen are now putting on between 6-10 bags of loam per pitch. It is important not to under or over-dress your tracks. Even in the current economic climate, it is best not to skimp on the amount of loam used. I see too many club tracks that do not perform in terms of pace and bounce because of poor end of season renovation practices.

Generally, it is usually a combination of two factors that, when combined, causes problems – not removing enough thatch or organic material during renovations and spreading insufficient loam down to increase the bulk density of the soil profile.

However, there is a fine line between too much and too little.

Soil Analysis: – If you have not had your soils tested for some time, then do so at the earliest possible chance. Soil tests commonly carried out fall into two categories: Physical and Chemical.

The Physical analysis of soil reveals its texture, the amount of organic matter present, the rate of which the water passes through the soil profiles and the pore spaces within the soil.

The Chemical analysis produces information on soil acidity & alkalinity, the amount of mineral nutrients available for the grass plant to take up and the amount of toxins that may be harmful to the turf.

Scarification:– Scarification is important to remove unwanted vegetation, but also to produce a key for the new loam material to sit in. The level of scarification required will be dependent on how much of a thatch layer you have generated throughout the season. The best way to identify how much you have is by taking a core sample. It will be then a case of going through a vigorous renovation programme, scarifying in at least three directions, finishing in the line of play.

Depending on how much thatch is removed, where necessary, clean off all the thatch debris after each pass. The square can then be over sown using a suitable grass seed mixture; do not be frightened to try out new cultivars. Sowing rates now range between 35-50 g per square metre. In essence, you are aiming to establish new grasses into your square.

Aeration: – The very basics of grass growth has never changed; sunlight, water and air, three factors essential for good grass growth of all plant life. Whilst we have no influence over the quality and hours of sunlight, there is a single management operation that directly influences the availability of the latter two. That is aeration. The purpose of aerating a cricket square is the key to producing the foundation upon which additional treatments can work.Aeration relieves compaction, assists in top dressing to migrate down the tine holes and improves water percolation through the soil profile. It also helps to create the general environment essential for healthy grass growth. Autumn and winter aeration treatments are beneficial to promoting drier surfaces for further maintenance practices to take place. Solid tining is usually the most common practice but, where saddling is a problem to your ends, then hollow coring over a period of time will help with settlement.

Soil compaction is often the main contributing factor to poor grass growth; the lack of air in the soil profile inhibits many beneficial activities such as water movement and retaining microbial organisms. A programme to decompact the soil is essential, preferably using a pedestrian powered vertical aerator, to re-introduce some porosity into the profile. Solid tine, hollow coring and linear aeration are a number of methods being used to aerate soil profiles.

These operations tend to be carried out on a frequency basis depending on the type and size of the tines being used. However, there are a number of groundsmen who never aerate their cricket squares; they believe that the aeration holes formed can cause a weakness/stress line in the clay profile that could eventually break, causing problems with the pitches. They believe that the clay’s ability to shrink and swell provides the necessary voids to promote root growth.

Top Dressing: – It’s important not to overdress the square, as you will not only be wasting the precious loam material but you may also be smothering your sward. The last thing you want to be doing is to bury any vegetation, which will lead to future problems. The object of the renovations is revitalize the top growing zone, restore levels and to integrate new material into the soil profile. This will help build up the clay content in your square.

Irrigation should follow as soon as possible to assist in the germination of new seed. By keeping the soil moist, the seed should germinate between 7-10 days weather permitting, a germination sheet will aid this process.

Once the grass has germinated out on the square, you should look to maintain a cutting height between 15-25mm, and continue to brush off the dew in the mornings to keep the sward in a dry and disease free condition

Outfield Maintenance

Once you have finished renovating your square, devote some time to the outfield. Outfields are often neglected if not used for any winter sport such as rugby or football.

They do not get much attention in the way of scarifying / harrowing, aeration, topdressing, over seeding and, in some cases, not even being cut through the winter months.

Mowing of the outfield should be undertaken on a regular basis. By maintaining a height of cut between 25-35mm, this will help to encourage a dense sward and reduce disease.

Invest some money on your outfield to restore levels, kill any weeds and aerate where possible. Some clubs even use their pedestrian Groundsman spiker to aerate their outfields.

It may not be too late to get some selective weed killer applied, especially if soil and air temperatures remain favourable. Also apply a winter feed to help keep some colour and stimulate some growth

ideally, when aerating the outfields, penetration should be down to a depth around 200mm to promote deeper rooting and surface drainage. Some groundsmen like to carry out a programme of solid tining, deep slitting or hollow coring, which again increases porosity but can also help redistribute/recycle topsoil which, in turn, helps restore levels.

The frequency of aeration activities will often depend on the resources – money, machinery and time – available. In the main, you should be looking to aerate throughout the winter period on a monthly basis, weather and soil conditions permitting.

Agronomy

October sees autumnal conditions set in, and thoughts of summer have all but disappeared. Most renovations will have taken place whilst conditions were favourable, whilst those who have not yet been able to carry out such work will be holding out for temperatures not to drop off too quickly to ensure there is some recovery before winter when growth potential drops to ‘low’.

Mornings and nights continue to become noticeably darker and importantly for turf managers, leaf wetness (dew) on the grass plant becomes a management priority.

Nutritional inputs will start to reduce inline with the reduction in growth potential. Applying a fertiliser with a nitrogen source suitable for the time of year is key to minimise any disease outbreaks. Following the base nitrogen figures outlines above, applications if around 2kg of nitrogen per hectare will be sufficient. Which is the equivalent of 6.0.12 conventional release granule (4-6 week longevity) applied at 20gm2. Choosing a fertiliser that is going to release nutrients as the temperatures decrease is also needed. Some slow-release technology will release extremely slowly in cooler conditions which may not provide an adequate supply of nutrition to maintain a healthy plant able to withstand pathogen attack. Therefore, it is as important to not under apply at this time of year as it is to not over apply.

Monitoring disease pressure is a main priority for October as cooler, damp conditions are experienced over longer periods during the day. Conditions in October can be ideal for Microdochium nivale outbreaks and predicting when these outbreaks may occur is challenging. Gaining an understanding of what contributes to disease pressure reaching tipping point on your own site allows better informed decisions when selecting and timing any of the applications aimed at counteracting disease pressure These may be, fungicidal, nutritional or plant response applications.

Fungicide technology is only one part of an IPM approach and increasingly it will be the other applications which will become more in focus as tools in which to reduce disease outbreaks and severity. Morning dews can lead to an increase in leaf wetness in October and this additional moisture on the surface can be the perfect vehicle for pathogens. Therefore, utilising dew dispersant technology can be a useful tool.

Expectations need to be set to a realistic level in relation to longevity of the products compared to when using them in cool months when growth potential is low. When frequent mowing is still taking place, the longevity is going to be relatively short, however this can still be long enough to reduce the level of leaf wetness long enough to get through a high disease pressure period.

Key actions:

• Use a programmed approach to maximise plant health, through balanced nutrition of all plant essential elements not just NPK as part of an IPM plan.
• Raise cutting heights to minimise stress with a reduction in stress invoking practices such as top dressing which weaken and damage leaf blades.
• Ensure cutting units are sharp to provide a clean cut to minimise weakened points for pathogen attack.
• Well timed aeration to maintain movement of water away from the surface and down through the profile. (Caution when tining around Leatherjacket hatch periods)
• Reduce periods of leaf blade wetness by removing dews or utilising dew dispersant technology (apply only to a dry leaf)
• Monitor disease forecasts via resources such as Syngenta’s Greencast
• Use biostimulants and plant response promoters to maximise plant health.
• Take advice on and construct a preventative fungicide application plan, using historic data, live weather forecasts and site-specific conditions, for applications ahead of when conditions favour the development of disease.

Pests

You can check reported sightings of crane fly species on the Pest Tracker (https://www.greencast.co.uk/turf-pest-tracker) on the GreenCast website. To aid effective timing of treatment, follow Syngenta guidelines (7 point plan) for application one month after peak flight is observed. Where chemical control is not authorised, entomopahogenic nematodes can be applied with warm soil temperatures and available moisture being ideal conditions to get the best out of an application. The entomopahogenic nematodes swim in the water film on soil particles in their bid to search out a larval host, useful information can be found on this link.

With the increased soil moisture content worm activity has increased. There are still no legal controls for earthworms and any product which is applied to directly affect them is done so illegally. Cultural management continues to be the only route currently available which can include a combination of practices such as localised surface acidification, removal of grass clippings to reduce their food source and sanding of surfaces to assist in the drying out and dispersal of casts, leading to less negative lasting impression on the surface from the cast.

Tom Wood
B.Sc (Hons) | BASIS | FACTS

Machinery

Keep machinery in good order, clean after use and top up any oil/fuel levels.

Check cutting cylinders are at correct cutting height and are sharp.