Valley Green Incorporated has been a seller of sports turf for over 20 years. Our sports turf has even graced the field of a certain professional baseball team in Boston. Fortunately, many types of sports were able to run this year even with the coronavirus still around. Like regular turf, sports turf needs proper care in autumn to survive winter. Good winter sports turf care ensures that it is ready to go and healthy for the spring. With this being the last month of October, we decided to focus our article this week on winter sports turf care.
Here are 5 tips on winter sports turf care.
- Fertilize and Over Seed: Some sports turf may remain green until the month of November. When the turf is gone, the roots may still grow. This is why it is important to still fertilize in late autumn. It also doesn’t hurt to fertilize in spring, around the middle of April.
- Aerate: Sports turf gets compacted very easily from participants playing on it. Compacted turf has air that gets squeezed out of the spaces between the soil particles. This makes the soil very hard and gives the turf a more difficult time to take root and grow. The compacted soil also makes a more dangerous surface for the people playing to land on. Aeration will usually fix this problem by creating air pockets in the soil. Aeration in late fall will ensure that turf has great soil to grow in for spring.
- Perform a Soil Test: Performing a soil test before winter can help you to fix any problems with PH and nutrient levels. Resolving soil issues in fall ensures the soil will be healthy in spring.
- Continue to Weed: Using an herbicide in late fall will help curb the growth of weeds in spring. Getting ahead of weed control can also lessen the need for herbicides in the future which is safer for the participants who use the field.
- Don’t Mow During a Frost: Mowing turf that has frost on it can lead to leaf blade ruptures which can even be seen in the spring. If you plan to mow, you should it after the frost has melted. You should also keep the mower blades under one inch. Fluctuating temperatures and wet weather during the winter can lead to turf diseases if the turf is over one inch high.