Groundskeeper in!tt~~~~!~m~J!~,~t!~ld andFootball-Readyin3Months ... with Grass So Tough It Has the New Mower Grunting!

by George P. Tomo

I n last month's sportsTURF,George Toma explained that followingthe Super Bowl last year, he flew toHonolulu as he has done countlesstimes to prepare the fields for the ProBowl. Last year, however, Toma stayedin Hawaii until November.

Signing on as a groundskeepingpro with the University of Hawaii, heagreed to supervise the grassing andgrow-in of a new football practice fieldand a new women's soccer field, bothsprigged on a 40/60 compost / exsist-ing soil (clay silt). His assignment alsoincluded upgrading the bermudagrassfield at the Women's Softball Stadium,training the maintenance personneland getting their equipment up tospeed, among other things.

Ihad hoped to start the spriggingby mid-February. Because ofdelays, mostly due to wet weather,

March 10 became our 'grassing' date.After the surface was scarified to adepth of 2 or 3 inches, five days ofsprigging got underway.

For starters, we had put downLesco's 10-20-20 starter fertilizer at225 lbs. per acre. Whether seeding,sodding, or sprigging, I also likeScott's STEP micro package applied atabout 100 lbs. per acre. These fertiliz-ers were worked into the soil andwatered for a couple of days, alongwith 260 lbs. per acre of 21-0-8 spikedwith Ronstar. This provided about 2.5lbs. active per acre, which is lighterthan the label rate.

The sprigging and hydromulchingwere sub-contracted to The King'sLandscape Co. of Honolulu. They pur-chased the Tif 419 stolens from MauiSod at a cost of slightly more than$30,000. We got terrific, high-qualitystolens, great service and then some.The sprigs we needed were harvested

18 January 2001

An ideal backdrop for a worksite. Photos courtesy Hal Dickey

on Maui each evening and flown overthe next morning on Aloha Airlines'first flight.

The sprigs were distributed overthe football field by hand. Then theywere pressed into the soil by a locallybuilt tow-behind disk. As soon as eachsection was sprigged and disked, itwas "hydrocapped." The tank on thehydromulch truck contained not onlynewsprint and tackifier but also halfof the 10-20-20 starter. The other half,2 1/2 lbs. per 1,000 square feet, hadbeen spread a couple of days earlier.Also, we used Gordon's Launch, a newbiostimulant mixture with a liquidmanure base, added to the mulch solu-tion at the rate of one quart per 1,000square feet. My son Chip and I haveused Bov-A-Mura, Gordon's sprayablemanure product for years. I really did-n't expect to see much difference fromthe cytokinins and the humic and ful-vic acids in the biostimulant.

Biostimulant Check PlotsWe made four grow-in applications

of Launch on the football field, start-ing at sprigging on March 10, then onApril 5, April 27 and May 19. In orderto compare turf coverage and rootdepths, I included an untreated plot ateach end of the football field (also atthe soccer field, starting a couple ofweeks later). I measured off 4-by-8-foot plots and drove a wooden stake ineach corner flush with the ground.With a tin can lid nailed to the top ofeach stake, the plots were easy to findand cover with a sheet of plywoodeach time the biostimulant was beingsprayed. This included the first time,in the mulch at sprigging.

Within a week, the sprigs sprayedwith the Launch had runners twice aslong as those we didn't spray. Aftertwo weeks, the runners averaged 3inches long versus less than 1 inch forthe untreated sprigs. By March 31,the three-week-old runners were aver-aging 6 inches! Three to 4 inches wereabout the most we had expected tosee, so we were really impressed.

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Toma inspects the developing turf

I estimated the turf coverage ofthe two untreated plots at about 35percent versus an incredible 80 per-

cent for the rest of the field. My judg-ment was seconded by the architect'sconsultant, Logan Homacon, well

acquainted with Tif 419, particularlyin golf course situations. Looking atthe three week old field he said,"Almost anyone would guess that thisgrass is seven or eight weeks old."

Game-Ready at 6 Weeks?By the end of the sixth week, the

football field could have handled agame.

Checking the root growth of theuntreated plots made me reallyrespect the biostimulant. After 6weeks, the grass had 6-inch roots,except in the check plots where theroots averaged only 1 1/2 inches.Without the Launch, this field couldhave been a disappointment or atleast a lot more of a challenge. Thebaby grass had been pushed with fer-tilizer about as much as could besafely done. It got two or three gran-ular feedings monthly supplying atotal of around three pounds of actu-al N per month.

When the field was 8 weeks old,the athletic directors and coaches

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February 2001 19

came out for a close-up look. Headfootball coach June Jones said itlooked as smooth as a pool table andcommented that he had never seen

grass in better condition. We dug sev-eral samples for them and came upwith 6 or 7 inches of roots each time.Earlier, roots over 8 inches long were

found on grass plants growing overthe sand drains [4 in. x 12 in. sand-filled drainage grooves spaced 10 ft.apart running lengthwise down thefootball field].

By the eleventh week, the footballfield looked its best so far. But it wastime to aerate. We used theVertidrain one-inch tines, punchingto a depth of 12 inches on four-inchcenters. In my opinion, the worstthing you can do to grass is mow itwith a dull mower, and the nextworse is aeration. After aerating, wesprayed Gordon's Focus, a straightbiostimulant (no liquid manure likethere is in Launch). We made thefirst application on May 30th, andapplied it again in mid-June. Theupper field had to be playable byJune 19th for a football camp.

Attractive Grass, and Tough!Within four or five days everyone

who saw it was commenting on theterrific response of the 419. The grasscame back so dark green and thick it

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was applied every4 to 6 weeks; therate was varied tosupply 1 to 2 lbs.actual potash. Ialso made one appof White Gold 0-0-24, a slow-releasecalcium-sulfur-potash from MagicGreen fertilizers.Other thingsbeing equal, whenyou're talkingsports turf, I saythe tougher thebetter.

looked like velvet. It was not onlyunusually dense, but also tough. Imean exceptionally tough. It had ournew five-reel, 8-bladed ToroReelmaster 5200T grunting!

This grass wasplenty tough, and

a good thing it was, too. Two weeks offootball camp began June 19th. Thefield was ready-and then some. Itgot used daily from 9 to 3 p.m. byabout 500 young players over all. Thefirst week was for 8 to 13-year-olds;then a week for high school seniors,including many from the mainland.

I've been high on potash for toughtissue in grass plants. Lesco's 0-0-50

The University of Hawaii Warriorsbegan practicing August 18th putting125 players on the field.

The soccer field went into service inAugust, too. The U. of H. home gamesare played in the stadium at theHonolulu soccer park, a new 20-fieldcomplex near the airport. Visitingwomen's teams from Tulsa, Arkansas,Northern Arizona, Wyoming, BoiseState, Loyola-Marymont, and OregonState practiced on the new soccer fieldon campus. Players and coaches werevery complimentary and wanted toknow how we did it. Many said theywished they had a field of this caliberback home.

V.I.P.s on Softball FieldThe U. of H. women's softball field,

in a stadium that seats 1,200, shapedup very well. It was used in late sum-mer by some v.I.P. visitors. The U.S.softball women's team spent 10 daysand played six games here en route tothe Summer Olympics in Australia.Besides the University of Hawaii

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women's team, a Hawaian women'sall pro team and the Hawaii PacificUniversity women's team all helpedwarm up the national team whichwent on to Sydney where they wonthe Gold!

The softball field became infestedwith purple nutsedge. Manage her-bicide cleaned it up beautifully withtwo applications. The new fieldsalso had some crabgrass pressureduring the first month of grow inbut we sprayed Trimec Plus, withone application controlling it in thefootball field and two in soccer.

The two new fields held up wellin spite of a punishing schedule.You'd see kickers practicing fromthe 40 yard line down to the endzone, while the band used the rest ofthe football field and drill area topractice their marching routines.When football or soccer playersweren't on their fields, they wouldbe switched to cross country-run-ning layouts or used for softball

team drills, cheer leaders, women'strack, etc.

We thought aeration might beneeded as often as once a month.Through October, we aerated aboutevery other month and experiencedno compaction or drainage problems.

Besides the J-inch diameter 16-inch-long tines, the Vertidrain 7516attachments included the quarter-inch and half-inch tine clusters. Theaerator attached via a 3-point hitchand PTO to a Kubota 49 horsepowerdiesel tractor with high flotationtires. The Turfco Mete- R-Matic IIItopdresser with 22.5 cubic ft. capaci-ty was a tow-behind model.

The football field was topdressedwith a quarter-inch of topdressing,most times after aeriation. We usedthe 40-60 compost/soil mix the firsttwo times and silica sand thereafter.This is the good sand used by top golfcourses and a couple of schools herewith athletic programs that get good

financial support.

A rootzone mix of 75 percentAustralian sand, 15 percent peatand 10 percent native soil will beused for a new grass field being builtat a very large and well respectedschool. Called Kamehameha, it wasfounded and endowed by a royalprincess in 1895. The new stadiumfor football, soccer and track at theirHonolulu high school is being doneby PBR-Hawaii, a firm with animpressive track record. StanDuncan, the landscape architect incharge, told me the Tif 419 field willbe sprigged next February and givenbiostimulants like we used at theuniversity.

Quality: Keeping It UpI hope the U. of H. sports field

maintenance budget for future yearswill provide for adequate amounts ofthe good topdressing sand. A verti-cutter is something else that wasbadly needed to cope with the turf'svigor and maintain a safe, quality

22 February 2001

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Toma studies the Australian sand that will comprmise 75 percent of therootzone mix

many rooster-tails; after aeriation, bermudagrass surgedup out of the holes.

We had to cut the grass at 3/4 in. instead of 1/2 in. andhad a fluffy surface that could interfere with the players'footing. With a verticutter, these problems would be avoid-ed or at least reduced. The same would be true with heavythatch. Coach Jones became personally interested in thisand, before I left, he told me that the paper work for thisnew machine was being expedited.

Now that U. of Hawaii has these grass fields, maintain-ing them in good condition depends on having the rightequipment and supplies. Otherwise, they will go downhill.To all who ask me how to succeed as a professionalgroundskeeper I say: Think safety, think maintenance, andtry to familiarize the budget people with what it takes tomaintain a safe and superior playing field. Why? To protecttheir investment.

The University of Hawaii has spent a lot of moneybuilding these fields and setting up a professional-levelgrounds care program. They have new and better equip-ment and a well-trained crew. I hope to see them all jointhe Sports Turf Managers Association. As STMA membersthey can continue to gain knowledge and pride in theirprofession. I congratulate the administration and coachesfor their vision and courage, and I feel honored to havebeen on their team.

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