Cultural Practices for Weed ControlDr. Chris Hall, a professor at the Uni-

versity of Guelph's Department of Envi-ronmental Biology and past Director ofthe Turfgrass Institute, was the nextspeaker on the program. Dr. Hall spokeon "Cultural Practices for Weed Control,"and talked at length about changes in gov-ernment thinking and philosophies as theyrelate to pesticides. Dr. Hall said that whilethere is not the same pressures for non-chemical weed control there were a fewyears ago, those same pressures will sur-face again. He suggested that we have tobe pro-active in our dealings with pesti-cide issues.

First, Dr. Hall pointed out that mainte-nance is not a trivial task and it differsaccording to the sport or location. Soccerplayers want good footing, good ballbounce, and ball roll. Golf, on the otherhand, is different. While golfers still re-quire a good ball roll and playability, thecourse is very much a park-like setting.On highways-a completely differentsituation-grass performs functions suchas cutting down on glare, and along withtrees and shrubs, provides some noise re-duction. It also helps prevent soil and winderosion as well as slows runoff, has heatabsorption qualities, and provides an areaoff the main thoroughfare for vehicles. Nomatter its use, grass recharges the groundwater system and contributes to 02 fixa-tion and 02 generation.

The key to good weedcontrol is a densehealthy turf which isable to compete forlight and tempera-ture and suppressweed germination sothey are slow to develop.

Dr. Hall indicated that the key to goodweed control is a dense healthy turf whichis able to compete for light and tempera-ture and suppress weed germination sothey are slow to develop. Negative effectsof weeds include poor turf-too much

8 • SEPTEMBER 1999

12th Annual Field DayMICHAEL BLADON

competition-and increased labour andequipment costs. Furthermore, poor qual-ity turf affords a place for insect and dis-ease organisms to flourish and a haven forweeds which affect allergy sufferers.

Switching to non-chemical weed con-trol, Dr. Hall talked about factors such ascompetition, the type of weed, turfgrasssusceptibility, and cultural methods. Forexample: Is the area wet? and Does it suf-fer from salt damage? Some preventativesare proper seed bed preparation and elimi-nation of seed production-many weedsare annuals and one mowing will removethe problem of seed production. Anothervenue is to exhaust the propagation organs.In the case of quack grass, stolons mustbe removed in their entirety by raking outor constant cultivation practices of bring-ing rhizomes to the surface to die. As forproper seeding with the correct species,consult with a turf specialist in your area.(The seeding rate and clean seed are dis-cussed in the June 1999 issue of SportsTurf Manager, "The Seed Label," page12.) The time of seeding is also impor-tant, particularly if you do not have irri-gation-mid- August to mid-September isbest. Dr. Hall then mentioned the advan-tages and disadvantages of species of Ken-tucky blue and perennial rye (see the ta-ble on the opposite page).

Dr. Hall ended with some final point-ers on weed control:1) Sod management-fertilizing, mowing,and watering. It is important that you sur-vey for weeds and avoid scalping.2) Mechanical weed control can be ac-

complished by mowing, tillage, and physi-cal removal.3) Non-chemical weed control begins withcareful selection of species and cultivars.For example, Kentucky Bluegrass is lesssusceptible to weed invasion. Rememberthat cultivars of the same species will re-spond the same. Lastly, improving nitro-gen reduces weed invasion in all species.

ORFA Training Opportunitiesand Partnerships

Next on the program was Jay Kivell.Jay is presently Manager of Parks and Fa-cilities for the City of Guelph. His subjectwas Ontario Recreational Facilities Asso-ciation (ORFA) training opportunities andpartnerships. Jay heads up the annual pro-fessional development program for them.Member services consist of district meet-ings and the Facility Forum, a bi-monthlymagazine (soon to be changing to quar-terly). They have a facilities library locatedin Toronto where you may go to do re..;search for news-letter articles, re-ports, etc. There isalso a job searchservice in place.Regional trainingin aquatics pro-grams is availablefor those whomaintain pools.Safety training inpropane manage-ment is also of-fered. Even if youoperate a propanebarbecue at work,a certificate is re-quired. An ice making manual is available,plus log books and other texts. If you havea minimum of 30 people, ORFA will holda propane course at your place of work ata cost of $60 per person.

ORFA has formed 34 partnerships withorganizations such as Algonquin College,Seneca College, the NHL, and several pro-vincial government departments. Eachyear, training is run at the University ofGuelph, in partnership with the Office ofOpen Learning, in Parks Operations, Parks

Management, and Sports Turf Manage-ment and Operations. A new course of-fering is for Certified Park Technicians.Algonquin College is currently providinga Trainers and Adults Certificate for any-one who is interested in teaching the abovecourses. Jay invited the Sports Turf Asso-ciation to be both a partner of the OFRAand to supply some instructors.

'~

The Bear FactsKen Mrock, head groundskeeper for the

Chicago Bears, gave both a humourousand informative talk on the difficulties ofmaintaining fields for football players. Hehas to contend with all kinds of weatherwhile keeping in mind that many playersweigh 300+ pounds and are worth US$60,000,000 together as a team. Playerstoday are bigger, faster, and stronger.Training camp begins with 90 players andis finally cut to 52. Ken looks forward tothis because it means 38 less pairs of cleatschewing up his turf! His first slide showedthe NFL logo which he said stands for "notfor long" if you don't get the job done! Inthis business, a top job is expected, butappreciation is hard to come by.

pea gravel to keep out the clay. Next, awell 450-500' deep was drilled into thelake aquifer to make sure they always hadwater. They used a greens mix of 80%sand, 10% PROFILE, and 10% peat moss(this was mixed off site). He had used thissame mix when involved with golf coursework and it withstood a terrific amount ofwear-they would play 60,000 rounds ayear! He also found this type of mix hadless disease, greater water holding capac-ity, and fostered a dense turf. Then, theyblended 14,000 yards of the mix and

, spread it on 6" of pea gravel. Ken felt af-terwards that they could have used lessgrowing medium. They also installed apolypropylene pipe to check on 02 emis-sions. Results of the tests indicated zero.Following this, on two of the five acres,they installed tubing to heat the soil. Ini-tially, he had set up a small test area sug-gested by the manufacturer from whichhe learned a great deal. Ken used this in-formation to avoid what could have beencostly mistakes.

They used 14 miles of rubber tubingwhich was laid on l' reinforcing rods tiedevery 15" for stabilization. There were six

Players today arebigger, faster, andstronger. Trainingcamp begins with 90players and is finally cutto 52.

Ken then talked about a farmthe Bear ownership bought to make a prac-tice facility and to house their headquar-ters and training facilities. Five acres werezoned for a practice facility. The first stepwas to remove the topsoil. Then 4" drain-age tile was laid 15' apart and filled with

stations where the heat was monitored.Starting in October, temperatures werekept at 55°F. Two boilers supplied heatfrom October to January 2nd. The sup-plier gave a 30 year guarantee on the tub-

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SPORTS TURF MANAGER • 9

Top: George Bannerman (centre)explaining a new slicer/aerator hiscompany has available.

Above: Ed Robertson of Toro (left)and Gord Dol, Dol Turf RestorationServices (right), displaying turfproducts.

Left: Keynote speaker Dan Ferrone,former captain of the TorontoArgonauts and current President ofthe CFL Players' Association.

Opposite page: Ron Schiedel,President of the Green Horizon'sGroup, welcomes participants to theCompact Sod Farm.

10 • SEPTEMBER 1999

ing, and when tested, there was only onebreak, which they replaced. Tubing wasfilled with propylene/glycol and water toprevent freezing when the system was shutdown. (After use in January, the tempera-ture is lowered gradually.) Next, the me-dium was bridged out over the tubing toprevent damage and laser leveled. Kenthen fine graded using a sand rake. Heused a piece of Smithco equipment to dim-ple in the seed. Ken chose all KentuckyBluegrass blends sown at 6 lbs per 1,000square feet. The tubing was 8" down inthe growing medium, so no problemsarose with maintenance such asaerification.

Ken employs several ideas to reduce orchange wear. He uses movable goal postsfor kickers and puts in grid lines off thefield for the linemen. Team practices arethree hours, so he marks the fields ena-bling play to run in two different direc-tions. Further, he talks to the coach to re-duce potential communication problems.At Soldier Field, he pre-germinates seedin drums three days before a game, drainsthe drums on asphalt to let dry, and thenspreads on the field prior to the game.Players' cleats then work the seed into thesoil for good contact. After the game, heirrigates.

They also have an indoor practice field,erected at a cost of $7 million, that hasonly been used four times. Cost of theentire facility to date is $33 million. Fi-nally, Ken mentioned that Soldier Fieldwill be gutted and a new facility built. Eve-rything will go except for the historicalcolumns. The field itself will also be re-done, with completion scheduled for Sep-tember 2000. The new field will use bigrolls of sod already ordered from the sodfarm and will begrown on the growingmedium mentioned earlier. Play, theyhope, will be at either Notre Dame orNorthwestern until completion.

Ken then fielded questions from thefloor and also on the bus trip to the sodfarm, so many more tips and ideas sur-faced for the participants. It certainly wasworthwhile to bring Ken to Canada againto share his considerable knowledge!

Trip to Compact Sod FarmPrior to lunch, all suppliers were given

a chance to introduce themselves and saysomething about the products they distrib-ute. Following lunch, all delegates boarded

buses and cars to the Green HorizonsGroup of Farms Ltd., Compact Sod. RonSchiedel, President, accompanied us andanswered questions. At the farm, Ron ex-plained the company business. They growsod on 3,000 acres between Hamilton andCambridge. The Green Horizons Groupown 500 acres and the rest is leased undervarious agreements ranging from one tofive or more years.

Green Horizons is a family businesswith a winter staff of 15-20 and approxi-mately 50 seasonal employees. While theirmarket is mostly to homeowners, they alsogrow com and soybeans, sell grass seed,and blend their own fertilizers. Some oftheir sod is exported to New York andMichigan.

The basic operation employed by GreenHorizons after a crop has been taken offis to spray with Roundup, plough, disc,rough and fine pick stones, and finallyseed. They allow 24 months from seed toharvest and sell 1,000 acres a year whichtranslates into 1 million rolls.

Mowing also is critical. Grass is cutthree times a week by 10 staff members

who cut 100 acres per day. Grass is keptat a height of 2-112" except in summerwhen the cutting height is raised to 3".(Bentgrass is mowed at 3/8".) Last yearthey drilled a well down 450' in order tocounteract previous droughts and usedlarge travelling sprinklers which can wa-ter an acre at a time.

The company has 120 mowing reels,

15 large trucks, 5-6 smaller trucks forhauling sod, and all the allied farm equip-ment necessary. In 'winter, all equipmentis refurbished. Bearings are replaced, reelssharpened, and MTC certification is per-formed on the trucks. The sod harvestersare overhauled.

To end, Ron shared one of the largestjobs he was involved with-removing top-

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SPORTS TURF MANAGER • II

The Schmeiser tiller and bedder used at Compact sod farms to cultivate andfirm the land area prior to seeding.

soil that was in the way of a subdivisionfor the City of Cambridge. They used 300triaxle trucks for two months to haul 5,000metres of soil onto a 70 acre area andspread it one foot deep. He wanted to mixthe clay soil with an existing sandy loam.Quite a project!

Sponsor and ExhibitorDemonstrations- After touring several farms to see vari-

ous aspects of the sod operation, we lis-tened to and viewed demonstrations byGeorge Bannerman, Vanden Bussche Ir-rigation, Turf Care Products Canada, DolTurf Restoration Ltd., and G.C. DukeEquipment. George Bannerman demon-strated a new piece of equipment called aUni-drill, a slicer-aerator which looks verypromising. Andrew Gaydon and his staffhad an excellent working irrigation dem-onstration so delegates could see a com-plete system. He showed what can be ex-pected from different nozzle sizes and theease in which they can be interchangeddepending on your requirements and wa-ter pressure. He also explained pop-upsand how they retract so they are safe onsports fields. He had a pressure gauge onthe system and a small controller. It wasan excellent hands-on display.

Ed Robertson of Turf Care gave us arun down on three different sized Toromowing units, as well as introduced him-self as one of their newer staff members.Gord Dol had a sample on the back of histruck of his newly acquired "Sportgrass"

12 • SEPTEMBER 1999

(article in June 1999 STM). He has about60,000 yards of it in stock and mentionedit is excellent for soccer goal mouths andbare centre field areas. Maintenance is thesame as for most sports fields. Paul Turnerdemonstrated a weedkiller unit which usesboiling water. It is manufactured in NewZealand. He sprayed and indicated that thearea would be dead in 24 hours. Finallyhe showed the two latest mowers on themarket from Jacobsen with many safetyattributes and helpful diagnostic featuresto aid the mechanic. The day ended withtransportation back to the GuelphTurfgrass Institute.

Field Day EvaluationOverall impression from all evaluations

was positive. Topics participants wouldlike to see addressed at future field daysinclude: naturalization, problems and con-cerns of sports field maintenance at themunicipal level, and more information onvarious seed plants. A number of partici-pants suggested a tour of the Universityof Guelph campus including gardens,sports fields, and the arboretum. .~-

O~TA~/O Mark your calen-dar now for OTS2000, January 4-6

\.~_ ~ at the Regal-'7'1PQ5\V

Constellation Hotel,Toronto. Early bird registrationdetails are on the following page.

I

Turfgrass