| What
you're going to do Add
material over the aerified turf areas.
Why you do
this
Aerification is followed
by topdressing.
The product mixture
helps resist compaction and helps the root zone of your turf.
This process also
helps you smooth out the ruts, holes, and undulations in the grass.
How you do this
- This can be messy,
but the good thing is that it's OK for this step to be messy. It doesn't
have to be exact.
- Three yards of
topdressing can be adequately spread over a typical high school or college
infield. Fill a wheelbarrow or a cart with the material and move it
to the infield.
- Space out piles
15-20 feet and dump.
- Use field rakes
to spread it out in all directions.
- Repeat until the
turf has been covered.
- Don't be afraid
to put it on thick in low spots.
- In a future step
the turf will be dragged to smooth out the top dressing and work it
down to the soil.
Tips & Hints
- A mix that includes
some sand works best. A mix that is successful most anywhere is 1/3
topsoil, 1/3 sand, 1/3 compost. See
the section on top dressing mix for additional info.
- One purpose of
topdressing is to smooth the surface just as they do on golf greens.
There are many schools of thought on which topdressing to use. At a
minimum, topdress with sand. A sand and compost mixture works well also.
Topdress turf areas at a minimum rate of 6 tons per grassed acre.
Mistakes to avoid
- If you skipped
aeration or aerated hard dry soil, then the topdressing doesn't get
a chance to work its way down into the turf. In this case if you use
calcined clay products like Turface, you better be prepared to water
a lot on hot days or our grass is going to die. what happens is the calcined
clay laying on top of the soil will suck the moisture out and cause
speedy evaporation which in turn causes hard, dry ground and withered
grass.
- If you plan to
top dress with just fill sand similar to a golf course, then be sure
the sand is more dry than wet. Wet sand does not spread very well at
all. It kind of goes on in globs.
- Don't drive heavy
equipment like a bobcat or tractor on the infield turf to dump the top
dressing. Use wheelbarrows to haul and dump. Otherwise you are asking
for ruts. Big ruts. Experience indicates that heavy equipment is OK
on the outfield turf as long as it is not too soft or wet.
|
|
spreading
topdressing
leveling
top dressing
moving
topdressing
|
