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Spreaders for your baseball field turf
Using
a Spreader for your Baseball Field |
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Get
even coverage for your seed,
fertilizer, and top dressing |
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Choices
and Decisions You're going to spread 500 pounds of seed
and fertilizer and topdressing. The usual home lawn spreaders will not
cut it. You need something larger.
- Walk
behind cyclone spreaders are preferred for even coverage. The
hard part is getting the right setting to spread the right amount of
seed or fertilizer. These spreaders can cover a path 15 to 20 feet wide.
- Large spreaders
pulled by a tractor are used by golf course and sometimes by park districts.
If you have a complex of parks, you might consider using one.
- Field rakes are
a real plus for spreading top dressing on the infield turf.
- On the outfield,
you can spread topdressing by making multiple passes with a tractor
pulling a mesh drag.
- A hand pulled drag
is good for spreading the seed, fertilizer, and topdressing after core
aerating.
- And you can always
just spread the topdressing by hand. Sling it all over the field and
let the drag take care of evening it out.
Sources
and Suppliers Shop
around. Landscape suppliers such as Horizon or Sequoia Pacific Turf Supply
have good, large capacity cyclone spreaders. Home Depot type stores have
field rakes.
Tips & Hints
- Keep the spreader
stable when you fill it. If you pour too fast and its not level, the
spreader could tip over.
- Many bags of seed
and fertilizer come in 50 pound bags. Give the youth helper some assistance
hauling, lifting, and pouring.
- When seeding or
fertilizing the large outfield, you need a way to keep track of where
you left off on each pass. I use extra sprinkler flags as markers each
pass to keep track of where I am. Move them as you finish a pass so
you know where to head on your way back again.
- I've found that
the right setting is something of an art to figure out. On the cylcone
spreaders in these pictures, the setting for fertilizer was on 10. The
setting for seed was between 5 and 7. This got the proper coverage of
about 5 pounds per 1000 square feet.
- If you're not sure
what setting to use, start low. It's better to make two passes than
run out on one that was too high.
Mistakes to avoid
- Don't just wing
it and spread seed or fertilizer by hand.
- Don't loose track
of where you are on each pass as you spread fertilizer. Either you'll
over do it or miss a section. You could end up with stripes on the field
as a result.
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you need
to spread
hundreds of pounds
walk-behind
cyclone
spreader is good
steady
as it goes

an invaluable tool -
the field rake
a small
mesh drag
this works
too...
...and
so does this
using flags
to keep track
of each pass |
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