[ STADIUM PITCH RENOVATION ] MAY/JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2022

[mattparker]

Thanks Darren. My volunteer of the season for the last 10 years running, no question

[Dazzler]

Old Trafford believe it or not use Garlic to get rid of worms

Yes, most of the new "green" treatments include some form of garlic in them. The older unsafe treatments that got banned were longer lasting, and their effect has been waning over the last few years since you stopped being able to apply them.

One of the products we tried last year was garlic based - but has a short effective timespan. Premier league teams put more product on in one day than we have for the season.

We are trying a different mix this year hopefully - and also a slightly different approach to the fertiliser programme. We'll see how it goes I guess.

[Dazzler]

The first week or two after the initial pitch work was quite dry - only one reasonable shower and even that was light, so quite a bit of sprinkler usage in the main high wear areas of goals, centre of pitch etc.. to kick start the seed (we have fast germinating seed - but still needs water to start). Usually early morning and evenings - though did a few periods during the day whilst other work going on to get moisture into the pitch.

With the MKD match about 10-12 days earlier than we'd originally scheduled the pitch to be ready for (July 16th) this meant trying to accelerate things a bit - including hand watering all the touchlines and corners regularly. The far side is often extra dry due to the trees of course.

Also, as of June 1st Mark Panter (MDP Groundcare) is back as the main groundsman, and will co-ordinate all work, fixtures and inspections requirements with both club secretaries.

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[Dazzler]

Week 2 post pitch work, was again dry so more watering a bit - though trying not to use too much as it's not cheap - though with a few days where rain was forecast and never came, we did a few more rounds of manual sprinkler use. Pitch starting to fill in and losing the top dressing into the grass and new growth now.

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We finally got a good amount of rain last Sunday and that's helped a lot all over the pitch - though we're still working on some areas to push them on a bit. Unfortunately we don't have the fancy premier light systems.

[Dazzler]

On to this week - Monday 6th June - pitch got a good soaking through Sunday and overnight, plus overcast so able to get into the soil profile.

Mark did the first cut (both ways) with a cylinder mower - we'll also use a rotary at times which is better at getting any longer stalky bits.

IN the next weeks we'll also do another feed and a selective weed spray to remove any broad leaf weeds that drop in and interfere with the grass.

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Still plenty of thickening up to do - but pitch will be cut every 2-3 days now to promote strong growth as the grass continues to fill in along the seed lines.

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[Dazzler]

The Goal Areas tend to need the most recovery, but these are coming on well, though less than 4 weeks until the first match.

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[Dazzler]

Finally a quick view of the touchlines recovering well and starting to fill in. These areas always go first, and someday it'd be nice to be like St Neots and have Astro touchlines for officials.

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Here's hoping for plenty of over night rain over the next weeks and some nice dry days to kick the growth on. As required we'll still maybe need to have the sprinklers out - but it's very manual process. Again like Astro touchlines and built in sprinkler system would be another nice to have sometime...probably not at HR though.

[Dazzler]

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[Dazzler]

Friday 10th June

3 weeks post main pitch renovation work. Probably using sprinklers a bit over the next week or so with the current forecast. Still more work to thicken up some areas.

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[Rushdenjim]

Great updates