Sports Turf Management 100 Hours Certificate Course

There are 10 lessons:

1 Turf Variety Selection

• Sowing
• Feature Lawns
• Picnic Areas
• Sports Grounds
• Gardens
• Parks

2 Mowing:

• Types of Mowing Equipment
• Mower Types
• Before Mowing
• How to mow
• After mowing
• Changing mower blades
• Mowing sports turf
• Sports turf mowers
• Problems that may occur with mowing
• Edging
• More on mower types
• Options for power: petrol, electric, manual, hover, ride-on mowers
• Deciding what you need
• Choosing your mower

3 Cultivation Techniques:

• When to cultivate
• Methods of cultivation: coring, drilling, grooving, slicing, spiking, forking, raking, air blast, vertical mowing
• Cultivation techniques for sports turf: coring or hollow tining, drilling, spiking, slicing, scarifying (grooving), vertical mowing

4 Preparing for Play on Sports grounds:

• Preparing for play
• Dew removal
• Water removal
• Combing
• Vertical mowing (dehatching)
• Mowing
• Rolling
• Marking for play

5 Preparing for Play of Greens:

• Preparing for play: Golf, Cricket wickets, croquet, lawn tennis, lawn bowls

6 Turf Protection & Preservation

• Managing use
• Ways to minimise damage to sports turf
• Why repair turf?
• How to repair turf: grass growing poorly or not at all, wrong plants in turf, grass affected by pests or diseases, chemical damage
• Managing demand
• Repairing turf

7 Irrigation & Drainage

• Irrigation and drainage of sports turfs
• Irrigation systems: alternatives abd applications: Travelling sprinkler systems, quick coupling valve systems, manually operated, semi-automatic, automatic
• Types of sprinkler equipment: sprinklers, valves, controllers
• Management of water features on golf courses
• Drainage: Improving surface drainage after construction, layout of drains, outlet, gradients, distance between drainage pipes, depth of drains, types of drains, laying the drain
• Soils and drainage
• Compaction

8 Soil Treatment & Sprays:

• Turf nutrition: Major and trace elements, types of fertilisers, how much feriliser, when and how to apply ferilisers
• Soil PH and the use of soil amendment agents: Soil pH, altering soil pH,soil amendment agents
• Soil and ferilisers
• Cation exchange capacity and pH: Soil pH, nutrient availability and pH
• Fertilisers: When using fertilisers, remember....

9 Evaluate Maintenance Facilities

• Role of the playing area and renovation: Bent grass bowling greens, couch grass greens
• Analysis of parks maintenance: equipment, materials, noney availability, money limitation, avaialability and motivation of personnel, prejudices, community pressures, prominant location positioning
• Parks maintenance tasks: Turf care, weed control, rubbish removal, park structures or furnishings, pest and disease control, floral displays, tree surgery, general plant care, control of drainage, maintaining surfacing

10 Develop a Management Plan

• Environmental problems
• Common environmental problems: Foilage nurn, pollution, lack of water
• Drainage problems in turf
• Frost
• Temperature
• Wind
• Plants have varying tolerance levels
• Works programming: Maintenance, new works, construction crew
• Weeds
• Identifying weeds: Types of weed problems, weeds along fence-lines and borders, weeds at the base of trees, weeds in hard surface areas
• Plants that go to seed: Vigorous, invasive creepers, suckers,underground rhizomes, tubers, bulbils and corms
• Weeds in lawns
• Noxious weeds
• Common turf weeds
• Algae and lichens

The quality of this course is second to none, from the in-depth learning you will get to the expert individual mentoring you will receive throughout your studies. The mentors for this course are:

Susan Stephenson

BSc in Applied Plant Biology (Botany) Univ. London 1983.

City and guilds: Garden Centre Management, Management and Interior Decor (1984)

Management qualifications in training with retail store. Diploma in Hort level 2 (RHS General) Distinction.

Susan Stephenson is a passionate and experienced horticulturist and garden designer. She has authored three books, lectures at 2 Further and Higher Education Colleges, teaching people of all ages and backgrounds about the wonders of plants and garden design, and tutors many students by correspondence from all over the world.

Susan studied botany at Royal Holloway College (Univ of London) and worked in the trading industry before returning to her first love plants and garden design. She is therefore, well placed to combine business knowledge with horticulture and design skills. Her experience is wide and varied and she has designed gardens for families and individuals. Susan is a mentor for garden designers who are just starting out, offering her support and advice and she also writes, delivers and assesses courses for colleges, introducing and encouraging people into horticulture and garden design.

In 2010, Susan authored a complete module for a Foundation degree (FDSC) in Arboriculture.

Susan holds the RHS General with Distinction. She continues to actively learn about horticulture and plants and (as her students will tell you) remains passionate and interested in design and horticulture.

Steven Whitaker

Diploma in Garden Design (Distinction) – The Blackford Centre, Gold Certificate of Achievement in Horticulture, Level 2 NVQ in Amenity Horticulture, Level 1 NOCN Introduction to Gardening, – Joseph Priestly College, BTEC Diploma in Hotel, Catering and Institutional Operations (Merit), Trainer Skills 1, & 2, Group trainer, Interview and Selection Skills – Kirby College of Further Education

Steven has a wealth of Horticultural knowledge, having ran his own Design and Build service, Landscaping company, and been a Head Gardener. His awards include five Gold awards at Leeds in Bloom, two Gold awards at Yorkshire in Bloom and The Yorkshire Rose Award for Permanent Landscaping. Steven has worked with TV’s Phil Spencer as his garden advisor on the Channel 4 TV Programme, “Secret Agent”.

He is qualified to Level 2 NVQ in Amenity Horticulture and has a Diploma in Garden Design which he passed with Distinction. Steven’s Tutor and Mentor was the Chelsea Flower Show Gold Award-winning Garden Designer, Tracy Foster. He also works for a major Horticultural Commercial Grower in the field of Propagation and Craft Gardening. Steven lives in Leeds where he is a Freelance Garden Designer and Garden Advice Consultant.

SAMPLE OF BACKGROUND NOTES FOR LESSON 1 - Provides the basis of what you will learn in the lesson - approx 10 hours

AIM

Select turf varieties to suit different sports surface requirements, in different climates and soil types.

INTRODUCTION

Sports turf is different to other types of turf in various ways. Primarily, the major difference is that sports turf may suffer more wear and tear than ornamental lawns. An ornamental lawn may be walked over very little, and when it is walked upon the traffic is generally mild. The amount of damage which a sports turf suffers will depend upon:

• The amount of use it gets

• The type of games which are being played on it

• Weather conditions (e.g. it is more likely to be damaged in very wet weather)

• Construction factors (e.g. soil type, drainage, and so on)

• The type of turf cultivars growing in the turf

• The health of the turf and, in relation to this, the level of care and maintenance.

Before discussing turf grass varieties in detail, it is interesting to review the history of turf grass selection:

TURF VARIETIES IN PARKS

(By M. Fielder: from a seminar organised by John Mason, ACS School Principal).

Grasses were used for lawns as early as the 13th century. The composition was typical of a natural meadow of that time with weeds giving added colour at flowering time. In the 16th and 17th centuries, information was recorded for the maintenance of chamomile lawns and bowling greens. The game of bowls has been recorded as early as the 13th century while the famous St. Andrews Golf Club in Scotland was founded in the 15th century.

It was not until the 18th century that references were made to obtaining seed from clean pastures instead of using seed from hay.

In the 19th century the scythe was being replaced by the cylinder mower and the introduction of turf management as we know it today, saw its beginnings.

The experimental study of turf appears to have started in the United States around 1885 by J. B. Olcott. He selected about 500 strains from thousands of plants and came to the conclusion that the best turf forming grasses were to be found in the genera Agrostis and Festuca. Improved strains of these two genera are still the basis for fine lawns, golf greens and bowling greens, even today.

The number of grasses suitable for turf is limited. Grass we use today is mostly selected and bred in Europe and the United States. Holland is emerging as a world leader in turf grass breeding while in the United States, couch grass, particularly the hybrids, have been developed and are being used in sporting situations.

The intended or actual use of a particular area is the deciding factor in the selection of grass species and its subsequent management. The situation will vary from a feature lawn with a high maintenance cost to a park which is only mown when necessary.

When planning a seed mixture, it is important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of different grasses and why certain grasses are used in preference to others.

Bent grasses and fescues such as Chewings and Creeping Red can withstand lower mowing than other grasses. The bent grass strains known as Penncross and Palustris are both stoloniferous and tend to become spongy with age. If these bent grasses are used alone or with fescues in a lawn, bowling green or golf green, annual scarifying, preening and coring is essential for their maintenance. In a park or sports oval, these varieties of bent grass tend to colonise and form patches choking out all other grasses and giving a very patchy appearance.

Kentucky bluegrass (Poapratensis) is a perennial. It will not survive close mowing whilst winter grass (Poaannua) which is an annual will survive close mowing and can quickly become a serious weed. It is also seeds prolifically.

The Bermuda couches are used extensively where there is heavy wear because they bind the surface together despite being dormant in winter. It should be sown in spring and summer.

Improved strains of perennial ryegrass with finer leaves have been developed for turf use. These strains have a deep strong root system and are easier to mow.

Tall fescue, also known as Demeter fescue, is a recent introduction to recreational areas although it has been in use as a pasture plant for a number of years. It is a grass capable of withstanding severe wear and it has been used successfully in sports ovals and other areas where there is concentrated foot traffic. The finer fescues will persist in partially shaded areas for longer than other grass species, but in extreme shade no grass will persist.

Kikuyu can be used in situations where other grasses are destroyed by excessive wear, or where there is a limited water supply. To prevent it developing a spongy surface, low mowing is necessary in either spring or autumn. This grass is either dormant or semi‑dormant in winter when it becomes yellow and this unsightly colouring has rendered it unacceptable as a sports surface. Ryegrass, both perennial and annual, can be introduced in autumn to provide a more presentable appearance.

Sowing

Clovers such as ‘white’ and ‘strawberry’ can be included in seed mixtures for parks and sporting ovals. Seed mixtures must be simple and consist of species capable of growing together to form a dense uniform sward.

Bent grasses have fine seeds and the sowing rate is lower than for other grasses. The usual sowing rate for lawns is between 8 to 12 g to a sq metre (1/4 to 3/8 oz per sq yard) either alone or as part of a mixture.

Chewings and Creeping Red Fescue are sown at the rate of 16 to 24 g to the sq metre (1/2 to 3/4 oz per sq yard) as part of the mixture. These fescues are fast growers and are regarded as nurse or filler grasses.

Kentucky bluegrass and the strains of perennial ryegrass are sown at similar rates to fescues when used as lawn grasses. On large areas such as sports ovals, sowing rates of perennial ryegrass and Kentucky bluegrass are in the order of 34 to 67 kg per ha (30 to 60 lb per acre) depending on whether it is part of or the base grass in a mixture.

Tall fescue, because of its larger seed, is sown at the rate of at least 67 kg per ha (60 lb per acre).

White and Strawberry clover are usually included at the sowing rate of between 2 and 6 kg pr hectare (2 to 5 lb per acre). Couch grass seed is sown at between 11 ‑ 22 kg per hectare (10 ‑20 lbs per acre). Hybrid couches are vegetatively propagated.

Total sowing rates for sports ovals need not be higher than 57 kg per ha (140lbs per acre).

The basic fertiliser requirements for turf are nitrogen, potash, and phosphorus, and in that order. Trace elements such as copper are included especially when an acidic, sandy loam is used.

The pH level which is a mathematical method of measuring the acidity or alkalinity of a soil is most important for turf growth.

The scale used to measure pH ranges from 0 to 14. Neutral is 7, above this figure is alkaline, and below is acid. The recommended level for optimum utilisation of applied fertilisers is pH 6.5 which is slightly acidic. Ground agricultural limestone is used if the level is below pH 6.0. Fertilisers used on turf are usually acidic and regular applications will reduce the soil pH figure, except on alkaline soils.