Plainmoor’s hallowed turf has now undergone its close season regeneration work ahead of the new season.
With the new season just over two months away, and the final part of the pitch relay completed, we caught up with Head Groundsman Julian Gouldthorpe, who told us all about what had been done to the pitch and the process for the coming weeks as the pitch starts to regrow.
“Inscapes have been in and have done the Koro, sandbanding, have top dressed, verti-drained and then re-seeded the pitch, which they finished doing on Wednesday, and it is now down to having the correct amount of water on the pitch and enough sunlight to allow the grass to grow.”
“Hopefully within five to seven days time you will start to see the emergence of the grass, and so when that begins we know the process has been successful. The pitch is being watered twice a day by the sprinkler system, though can be three times if we have hotter and dryer weather, and then we wait for the grass to reach a three leaf stage, which is when we can start to give the pitch its first cut.”
“If we try and cut it before this stage then the plant isn’t strong enough and you will kill the plant, so the three leaf stage is important for us to then be able to start to use the rotary mower, cutting it down to get it tillering up and thickening it up and all ready for the first home pre-season game.”