# crussell's Baseball Field Improvements



## crussell

A while ago I posted about an opportunity to volunteer my time and efforts towards the local HS Varsity Baseball Field. Well everything has checked out, and this weekend I got the green light.

The field is approximately 6,000 SF of infield, plus another 5,000 SF of "curtains" which is the foul territory along the baselines.

Earlier this year I helped organize a fundraising event for the Baseball team, which brought in about $7,500 for the team. The coach is willing to allocate up to $1,000 towards the field. Basically any significant purchases, for example top dressing sand, they will cover. I'm happy to donate the more incidental items, including some chemicals, ferts, etc out of my own supply.

Last year they installed irrigation and re-leveled the infield, before throwing down what sounded like a Northern Seed Mix of some kind (kbg/prg/tttf). Anyways, a year later and the weeds have taken over. In addition, the grass looks stressed, the ground is hard and lumpy, and really never got much TLC.

My plan? Well it's almost October, so not much time left to do anything. Not to mention, Baseball season starts up in March so any thoughts of a reno, or any other destructive option is not feasible. Here is the approach I'm taking:

1.)Reel Mow - I have a spare McLane 20" Reel Mower I'm willing to leave at the field and use to mow. I mowed yesterday, took me 2 hours! I have been spoiled by my GM1000 at home, and forgot how SLOW this McLane mows...

2.)Weed Control - There is a salad bar of weeds. You name it, it's there. I turned to Tenacity at the 5 oz / Acre Rate. I chose tenacity as it will accommodate my over seeding, and it's pre and post emergent properties. Along with this blanked app, I added a few other items to the cocktail (FAS & Kelp)

3.)Verticut - Going to run my Slit Seeder through it to open up the ground.

4.)Over Seed - I have about 25# of PRG (Champion GQ) that I will spread in after Verticutting.

5.)Top Dress - Bringing in about 10 CY of sand. I'm fortunate they have a lawn tractor and drag mats, I haven't had that luxury at home.

6.)Fertilize - Want to hit it with some Nitrogen. Probably two apps before winter.

PHOTO NARRATIVE:

Just a relative sample of the current condition, and weed problems.




First reel mow - This was taken on my way back from dumping the clippings. I opted to catch yesterday, because of the amount of weeds I was mowing.


View from the Club House.




12 Gallons ready to spray over 11,000 SF - Tenacity, FAS, Kelp4Less Extreme Blend, Surfactant & Dye. When I built this sprayer, I never though I'd have to fill it past the 4 gallons to do my home lawn. Now filling to 12 gallons, I had some reason for concern on how it would handle, but to my surprise the Spyker setup handled the full 12 gallons awesome!


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## osuturfman

Sounds like a solid plan!

Would be worth it to do a SureGuard or SpecticleFlo app on the infield skin as a Pre-M for winter annuals that will pop up. Makes it a lot easier and quicker to get things game-ready.

Maybe an overseeding plan with bluegrass next fall.

Looking forward to following along. Best of luck!


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## crussell

@osuturfman Are those not both Warm Season herbicides? The only concern I have with the Pre-M is that my overseed would be unsuccessful.

I was very close to ordering a bag of KBG, but decided it is getting too late in the year and time is running out. I have the PRG on hand, and it should establish quickly if I get it down in the next day or two. We have a good week of mixed sun/clouds and temps in the mid-high 60's forecasted.


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## osuturfman

Negative, they are used in all climates. The area I was suggesting they be used on is the infield dirt, aka "skin", not at all on the grass surfaces. I should have been more clear about that, sorry. Usually, you'll see winter annual grasses and weeds pop up in those areas, especially in a fairly moderate climate like yours. Again, this helps in that there shouldn't be very many weeds/grass to remove from the dirt prior to the season.

Sounds like good weather to get the PR to establish before it gets cold. Seed down and tucked in with the topdressing will have the team on a top-notch surface in no time.

Are you responsible for doing anything with the dirt or just grass for now?


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## crussell

@osuturfman Ohhhhh ok that makes a lot more sense. I have to say I would be interested in doing these Pre-Ms to the "skin", but holy smokes I just looked up the price.. Any Warm Season guys want to sell me an ounce or two??

I don't mind spending money on these things, but I literally would have no use for these at home, and would only need one app for about 10k Square Feet.


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## crussell

Yesterday after work - My buddies (who are HS coaches) and I hit the field.

We did two passes of the verticutter in separate directions, and then chased behind it with a rotary to bag the thatch and debris. All in all, not a lot of thatchy material was produced. The ground is so firm, that the blades really did slice down in most areas without disturbing the existing grass too much.

One Pass:



Put down about 25# of Champion GQ PRG over the 11k SF. Put the spreader on a lighter setting, and made about 3 passes over the entire space until it was spent. Super happy with the Spyker spreader, great spread pattern. We hand sanded a few high traffic area, such as in front of dugouts and at the base of the pitchers mound.



Sun was getting low but we hit it with about 20 minutes of water to settle and moisten the seed. This week should be cloudy and mid-60's, will keep up with daily watering just to keep the seed moist.



Next comes top dressing - Have 10 CY of topdressing sand on order for tomorrow and Thursday. Figuring over two evenings we will get it spread and drug in.

Will hit it with some fert. I have some 16-16-16 and some Milo. Hoping to help promote faster growth through the sand, and the milo should be slow enough to help when the seed germinates.


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## crussell

Dropped about 4 CY of sand tonight - Getting another load tomorrow and will get to spreading.


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## crussell

We put in some work the last two nights.

Yesterday first thing after work, spread some Milo and 16-16-16 down before topdressing.

Then piled and spread 10 CY of topdressing sand. We used a combination of a riding mower, wheel barrows, gorilla cart, rakes, drag mats, and brooms.

It's amazing how fast sand can disappear into turf. Our piles broke down to some pretty thick areas, but by the time we finished dragging and brooming, it's as if we never top dressed at all.

It has already made a very noticeable improvement, which is evident just from walking on it or driving the riding mower.

Planning to mow Saturday morning.

Can already tell from my application of FAS on Saturday, the grass is much greener compared to the outfield.


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## coachpaul77

Very cool project. I'm loving following along as a baseball coach (and someone whose job thru university was to maintain my city's fields).


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## Colonel K0rn

Looks like you've got a great project! What are your plans for the clay on the infield? Consistent hops of the balls are always nice, just like having a great playing surface. That triplex you're looking at would be a great addition for maintaining the field. Concerning Specticle Flo, you can get a small bottle (18 oz) that would last you a season or two of great PreM coverage, and the price would offset the cost for your PostM sprays along with the time to spray said materials. All too often, we don't value our time as much as the chemicals we apply to the turf.


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## crussell

Progress update:

2 weeks after my initial spray app, and the Tenacity is doing its job. Lots of pale/bleached weeds including a lot of clover. I decided to do another app yesterday with FAS, Humic, and a lighter dose of Tenacity.

But first, I christened the field with it's first mow using this John Deere 220B. I double cut the infield, and single cut the curtains. This mower was just loaned to me, and I didn't waste a lot of time checking it's setup. I just cranked up the HOC to about .75" or so. Now that it's in my garage I'm going to replace the bedknife, backlap, and dial in the height of cut.

Did my spray app in the afternoon following the mow.

This morning (next day) I put down 1 lb. Nitrogen per K using 46-0-0 Urea and ran the sprinklers for a few minutes. It has since started to rain, so it should get watered in nice. The weather forecast shows highs of 55-60f with lows down in the 40's. I'm hopefull that I will still see a little growth over the next few weeks and get a few more mows in. Will do one more app of Urea towards the end of October. Fingers crossed, I'm hoping this leaves the turf in a good state for playing ball in the spring.



After the mow, but before the Spray Ap.


This morning while watering in the Urea.


@Colonel K0rn I do plan to give some attention to the clay skin. While the weeds and some grass have established, I've been told that it takes very little effort to remove these before the season. With how rock hard the clay is, I don't think they get rooted very well. I plan on cleaning up the edges before the season, and we'll drag and add synthetic "turface" I think it's called.

The Triplex would be awesome for the out field. That being said, I don't have the time or resources to give the outfield the same TLC as the infield areas. Would strictly just reel cut that area and call it good. That is a lot of square footage for chemicals and fertilizer.


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## ksturfguy

Good progress so far. Love seeing pictures of well maintained baseball/football fields. Nothing beats a nice looking grass field. So many fields switching to artificial turf.


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## Outerspace

Dream project, I will live vicariously through you


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## Harts

With regards to the infield skin, assuming the base is clay, the most important factor is water. You will want to make sure the skin is properly irrigated. Too much water and you'll have a soft surface. Too little and you'll have concrete.

Turface is a company that makes infield conditioners. You spread the Turface on top of the clay. It functions to manage moisture, improve drainage, and keep skinned surfaces safe and playable. Its porous, calcined clay construction absorbs more water and helps resist compaction. Simply put, its your actual playing surface.

The easiest way to measure the proper amount of moisture is the key test. Take any key (house key for example). Stick the key into the clay and pull it out. If the clay has the right moisture content, the key will pull out cleanly with nothing sticking to it. Too much moisture and clay will stick to the key. Too little and the clay will crumble.

Love the work you have done so far on the grass. Looks very professional.


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## crussell

ksturfguy said:


> Good progress so far. Love seeing pictures of well maintained baseball/football fields. Nothing beats a nice looking grass field. So many fields switching to artificial turf.


There is a bond going to vote in November to renovate the High School - I heard it would include synthetic turf fields for Baseball and Football... I get why, artificial turf can be played year round and used for more than just the sports season, but like you I love the natural grass turf.


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## crussell

Harts said:


> With regards to the infield skin, assuming the base is clay, the most important factor is water. You will want to make sure the skin is properly irrigated. Too much water and you'll have a soft surface. Too little and you'll have concrete.
> 
> Turface is a company that makes infield conditioners. You spread the Turface on top of the clay. It functions to manage moisture, improve drainage, and keep skinned surfaces safe and playable. Its porous, calcined clay construction absorbs more water and helps resist compaction. Simply put, its your actual playing surface.
> 
> The easiest way to measure the proper amount of moisture is the key test. Take any key (house key for example). Stick the key into the clay and pull it out. If the clay has the right moisture content, the key will pull out cleanly with nothing sticking to it. Too much moisture and clay will stick to the key. Too little and the clay will crumble.
> 
> Love the work you have done so far on the grass. Looks very professional.


I'll be honest - I came aboard to handle the grass turf, I know nothing about the other playing surfaces. With that being said, I'm learning a lot more about the skinned surfaces, and will lend a hand come spring in any way I can. I do know that they have a separate irrigation zone for the skin, so there is some control in that regard.


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## crussell

Mowed yesterday at .7" HOC.


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## coachpaul77

Grass is looking great! Have you considered cutting out the home to 1st and 3rd paths?


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## crussell

#1 problem with Tenacity - Is finding out your weed problem was worse than expected.

Tonight - 3 days after last mow and 10 days since last Tenacity. Temps are still mid 60's during the day and down around 40 at night. Still getting growth. Will mow again in the next few days.


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## crussell

coachpaul77 said:


> Grass is looking great! Have you considered cutting out the home to 1st and 3rd paths?


They used to have the baseline paths, but when they renovated to add irrigation they decided to change to grass.


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## Rucraz2

This is my exact same vision for our school. I drive past our field every day and am saddened by how it looks. Granted it is green. But it is overgrown with weeds. Our school has a nice Ventrac, but they mow with the same old old zero turn that they mow the rest of the property with. And a majority of that turf is disastrous. So I can easily see why it looks the way it does. When they do mow it looks like they are driving through a chisel plowed field. They do try and aerate and take care off it the best they can. And money is not an issue. We have an artificial football field. They are actually rebuilding the dugouts as we speak. Both the softball fields and the baseball field are nice facilities. But the turf looks like garbage. I just think its a lack of knowledge or they just don't care enough. I think in a couple of years when I have time, I am going to approach the athletic director and super independent to try and do the same thing you are doing if it's not in better shape. But I am very jealous of your post. Thanks for sharing and taking the time to help.


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## crussell

Mowed today. Double cut the infield at 0.70" HOC

This JD 220B needs some love. I have a new bedknife for it and the backlapper ready to go but I keep telling myself I'll buy an 8 blade reel and do it all as winter maintenance. Lots of stragglers left after double cutting.

Otherwise the grass keeps growing, and the tenacity is still doing it's thing almost 2 weeks since last app.


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## ksturfguy

This would definitely be my dream retirement job. Have always thought about starting a lawn care business to give me something to do after i retire but maintaining athletic fields would be the ideal job. Just not sure much of a demand for it. Most schools do their own work.


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## Shindoman

Well done. A wonderful way to give back.


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## crussell

Mowed today - 1 Week since last mow.

Grass has taken on a nice dark green color and was looking flush. Can't believe the weather we have had for almost being November. Had a few nights of rain this last week, but temps still ranging in the 50's.

Mowed at .70 HOC followed by the last nitrogen application of the year. 46-0-0 Urea at 1# per K.

Here it is pre-mow, and then after:


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## ksturfguy

I can't remember if you said or not but are you going to work on the outfield too or just the infield?


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## crussell

ksturfguy said:


> I can't remember if you said or not but are you going to work on the outfield too or just the infield?


That's up in the air right now - Originally, I had no plans for the outfield because of the magnitude. That is probably another 1.5 acres... (in other words, a lot of $$$).

Since then I now have an opportunity to pickup an older John Deere triplex reel mower, that needs a little TLC. I'm considering pulling the trigger on this and using it for the outfield, but I'm scared I'll talk myself into giving the outfield the full treatment (again, $$$).


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## ksturfguy

Yeah I don't blame you. Forgot you were volunteering and not getting paid for it.


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## crussell

Mowed again today at 0.70" HOC.

The 220B I've been using is well overdue for a reel.. I backlapped it last week, but it just doesn't have an edge to it anymore. That being said, today I decided to use my GM1000 which was cutting beautifully!

I can't believe the progress when I look back at the early photos. Having started this late September, I never thought I would have lucked out with the mild weather we have had which has been awesome for this project.

Unfortunately, tomorrow I leave the country on business for 5 weeks, so this was my last mow of the year. I'm bummed because I know there could have still been a few good mows left before winter hits...


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## crussell

I ordered a Christmas gift for the ball field, and it arrived yesterday!

This 26" unit should (1) Help speed up my mowing time, a baseball infield is bigger than you think! and (2) Make some wide stripes, especially in a double wide or single double pattern.

2004 John Deere 260B - Was located in Colorado. Got it for $500 + $350 to ship.

I have a pile of new parts from R&R at home including a 7 Blade reel, new grooved roller, bearings, seals, chains, belts, etc.

Only thing I'm still neutral on is whether I should order a grass catcher for it...


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## osuturfman

The only reason I would use a grass catcher is if you plan to mow when the grass is wet (rain, dew, etc.). Mowing wet will cause clippings to build up on your front roller and effect HOC. Could always try without it first and see how it goes.


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## Kballen11

Love this thread. As others have said I think this is a dream of many of ours although it does sound like a lot of hard work! Thanks for sharing your story!


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## crussell

Looking forward to this weekend, as I plan on kicking off 2019 with my first mow of the ball field.

It hasn't been mowed since early November, and it needs a haircut. Winter has been mild, ranging mostly between 30's-50's.

I know it's still very early, but their season starts at the end of February... I still have a month, but then again, I only have a month.

Personally, I'm excited to use my new toy. I spent the last few weeks going through the machine, slapped on a 7 blade reel and replacing parts left and right. Set the HOC for 15/16" (max) and it's ready for business.

I bought this specifically for the baseball field. There is a field storage building that I can leave it in, locked up. Going to be much nicer than hauling my mower back and forth between there and home like I did last year!


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## Kballen11

Looks awesome, cant wait to see the field! The mower looks great, especially the grass catcher .


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## crussell

@Kballen11 Ha sorry man, that honestly created some inner turmoil for me.


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## Kballen11

@crussell no worries man! I totally understand!


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## Shindoman

You're doing a great job. It is time for a mow around here. I'm getting a bit of growth already so hope to mow this weekend. Supposed to be dry for a few days


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## crussell

Shindoman said:


> You're doing a great job. It is time for a mow around here. I'm getting a bit of growth already so hope to mow this weekend. Supposed to be dry for a few days


I'm excited to mow this weekend, but also not excited. Both the field, and my home lawn suffer from worm casings this time of year and i hate pancaking them.


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## Shindoman

I get lots of worm casing most of the year but not in the winter. Sometimes i have to go around with a straw broom and knock them down before mowing. But I only have 2K to mow.


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## crussell

Took the new mower out today - It cut great, had to tinker with the clutch cable tension a little at first but after that it was smooth sailing.

The grass is definitely still in winter condition. Some long blades of what I'm assuming are weeds, and the grass itself was surprisingly shaggy, but also yellowish, patchy, and significantly more bumpy than last fall. I think we have only one maybe 1 or 2 freeze/thaw cycles, but between worm castings, rain, and overall settling, I see an early top dress in the future.

Beginning of the mow:



After the mow:



The sun came out, and actually did a lot of justice to the last photo. The turf still has a long way to go to thicken up, can't wait for spring!

Here is closer shot at the turf:



Took Soil Samples today - Will get these sent to the lab soon. Was surprised how minimal of a thatch layer we have, but the turf was really just established a year ago from dirt.



Lastly - Next time I'm out, I will be spraying some gly on the infield skins. Only a month out from baseball season so need to start cleaning these areas up:


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## Shindoman

I would hold off on the top dress for a while. Soil temps need to be much higher before it will really start to grow enough to push thru a top dress. Give it some food if you can, the yellow blades in the last pic with the soil plugs tell me it's hungry. I mowed mine today with my new push mower just to clean it up a bit. The long wide blade growth is most likely annual rye grass. Keep mowing low and it will die off. Where is this field? I want to head down to Haggens to pick up some wonderful American beef, i'd love to drive by and check it out.


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## crussell

@Shindoman Thanks that's good advice. Their first home game is not until the end of March, so I'll hold off on the top dress and hopefully still get it done in time.

I'm getting the soil samples to the lab this week, then I'll have some data to go off of for feeding.

Haggen has great meat! I still buy beef there sometimes, but I've really fallen for the Prime Beef at Costco. It's dynamite.

The field is at Ferndale High School, about 15 minutes south of the Peace Arch Border Crossing down I-5. If you make it down this way, feel free to shoot me a message and I can give you the tour!

It's just like the big league parks, except smaller, lower budget, and not nearly as impressive... haha


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## crussell

Soil results are in - Nothing looks too out of place? Any help with interpretation is appreciated! @Ridgerunner

Nitrogen looks low - The second page clarifies that any Urea that was applied, may not be reflected in the test results. I had applied Urea last fall (Nitrogen Blitz) so I'm not sure if this needs to be taken into consideration.


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## Ridgerunner

The pH, Major and Secondary nutrients are in good shape. Any issues would most likely be attributable to the micros (untested), disease, irrigation or mowing. So far, so good. :thumbup: Ca and Mg are fine. Sufficient reserves of P and K are present to allow for just maintenance fertilizer application. P levels are actually above common target level of 50ish ppm, so P could be skipped for the next growing season. If you elect to add any, I would suggest only 0.5 lb/M of P2O5 total for the season. Suggested maintenance amounts for K is to add 0.5 to 1;b?M of K2O for every pound of N applied. Suggest 1 lb/M of K2O for every pound of N applied. Test P and K next year and adjust future application rates based on the results. Soil N is pretty transient. Recommended level is about 20ish ppm for total N with Nitrate N to Ammonium N levels at 2:1 ratio or greater. 
Yes, it does take time for urea to become (action of urease enzyme) ammonium and then more time for ammonium to become (action of microbial activity) Nitrate.


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## Ridgerunner

My above "analysis" was based on the assumption that the test was M3. I just noticed that Lab was Simply Soil Testing. The do use M3 for Ca, Mg and K BUT they use Bray P1 for pH <7 soils and Olsen for pH >7 soils. Recommended sufficiency levels for Bray P1 is 15-30, 59 is about twice sufficiency. I would suggest you not add any P this next season, retest next year (Feb) and observe any changes in P to determine future needs.


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## crussell

@Ridgerunner Thank you so much!


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## Shindoman

That's the beauty of TLF. You have someone like @Ridgerunnersharing his knowledge.


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## crussell

Just placed an order with Hancock Seed - Have two varieties coming.

1.) 50# KBG Midnight - I wasn't sure I wanted to pull the trigger on KBG, since my intent is to do an early Spring overseed which as most people know carries a low success rate. After some deliberation, I decided the risk was worth the reward. KBG is an ideal playing surface, and I will try to best set myself up for success to get this established. Worst case, I've wasted some seed but I'll have enough to try again in the fall.

2.) 50# Champion GQ PRG - I've used this seed before with good results. This will be my "go-to" for periodic overseeding throughout the season, and for high traffic areas. While I'm sure the success rate of mid-season overseeding is also low, this appears to be common practice for sports fields.


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## crussell

Getting prepared!

Stocked up on consumables today - Ordered:

-5 lbs. Kelp4Less Extreme Blend
-5 lbs. Ammonium Sulfate
-5 lbs. Ferrous Sulfate
-1 gal. Surfactant
-1 gal. Blue Marker Dye

Ran low on these items after last season, I'm still stocked up on Tenacity, Prodiamine, Plant Growth Regulator, and an assortment of other herbicides.

My 100 lbs of seed has shipped from Hancock.

I have new blades ready to go on my slit seeder/verticutter.

We had a snow episode here which is still evident, but growing season is close, I can feel it!


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## NoslracNevok

I hope those kids come to understand how much love is being put into their field. I'm excited to see your progress!


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## Shindoman

Looks like you are well prepared. When is this snow and cold thing going to stop?


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## crussell

Weekend Update:

Field is getting prepped - First home game is March 20th.

This weekend the pitchers mound was rebuilt, and the skins were edged and raked. I won't begin to take credit for this, fortunate to have a few key parents who have donated their time and resources to the field as well, they did a great job. These dads are the same two guys that regraded the field and installed the irrigation system in 2017.

One of them happens to own a John Deere 1200A Bunker Rake which he is nice enough to loan us. That thing is awesome! I want one for myself!

We ended yesterday with a lot of work still left to be done. Lot's of weeds still need to be removed, the entire infield skin needs grading, and the turface material needs to be placed and dragged. All work that will be wrapped up in the next week or so.

Now on to the grass - I had high hopes of maybe mowing yesterday, but we just haven't had the conditions. Since mowing in January, we were hit with a really nasty February. Snow, cold, dry windy conditions have really scorched everything around here, including lawns and golf courses. We should start to see some temps near 60f coming in the next week, so hoping things start to make a turn for better!

I will plan on mowing and doing an early spray app this weekend of FAS + Humic Acid + Blue Dye. I want to wake the grass up, hoping this should kickstart things! I do not want to use Pre-Em this year as I don't want to rule out Spring and mid-season overseeding, however I may put down Pre-Em on the infield skin before the turface.


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## Suburban Jungle Life

Maybe consider using germination friendly pre? Could do a spaced out 4 apps by rotating tenacity and ethofumesate. Then use a post as needed which is seeding friendly like quinclorac. Of course, read all labels and time spray and seed as directed.


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## osuturfman

Which pre-m on the skin? Be careful as nail dragging will break the barrier.


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## crussell

Currently, the only Pre-M's in my supply are Tenacity and Prodiamine. I was planning on using Prodiamine on the skin, not to say that I am against buying something else.

Also I don't think that we have a nail drag (yet) so this might not be a big concern for now.

This skin maintenance is very new to me... I should probably just stay in my lane and focus on the turf, while the others take care of the skin but I also can't help but try and get educated so that I can contribute to the effort as well.


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## mowww

@crussell Do you think there would be any chance of staining uniforms with a yellow product being put down on the skin?


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## crussell

mowww said:


> @crussell Do you think there would be any chance of staining uniforms with a yellow product being put down on the skin?


Ha that hadn't crossed my mind, but I dont think so... Anywhere that is sprayed would get covered with Turface.

I did consider that my spray apps on the turf might turn some cleats/uni's blue from the dye. though.


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## crussell

A lot of moving parts today, but things came together and we are ready to go!

Today's activities:
*Finish cleaning up the infield skin, including edging, weed removal, and grading.
*Mow the grass - 15/16" HOC
*Spread and drag the Turface Material
*Roll the playing surfaces
*Spray FAS & Extreme Blend
*Spread 21-0-0 AS at .25# per thousand

Weather is in the 50's & 60's for the next few days, should start to POP! Looked a lot better after my spray app, a little blue marker dye really improved the color haha.

First game is Wednesday. I'll be double cutting Tuesday evening.


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## crussell

Double cut the infield after work yesterday - Forgot to take a picture.


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## Flying Aces

Pictures!  How is it holding up with games being played on it now? 
I noticed you used the extreme blend from Kelp4Less, how do you like it?

Been loving this thread, keep up the good work with it


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## crussell

Flying Aces said:


> Pictures!  How is it holding up with games being played on it now?
> I noticed you used the extreme blend from Kelp4Less, how do you like it?
> 
> Been loving this thread, keep up the good work with it


Thanks for following along!

I'll have more pictures today - They have a game at 1:00 so I am going to mow this morning.


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## crussell

Great day for Baseball!

Got out to the field around 9 AM and got to mowing.

It rained last night, but started clearing up this morning. The grass has really greened up, I think the spray app of FAS and the lose dose app of 21-0-0 did the trick. I'm excited to see what the next month brings, a good growing season will really be the time to shine for this turf. Going to keep mowing low, and get the grass to start thickening up.

The High School's spring break is approaching in Early April. This will get about a 9-day window of no home games, and will be a good opportunity for us to verticut and top dress.

Today's photos:

This morning before:


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## OnTheOxbow

I couldn't help but notice the color different between the infield and the outfield. Well done! You must be doing something right! Looks like a great start to the season and a solid foundation to continue to build upon. Just curious if you've scouted the other local high school baseball fields, you know just to see where you stand? I have to believe your grass is better than most, right?


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## Chris LI

Wow! You need to submit this to Sports Turf Online. They have a contest for sportsfield of the year. Seriously, you've done an amazing job, and it's still only March!

They have a 4th of July striping contest; hint, hint.


----------



## crussell

OnTheOxbow said:


> I couldn't help but notice the color different between the infield and the outfield. Well done! You must be doing something right! Looks like a great start to the season and a solid foundation to continue to build upon. Just curious if you've scouted the other local high school baseball fields, you know just to see where you stand? I have to believe your grass is better than most, right?


Well, that's a hard one to answer. I would like to say we have the best "NATURAL" turf field. Another High School in the area just completed construction of their brand new school, including a 100% synthetic field with stadium lighting... I consider this to be a different category!





Chris LI said:


> Wow! You need to submit this to Sports Turf Online. They have a contest for sportsfield of the year. Seriously, you've done an amazing job, and it's still only March!
> 
> They have a 4th of July striping contest; hint, hint.


I actually just signed up for their magazine last week, looking forward to reading their publication. I didn't know about their contests. I'd wager that a lot of their candidates are out of our league, but it might be fun to do some creative striping for the 4th!


----------



## crussell

Here was the grass in action yesterday.


----------



## zinger565

Wow! What an improvement in a short time! Field looks great! I look forward to following through a full growing season.

How well do you think the home paths will hold up? I'm assuming there's a plan for that area for excess wear?


----------



## crussell

zinger565 said:


> Wow! What an improvement in a short time! Field looks great! I look forward to following through a full growing season.
> 
> How well do you think the home paths will hold up? I'm assuming there's a plan for that area for excess wear?


Thanks!

I'm expecting some wear, but how much is still to be determined. We have talked about cutting out these baselines, but for now we are leaving them turf.

My plan is frequent overseeding with Perennial Rye grass to the high traffic areas, including the baselines, in front of dugouts, in front of the pitchers mound, etc.

Frequent overseeding is a common practice year-round on sports fields, and Perennial Ryegrass is very fast to germinate (under 7 days in my experience). I've read that overseeding is fine while the field is in use, and that letting the seed get "cleated in" actually helps establish the soil to seed contact.


----------



## osuturfman

crussell said:


> zinger565 said:
> 
> 
> 
> Wow! What an improvement in a short time! Field looks great! I look forward to following through a full growing season.
> 
> How well do you think the home paths will hold up? I'm assuming there's a plan for that area for excess wear?
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> I'm expecting some wear, but how much is still to be determined. We have talked about cutting out these baselines, but for now we are leaving them turf.
> 
> My plan is frequent overseeding with Perennial Rye grass to the high traffic areas, including the baselines, in front of dugouts, in front of the pitchers mound, etc.
> 
> Frequent overseeding is a common practice year-round on sports fields, and Perennial Ryegrass is very fast to germinate (under 7 days in my experience). I've read that overseeding is fine while the field is in use, and that letting the seed get "cleated in" actually helps establish the soil to seed contact.
Click to expand...

All correct, sir. Grass baselines are the way to go. It is very labor intensive to keep those on grade, safe, and playable season after season.

I would target 20 lb PRG/M in your baselines and then divide by the number of weeks in your season. If there's 8 weeks in the season, then plan to apply 2.5 lb/M each week and "bank" the seed. Cleating in will work wonders. Use a drop spreader if possible near the home plate circle and 1B/3B cutouts to eliminate the risk of contaminating the skin with seed.


----------



## crussell

@osuturfman Thanks for the confirmation!

In the past, they had the baselines cut out but what they found was over time, the 3 ft wide baseline progressively grew each year after maintaining the edge line. Next thing you know your baseline has doubled in width.


----------



## Shindoman

I am really impressed. Well Done!


----------



## crussell

Pretty busy last couple days.

Spring break started for the school district, giving us a one week opportunity to accomplish our verticut and top dressing. Only problem was, we had two days of decent weather before the rain shows up.

Monday night we mowed the field at it's usual 15/16" HOC, and it was looking awesome, which made it hard to go to the next step.

Wheeled out my Husqvarna verticutter/slicer and went to town. I recently put new blades on this machine, which produced some very clean slices in the turf. I set the depth I'm guess around 1" deep. This wasaggressive enough in my mind to open things up for seed and sand.

While I was slicing, 3 of my buddies were pushing rotary mowers bagging all of the thatch and debris that was produced. I slit the entire area separate directions. This was all Monday night, and we accomplished a lot.

Yesterday I managed to find some time in my work day to go spread KBG on the field. I put down roughly 50# of KBG Midnight, which calculates out in the neighborhood of 3.5#/K. As I've mentioned in prior posts when buying our seed, I know the KBG overseed is a gamble, but to me it is worth the cost to try. Watered this in for a few minutes to get it to settle down.

10 CY of topdressing sand was delivered around 11 am. While I was back at work, High School maintenance was nice enough to bring down a tractor during the day and start dumping piles of sand out in the infield. Between them and and my buddy Donny (Coach), they had 90% of the sand stretched out and drug in!

By the time I got down there after work, only a few hours were spent finishing up. Most of my time was spent in the seat of the drag rake, so I can't complain!

This was all in two days, and it had to be. Rain started last night, and isn't supposed to stop for a while. We knew we did not want to be topdressing in the rain! This did rush us to a small degree. I had really wanted to have an extra day to put down Tenacity after verticutting, but time did not allow.

Now we sit back and wait for nature to do it's thing.

Mid-verticut, good representation of the impact after one pass and the thatch/OM it produces.




Buddies out pushing their rotary's


KBG Midnight, used half this bag. (Disregard the old JV field in the background, it needs love too)


Near the end of topdressing. All in all, the field ate up about 8 CY of sand.


Some tools of the trade


----------



## g-man

Athletic fields are a big challenge. I think your approach of dropping seed is consistent with the seed banking methods used for athletic fields. Keep up the good work!


----------



## osuturfman

Pro level stuff. Keep it up!


----------



## crussell

@g-man @osuturfman Thanks Guys!


----------



## crussell

Also just realized my math was completely incorrect - That was a 50# bag of KBG, which I used half of... So roughly 25# or 1.7 #/K.


----------



## cnet24

Really enjoying this thread @crussell. Thanks for taking the time to document.


----------



## crussell

Mowed yesterday.

The weather has made the turf a little slow to grow through the topdressing sand we did almost a week ago.

I decided to switch up the stripe pattern a little bit today, turned out kind of cool. While the turf still has a fair amount of sand showing, this is obviously most evident when you are standing on it looking down. The view from the stands really improves the look from a distance! haha.

Also sprayed down an app of FAS, & Extreme Blend.

Standing on the turf - Notice small areas of topdressing sand.


Stripe Show from the stands.


Same look, after spray app (marker dye is almost cheating)


----------



## OnTheOxbow

> Well, that's a hard one to answer. I would like to say we have the best "NATURAL" turf field. Another High School in the area just completed construction of their brand new school, including a 100% synthetic field with stadium lighting... I consider this to be a different category!


Yeah you win, hands down. I'll take your real grass stadium over fake turf any day of the week. Sport is meant to be played on real grass. I only wish I had a field that nice to play on in high school. Well done sir! Looks like the grass will be in tip top shape for the playoffs. Speaking of playoffs.... How about the talent of the baseball team, do they rival to the talent of the grounds crew?


----------



## crussell

@OnTheOxbow Glad you are a purist like I am!

They are 9-5 on the year, middle of the pack in the conference... Still a handful of games left before the post Season in May. Hopes are high!


----------



## crussell

Talk about two great days in a row - First, my boy Eldrick wins his 5th Masters and showed the world one of the greatest comeback stories of all time. And then yesterday, put in a nice evening of mowing at the ball field and felt pretty damn good about how it's starting to come together.

Last week I noticed a few broadleaf weeds, so I filled up a 2 gallon tank with Triclopyr + 2-4-D. Didn't realize how many there were, but I ended up spot spraying 2 gallons worth.

Happy to report, those are shriveled up and dying. Will probably spot spray again in a week, just to spray any that I missed.

Mowed everything last night, including a double cut of the infield. I noticed that the turf is starting to thicken, and man I hope it does. Ever since top dressing (2 weeks ago) we have had steady days of rain, overcast, cool temps, basically not exactly what you would hope for to get some growth. I am really looking forward to some better growing conditions. Last year I remember, the grass practically grew behind me as I mowed! I'm going to really lean on PGR this year. Not because I don't like mowing, but I really want to encourage all of the lateral growth I can to thicken density.

Lastly, after mowing I put maybe 5-10# of Champion GQ PRG in an old drop spreader, and over seeded in the high traffic areas.

Excited to what the summer brings!


----------



## mowww

I could stare at that field all day.


----------



## crussell

It's funny how the day unfolds sometimes, and yesterday was no exception.

I went to the field after work to take care of a few things - The first, was to mow. Progress is slow but steady, the turf is filling in the thin areas, and I noticed a fair amount of dandelions starting to pop up. Adding this to my to-do list, but really this was all no surprise.

Then it's noticed that we have a nice fuzz of grass growing on our infield skin... This surprised the hell out of me. How can a surface that has been raked, and dragged, 1-2 times daily for the last 2 months, have grass growing? Well it does, so I sprayed the skin with Gly. From what I can tell, it's rooted down in the clay and growing up through the Turface material.



The last thing I needed to take care of, was figuring out this Quick Coupler Valve key dilemma. You may have saw my Post in the Irrigation Section.

Well I ended up finding a key in their storage room (no hose), and decided I needed to see if it worked. It didn't, so I dug up the surrounding sod to see if I could ID the valve body. It had a serial number, but nothing that is turning up any results on the interwebs. It also had a slow slow leak, just enough that the soil was saturated around it.





After some time with my hands in the hole, I came to a few realizations. (1) The key looks like it should fit. It's the right size, the lugs are correct for the grooves, it just didn't want to lock in. (2) The valve body has a heavy amount of sand in it, likely from the top dressing applications... I started working the sand out as best as I could.

Once I got a good amount of sand out, I was able to get the key to twist in. Water was GUSHING, I think this valve is fed by a 4" line. Anyways, I removed the key, but the water was STILL GUSHING. Long story short, I had a quick panic attack while I tried to locate the water shut off (plot twist, the underground vault with the shut off was full of water), meanwhile I'm flooding out the field. I ended up re-tapping the valve key a few times to exercise the valve and flush the sand out. Finally it started improving, until it finally sealed. I assume that sand is to blame for it's lack of ability to seal... Anyways, I'll be installing a 7 inch valve box now to keep sand/debris out.

Just happy I'll have a working hose now to wash my mower with.


----------



## crussell

I think I've worked on the field 3 days in a row now.

*Saturday:*
Installed a 6" Valve Box at the in-ground quick coupler, and patched the sod back together with some PRG seed and sand. Hoping to avoid any future debacles with the quick coupler.



*Sunday:*
Mowed everything, looked pretty sharp.

Sprayed Gly again on the infield skin, still has a nice green fuzz.

Sprayed about 1 1/2 gallons of Weed B Gone just walking around spot spraying every broadleaf weed I saw.

Ordered my hose setup for the quick coupler valve. Pretty excited to try this out. Since there hasn't been a hose for the quick coupler, I haven't really had a way to measure the flow... I'm taking a stab somewhere between 20-40 GPM.



*Today (Monday):*
Blanket Spray App

FAS (I upped my Ferrous rate up to 3 oz per K, usually I've done 2 oz per K)
PGR (.5 oz / K)
Kelp4Less Extreme Blend
Surfactant + Dye

Always love the way it looks after a little blue dye. Will run the irrigation in the AM and rinse it all off.



Here is a copy of my "cheat sheet" - I keep two separate spreadsheets. One for my home lawn, and one for the ball field. There is a significant difference in the product consumption between my 3k lawn, and this 14k ball field... I cant imagine ever taking on the out field.


----------



## crussell

Also - I love Eley hose reels, but they don't accommodate a 1" hose.

If anyone has any recommendations on a good hose reel (or hose reel cart) for a 1" hose, I'm all ears! Thanks!


----------



## piotrkol

Wow, that infield looks so good! Amazing job.


----------



## crussell

First Post-Season game at home tonight, so I gave it a fresh mow last night.

The growth regulator must be working, only had about half a basket of clippings.



The broadleaf weeds that I sprayed 3 days ago haven't quite died off yet, and they are an eyesore. I think once play is done for the year, I'm going to address the weed problem a little more aggressive.

Also tested out the new hose - This thing is a monster, I really had to wrestle it. Coiling it up was a feat, and not to mention lugging the darn thing. BUT - It sure puts out some water! Overall I'm really happy with it, just need to figure out easier storage/handling.


----------



## Pete1313

That infield looks beautiful! It is ready for postseason play!


----------



## crussell

Well, they lost. So time to start getting it ready for next year!


----------



## crussell

Yesterday - Cinco de Mayo. I was not drinking margaritas unfortunately, but rather getting ready to paint my house and spent some time at the field.

I mowed everything, with HOC still at 15/16". Very little clipping still, thanks to the PGR.

Following the mow, I threw down some fert. I had a partial bag of 21-0-0 AS (maybe 4 pounds) that I spread over the high traffic areas to give them a boost.

Then I spread about 5 1/2 bags of Milorganite (roughly .75# of N per thousand). Temps are forecasted to reach 70, warm enough for Milo to do it's thing.

I mention it a lot, but I love my Spyker. I am able to fit 3 bags of Milo in this thing, and it spreads like a dream. I would recommend a Spyker to anyone, I even saw that @wardconnor upgraded from his Lesco.

Watered it all in for about 10 minutes.


----------



## T0R0

crussell said:


> Also - I love Eley hose reels, but they don't accommodate a 1" hose.
> 
> If anyone has any recommendations on a good hose reel (or hose reel cart) for a 1" hose, I'm all ears! Thanks!


I have 100' 3/4" Underhill Ultramax Blue hose on a Eley hose reel with the expansion kit and it fits with some room left. 100' of 1" may be able to squeeze on there.



Have you noticed the Kelp4less Extreme Blend making any difference? I bought some and have put down 1 app so far at 10 grams per 1M.


----------



## T0R0

Where did you get the 2lbs per Acre rate for Kelp4less Extreme Blend? That's 1.36 oz (38.5 g) per 1M... I might be going too light at .35 oz (10 g) per 1M. I was going off the rate Kelp4Less gave me when I asked them about rates on eBay.


----------



## crussell

T0R0 said:


> crussell said:
> 
> 
> 
> Also - I love Eley hose reels, but they don't accommodate a 1" hose.
> 
> If anyone has any recommendations on a good hose reel (or hose reel cart) for a 1" hose, I'm all ears! Thanks!
> 
> 
> 
> I have 100' 3/4" Underhill Ultramax Blue hose on a Eley hose reel with the expansion kit and it fits with some room left. 100' of 1" may be able to squeeze on there.
> 
> Have you noticed the Kelp4less Extreme Blend making any difference? I bought some and have put down 1 app so far at 10 grams per 1M.
Click to expand...

Thanks - But the Eley wont accommodate the 1" inch fittings. I could use adapters, but I don't want to neck down the flow.

The extreme blend is a tough one - Since you can't visibly see the results, you just have to trust that it is making a positive impact. For me, it's worth the extra couple bucks to include it in my spray apps (fear of missing out I guess).

The application rate, good question... I've read their website, watched their youtube channel, asked questions, and all I have gathered is a lot of conflicting information on what rates to use. I picked one that seemed appropriate and haven't looked back.


----------



## T0R0

crussell said:


> T0R0 said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> crussell said:
> 
> 
> 
> Also - I love Eley hose reels, but they don't accommodate a 1" hose.
> 
> If anyone has any recommendations on a good hose reel (or hose reel cart) for a 1" hose, I'm all ears! Thanks!
> 
> 
> 
> I have 100' 3/4" Underhill Ultramax Blue hose on a Eley hose reel with the expansion kit and it fits with some room left. 100' of 1" may be able to squeeze on there.
> 
> Have you noticed the Kelp4less Extreme Blend making any difference? I bought some and have put down 1 app so far at 10 grams per 1M.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> Thanks - But the Eley wont accommodate the 1" inch fittings. I could use adapters, but I don't want to neck down the flow.
> 
> The extreme blend is a tough one - Since you can't visibly see the results, you just have to trust that it is making a positive impact. For me, it's worth the extra couple bucks to include it in my spray apps (fear of missing out I guess).
> 
> The application rate, good question... I've read their website, watched their youtube channel, asked questions, and all I have gathered is a lot of conflicting information on what rates to use. I picked one that seemed appropriate and haven't looked back.
Click to expand...

Your right about the Eley hose reel... it would restrict your you flow with the 3/4" goose neck. Maybe you can find an industrial hose reel from northern tool or another similar store.

It seems you haven't noticed any negative effects on the turf using your rate of Kelp4Less so I'm going to bump up to your rates and see how my lawn handles it. I'm going to start a thread about rates for the Extreme Blend to see what others are doing.

Are you using the blue marking dye as a color enhancer, visual marker, or both?


----------



## crussell

Things have gotten bad.

The last two weeks have been pulling me away from the field, between working out of town, painting my house, mothers day, birthday parties, etc...

Anyways, it had been about 10 days since the field got mowed, so last night when I showed up I expected it to be long. But what I saw was absolutely disgusting... Weeds. Weeds everywhere.

Looking back at my last photo from May 6th, it looked like Augusta back then compared to right now. I had no idea weeds could flush up so fast. There is everything from Broadleafs, Clover, and lots of grassy seed head types that I will share below.

This is a lesson learned for me - I approached this season opting not to Pre-M, but rather set myself up for better overseeding practices. It will be Pre-M from here on out - I wouldn't wish this on anybody.

I could use some advice on how to tackle these - I know the Broadleaf and clover will be easy, and I've got a good supply of WeedBGone, Tenacity, 2-4-D, and Ethofumesate which I have yet to use.

Rather than mix these all together like a mad scientist, is there any that make sense to apply together/separate?

Thanks!


----------



## g-man

I think tenacity + triclopyr (avoid too much bleaching) with nis plus feed the lawn. If you then notice too much poa a, then ethofumesate.


----------



## g-man

@crussell how is the field holding up?


----------



## piotrkol

Oh wow, looks like we had the same thing happen to the lawn


----------



## crussell

Whoa over two months since my last post?!? This summer is flying by - Thanks for checking in @g-man

One of the largest obstacles I've faced this summer, is time. My current work assignment places me out of town during the week, and my weekends are spent scrambling to keep up on projects around the house which resembles something like a game of Wack-A-Mole. Somehow the to-do list keeps getting bigger the more I chip away at it.

However I have still managed to make it to the field every weekend for a mow, and I've even made time for a few spray apps and general upkeep.

Since my last post:

I am happy to report that my clover and broadleaf problem is no longer an issue. A few apps of Triclopyr did the trick!

The seed heads and seed stalks were very persistent. Poa-A continues to be an issue, however after some Tenacity and summer conditions, it is starting to look very stressed. I have considered using my Ethofumesate to put a few more nails in the coffin, but haven't pulled the trigger yet. One are I need to read up on, is if Ethofumesate will prohibit a fall over seed..?

After staring at seed stalks for far too long, I recently knocked them down with a rotary on the lowest setting (actually brought my gf to the field this day and she volunteered).

I found another issue that I've been brainstorming. The area directly in front of the pitchers mound turned to a bare patch, naturally due to the excessive traffic during the season. I had grown some KBG plugs at home and thought I would transplant them here as a repair. I found this area to be ROCK HARD, I tried using my Pro Plugger with little to no luck. I tried my smaller core tool and could barely work it down an inch. While this is a small area, it raised a red flag for the rest of the field. I believe that when this field was re-graded a few years ago, there was no new soil imported and it was re-seeded over a primarily clay base. I want to improve this, and I have thought core aeration with a sand top dressing is the best way. I am very skeptical that a "traditional" aerator from the rental store will have the ability to produce a decent core, if at all. My mind is currently set on finding a greens aerator before fall, something that is stout enough to accomplish the task.

There is a rental store that does have a Toro Ride-On Aerator, which still uses the rolling tines. I'm curious if this may work ok, otherwise I'm back to finding a reciprocating greens aerator.

Photo timeline to share:

May 22 - Spray App that likely contained Triclopyr



May 31 - Seed Stalks



June 8 - My new favorite direction to mow. Lots of Poa-A evident.



June 15 -



June 21 -



July 6 - Filter added for the Instagram Machine.



I'll do a better job of logging updates and photos - I'm really excited to use the fall season for some better improvements to soil make-up and overseeding.


----------



## ksturfguy

Just now noticed the 1st and 3rd base lines are grass and not dirt. Interesting. I'm sure I've played on fields like this before but very uncommon. Was this by choice or just how the field was when you took it over?


----------



## crussell

@ksturfguy Yea I think I talk about that somewhere in this journal.

Basically they used to have the baselines cut out before they re-did the field a few years ago but decided to leave the baselines grass. Last time the baselines progressively got wider and wider after edging.

We are still talking about cutting them out though.


----------



## Vtx531

A ride-on aerator will have no trouble. I would use that over a greens aerator. Greens aerator is designed to disturb the surface as little as possible which isn't a concern here. Ride-on will lift the soil a little better and loosen it better from the lever action of the drum roller.


----------



## crussell

@Vtx531 Thanks for your comment, I was leaning towards the ride-on but needed some confidence that it has the weight to penetrate through hard soil types.

Interesting point about the lever action. I had done some recent reading about core aeration vs. solid tine and that was one point they mentioned. With many golf courses switching to solid tine aeration, it is important that the green aerator punches with a "heaving" motion, to help lift the soil in a lateral direction. It was explained that a straight "up and down" action of the solid tine could actually increase compaction.

That is not really applicable to what I'm doing, and I'm not considering a solid tine, but still thought it was interesting.


----------



## Harts

@crussell I would caution against the "heaving" motion as this may create a bumpy surface. You would likely want to roll the grass after to smooth it out.

I am fascinated by this project, given that I coached for 10 years with an elite travel program here in Canada. Most of my July's were spent in the US at various tournaments from Florida to Texas and everywhere in between. The high school fields we played on, particularly in Nashville (and Murfreesboro) are immaculate. We have crappy fields here.

I have a strong interest in field maintenance and read up on best practices. Just wish I had one to take care of!

I'm curious about the infield skin and mound. How often are watering during the season? Are you flooding the field at night?


----------



## crussell

@Harts No worries there - Planning to aerate, reclaim the cores, topdress with sand and drag it in. This should get us mostly level.

I have a small roller that will be on-hand and we can tow around. I plan on rolling since I will also be overseeding pretty heavy during this time. Mowing with the greens mower also rolls it to some degree. We bring out a larger roller before the season starts in March.

Your questions about watering are a sore subject - Our town enforces summer water restrictions, and a public facility like the High School would be easily scrutinized so I do my best to follow the rules. With that being said, I can water up to 30 minutes, 3 days a week in the morning or evening hours. The skin surfaces do not get as much water as they need, but it is what it is I guess.

I've loved this project, really it's a dream to tend to grass in this setting, and striving to show it off during the season. I only wish I would have gotten involved a year earlier when they re-graded and seeded. I think some different soil conditions and seed selection, as well as preventative weed control would have saved a lot of heartache. I don't want to sound negative though, the volunteers who re-built the field did an awesome job with the grade and layout, as well as installed a fantastic irrigation system. 3 separate zones for irrigating the infield, skins, and surround outfield area. I have roughly calculated 40 gpm from my Quick Coupler hose!The field was nothing like it is today, and couldn't be without their work.


----------



## Harts

Well it looks great. You've done a lot of hard work and it shows.

Quick tip on infield dirt moisture - key in/key out. Stick a key in the infield dirt and pull it out. If the moisture level is proper, the key will pull out without any clay sticking to it. Too wet, the clay will stick. Too dry and the clay will crumble as you pull the key out.

MLB groundskeepers use this trick to simulate players walking with metal spikes. They don't want clay sticking to the bottom of their shoes.

I only bring up watering because surprisingly, pro groundskeepers flood the skin every night; to the point where water pools on the surface. Then come back in the morning, nail drag and then float drag. Then usually another round or two of watering. Having said that, they have unlimited budgets without watering restrictions!

Keep up the awesome work. I'm really happy I get to follow this journal!


----------



## crussell

Spent a good 5 hours at the field on Saturday.

The field showed many signs of improvement since earlier this year, but it still has a long way to go!

After mowing, I went forward on my plans for one last dagger in my Poa-A. I mixed up a spray app with some Triclopyr (a few broadleaves showed their face again), and after much thought, I added the full rate of Ethofumesate (24 oz / Acre).

I tested the Ethofumesate earlier this year at home so I have an idea of what the impacts will be. If my past results are any indication, I can expect a field with a lot of brown, dead, Poa-A. It won't be pretty, but I feel it's necessary. The Etho, now paired with some summer heat stress, should do the trick.

I'm curious to see what it looks like this weekend. Curious might not be the best word, more like I'm nervous to see the damage...

The bottle notes a 6 week minimum prior to establishing new KBG. I'll be flirting with this time frame, as I have plans of overseeding in September.

The other item on the docket was the infield skins - Since play stopped, the weeds have taken over. I broke my rule (much like Connor's recent video) and loaded my push sprayer up with Gly. Sprayed the entire infield skin, being very conscious of spray drift. Also rinsed my sprayer out about 6 times. We plan on getting a tarp for the skin before we put the field to bed this fall, which will help immensely with condition of the skin come spring.


----------



## osuturfman

Are you removing the dead vegetation prior to putting the tarp on this fall?


----------



## crussell

osuturfman said:


> Are you removing the dead vegetation prior to putting the tarp on this fall?


I hadn't given that much thought, but now that you are asking the question it sounds like a wise idea :thumbup:


----------



## crussell

Since my last post - I verticut everything in both directions with my Slit Seeder followed by a fertilizer application. It did wonders, the grass is showing lots of growth and is looking very green despite the fact I haven't had time for any spray apps lately (no FAS in probably 8 weeks).

I was hoping to put down some PGR yesterday but they have a water main issue at the school so my irrigation supply is down at the moment. Will try and spray PGR this weekend, and have plans to verticutt again and drop an over seed in the next few weeks.

I have a handful of photos, but their on my other computer. In the mean time here is a nice shot I took of my home lawn yesterday. With the amount of effort I've focused on the ball field, I'm happy to still try and keep up with things at the house.


----------



## Shindoman

You my friend, are a turf workhorse. A beautiful home lawn and a great looking 
Ball diamond. 
Well done.


----------



## rob13psu

That is looking beautiful!


----------



## Harts

I'm speechless. Everything looks great! :thumbsup:


----------



## dmouw

Awesome Flagpole!!


----------



## crussell

@dmouw Thanks!!

There is a link in my signature detailing that project - It was a lot of fun.


----------



## Ballistic

First time looking through the whole journal, Nice job man!

Was awesome seeing all the progress.


----------



## Bmossin

You have done amazing work. While I'm sure stressful at times, what a blast it must have been as well!


----------



## crussell

Just stopping by to report, that I have nothing to report.

Well, other than 2020 has really felt like a kick to the groin.

I spent the winter rebuilding my new toy - John Deere 2653A that I couldn't wait to use on the infield for some quick mows and wide stripes! I brought it down to the field one time for a test run, then COVID struck. Now I'm storing it in a barn at a local golf course...

The season was cancelled in the first week, and there is still uncertainty what next season will be like. The state is switching fall football to the spring due to COVID, which may impact the spring baseball season. The school district has not turned on the irrigation supply to the field. Lot's of hard work is now out baking in the sun, I haven't found the courage go out there in months. Better days lie ahead.


----------



## rob13psu

crussell said:


> Just stopping by to report, that I have nothing to report.
> 
> Well, other than 2020 has really felt like a kick to the groin.
> 
> I spent the winter rebuilding my new toy - John Deere 2653A that I couldn't wait to use on the infield for some quick mows and wide stripes! I brought it down to the field one time for a test run, then COVID struck. Now I'm storing it in a barn at a local golf course...
> 
> The season was cancelled in the first week, and there is still uncertainty what next season will be like. The state is switching fall football to the spring due to COVID, which may impact the spring baseball season. The school district has not turned on the irrigation supply to the field. Lot's of hard work is now out baking in the sun, I haven't found the courage go out there in months. Better days lie ahead.


That really stinks. This year has been the absolute worst. I will say that the 2653A is looking great! Hopefully lots of mowing in store for next spring.


----------



## ksturfguy

Damn what a kick to the crotch. Like @rob13psu said, 2020 blows


----------



## SumBeach35

Phenomenal job on the improvements. Hopefully the field has held up better than you're thinking.


----------



## crussell

Well - New year, new problems!

After a year of no activity, I'm heading back to the field this weekend to try and do what I can.

Last year was tough, as I mentioned in a previous post. COVID cancelled last year's season, and with no need to use the field, the irrigation water remained shut off all summer.

Much of the gains from the previous seasons was un-done, as the field was left dry and unmaintained.

But - We're back at it again! Season starts in a few weeks, so it's time to try and whip things into shape as much as possible. Honestly if I could, I would nuke the grass and start over... With the current COVID requirements, the season is very short (6 weeks) so I might be able to look at a Spring reno with hopes of successful establishment that would be ready for next spring. I've also heard rumors the School District is pursuing a grant for a turf field (yuck), so I might not go through the effort if that is the case.

Plan for the weekend includes - Mowing, Aeration, Verticut, Minor Topdressing, Overseeding, Fertilizing, and Rolling.

Edit: and in more unfortunate new, the John Deere 2653A triplex I bought and restored for the field, well after it sat for a year I sold it to a good home. So I'll be getting my steps in with the JD260B.


----------



## cnet24

Happy to see you back at it! My favorite thread on TLF. Good luck with bringing it back to playing shape!


----------



## crussell

Saturday at the field was a mixed bag of emotions but ended with optimism and excitement. Despite the challenges ahead of us, it was good to spend the day putting in work.

When I first walked the field in the morning, it was clear that we had taken several steps back from the progress we made in 2019. The turf was patchy and somewhat bare. Weeds were visible everywhere. Just walking along, you could tell the field was extremely bumpy. Not the kind of surface you'd want to be fielding ground balls on. Surprisingly, the skin surfaces were somewhat weed-free compared to past years, but still needed a lot of prep work. You could see that over the last year, others have helped themselves to using the field for BP, as evident by the big worn down area in front of the mound.

After this all sunk in, we started working the plan for the day. We first ran my verticutter (slit seeder) over all of the turf in two directions, followed by a single pass of core aeration. I found that a reciprocating aerator was available for rent locally (Ryan Lawnaire 28). I was pretty excited to use one, I had only ever used the "drum tines" style that you would normally find for rent. Let me tell you, that thing rocked. I told the rental company if they every sell it, to call me first.

After some heavy disturbance to the turf, we decided to mow up all of the cores in place. Normally, I would be bagging these up and topdressing with sand, but with the season starting in just 2 weeks it would be a sandbox. As much as we are looking to regain some quality of the field, priority number 1 right now is making the field playable.

While my buddies went to work on dragging the skin and spraying weeds, I put down a heavy overseed of Perennial Ryegrass and applied fertilizer.

Then it was time to make sure the irrigation water was on for the season - We attempted all 3 zones, but only 1 was functional. After locating the valve boxes and getting familiar with things, I found that the flow knobs had been turned so far down that heads wouldn't pop up. Once we got that resolved, we gave a good soak to the field, followed by lots of rolling.

I think by doing some heavy verticutting and aeration, followed by some water to soften things up, the roller was able to really be effective as the surface smoothed out more than I ever could have hoped. And, all of that seed was now nicely bedded.

I did a horrible job at taking photos after we started, but here is what I am calling the new "Before" photos as we start over with a new chapter. For comparison, I've also included a photo from the glory days of 2019 to illustrate just how far backwards we traveled. The exciting part is knowing we have a lot of ground to gain back, and our bar is set higher than ever!


----------



## g-man

Are you planning on some nitrogen? It needs it.


----------



## crussell

g-man said:


> Are you planning on some nitrogen? It needs it.


I put down 1# N per thousand.


----------



## crussell

Some new short term and long term goals for this year:


Get the field playable for the short 6 week season, ending early May. This will leave lots of time left in the Spring growing season to make more drastic improvements
 Amend the soil condition by re-aerating and topdressing with sand + roll. The field has always been rock hard and incorporating some sand into the profile will make irrigation more effective, and lessen compaction issues.
Establish new Perennial Ryegrass - Previous years I had been overseeding with KBG, but I should have done more research because KBG is pretty much doomed in Western Washington since it is not well adapted to our climate. I think a lot of the dead appearance was due to the failed attempts to establish KBG (based on a non-scientific study of a test KBG area at my house that died after a year to what I think was disease).
Thin out the weeds - I don't think I'll ever win the war on Poa A/T but there is plenty of clover and broadleafs that can be easily eradicated. I'm going to stay away from the Pre-Emergents due to the overseeding except maybe some Tenacity.
Maintain through the Summer with a good irrigation schedule, frequent mowing, fertilization, and routine spray apps of PGR, FAS, Herbicides, Extreme Blend, Fungicide, Etc.. as needed.
Late Summer/Early Fall - Aerate and topdress with sand again, and over seed, again + roll.
 I've got everyone talked into buying a growth tarp for the winter. It is about a $1,500 investment for the 90'x90' infield, but I think is a worthwhile spend to (1) allow the fall overseed to establish, and (2) accelerate the playability come next February when the season kicks off. February in Washington is not an ideal time to be waking up grass.
I'm on the lookout for some equipment. Hoping to find another JD 2653A since I ended up selling mine. Also looking for a JD 1200A Bunker/Field Rake. We had one available the last couple years but it was loaned to the field and has since been taken back. Those things are super handy (and fun to drive).


----------



## Deke

crussell said:


> Some new short term and long term goals for this year:
> 
> 
> Get the field playable for the short 6 week season, ending early May. This will leave lots of time left in the Spring growing season to make more drastic improvements
> Amend the soil condition by re-aerating and topdressing with sand + roll. The field has always been rock hard and incorporating some sand into the profile will make irrigation more effective, and lessen compaction issues.
> Establish new Perennial Ryegrass - Previous years I had been overseeding with KBG, but I should have done more research because KBG is pretty much doomed in Western Washington since it is not well adapted to our climate. I think a lot of the dead appearance was due to the failed attempts to establish KBG (based on a non-scientific study of a test KBG area at my house that died after a year to what I think was disease).
> Thin out the weeds - I don't think I'll ever win the war on Poa A/T but there is plenty of clover and broadleafs that can be easily eradicated. I'm going to stay away from the Pre-Emergents due to the overseeding except maybe some Tenacity.
> Maintain through the Summer with a good irrigation schedule, frequent mowing, fertilization, and routine spray apps of PGR, FAS, Herbicides, Extreme Blend, Fungicide, Etc.. as needed.
> Late Summer/Early Fall - Aerate and topdress with sand again, and over seed, again + roll.
> I've got everyone talked into buying a growth tarp for the winter. It is about a $1,500 investment for the 90'x90' infield, but I think is a worthwhile spend to (1) allow the fall overseed to establish, and (2) accelerate the playability come next February when the season kicks off. February in Washington is not an ideal time to be waking up grass.
> I'm on the lookout for some equipment. Hoping to find another JD 2653A since I ended up selling mine. Also looking for a JD 1200A Bunker/Field Rake. We had one available the last couple years but it was loaned to the field and has since been taken back. Those things are super handy (and fun to drive).


I had pure Mazama in Ferndale and it did really well. Ended up selling that house so not sure how it is doing now. I still have a 5lb mix of Mazama/ bewitched if you want to try it out.


----------



## crussell

Deke said:


> I had pure Mazama in Ferndale and it did really well. Ended up selling that house so not sure how it is doing now. I still have a 5lb mix of Mazama/ bewitched if you want to try it out.


Oh you lived in Ferndale? Small world!

I'm working with Hogan Seed right now (very helpful people by the way) on selecting some better varieties of KBG and PRG. It seems there are a few KBG's that will do much better in Washington based off of my research and their help.

Season is halfway over, so we are gearing up to do another pass with the aerator come early may along with overseeding and topdressing with about 5-10 yards of sand to fill the aeration holes.

I also plan to do some seed drilling at the high wear areas in front of the pitchers mound. Plan to layout a sheet of plywood with 3/4" holes on a grid pattern than I can lay down and auger holes at a depth of around 5" then fill with a sand/seed/topsoil "Divot Mix". I've seen this done by one of the turf people I follow on Twitter and it seemed like a cool idea that will have better success for repairing these areas.

I've also been reading my new Sports Field Design, Construction, and Maintenance text book and learning a lot about maintenance practices, grow tarps, mound care, and everything in between. Exciting things to come!


----------



## Deke

crussell said:


> Deke said:
> 
> 
> 
> I had pure Mazama in Ferndale and it did really well. Ended up selling that house so not sure how it is doing now. I still have a 5lb mix of Mazama/ bewitched if you want to try it out.
> 
> 
> 
> Oh you lived in Ferndale? Small world!
> 
> I'm working with Hogan Seed right now (very helpful people by the way) on selecting some better varieties of KBG and PRG. It seems there are a few KBG's that will do much better in Washington based off of my research and their help.
> 
> Season is halfway over, so we are gearing up to do another pass with the aerator come early may along with overseeding and topdressing with about 5-10 yards of sand to fill the aeration holes.
> 
> I also plan to do some seed drilling at the high wear areas in front of the pitchers mound. Plan to layout a sheet of plywood with 3/4" holes on a grid pattern than I can lay down and auger holes at a depth of around 5" then fill with a sand/seed/topsoil "Divot Mix". I've seen this done by one of the turf people I follow on Twitter and it seemed like a cool idea that will have better success for repairing these areas.
> 
> I've also been reading my new Sports Field Design, Construction, and Maintenance text book and learning a lot about maintenance practices, grow tarps, mound care, and everything in between. Exciting things to come!
Click to expand...

I still live in Custer. Graduated from ferndale in 07. We know each other Took me a minute to realize it until I saw it was ferndales field.


----------



## osuturfman

crussell said:


> Deke said:
> 
> 
> 
> I had pure Mazama in Ferndale and it did really well. Ended up selling that house so not sure how it is doing now. I still have a 5lb mix of Mazama/ bewitched if you want to try it out.
> 
> 
> 
> Oh you lived in Ferndale? Small world!
> 
> I'm working with Hogan Seed right now (very helpful people by the way) on selecting some better varieties of KBG and PRG. It seems there are a few KBG's that will do much better in Washington based off of my research and their help.
> 
> Season is halfway over, so we are gearing up to do another pass with the aerator come early may along with overseeding and topdressing with about 5-10 yards of sand to fill the aeration holes.
> 
> I also plan to do some seed drilling at the high wear areas in front of the pitchers mound. Plan to layout a sheet of plywood with 3/4" holes on a grid pattern than I can lay down and auger holes at a depth of around 5" then fill with a sand/seed/topsoil "Divot Mix". I've seen this done by one of the turf people I follow on Twitter and it seemed like a cool idea that will have better success for repairing these areas.
> 
> I've also been reading my new Sports Field Design, Construction, and Maintenance text book and learning a lot about maintenance practices, grow tarps, mound care, and everything in between. Exciting things to come!
Click to expand...

Fantastic book.

Always here to help or catch me over on the Discord (www.thelawndiscord.com). Would love to talk fields and such.

Keep up the great work, sir!


----------



## SumBeach35

Cant wait to watch the progress...and also hope you join the Discord!


----------



## crussell

Thanks guys! Will have some updates coming soon. Last game is in a week and then we are hitting it hard.

@osuturfman and @SumBeach35 , I tried logging into Discord the other day and was having difficulties with verifying my account. I'll take another swing at it soon, seems cool.

@Deke It took some investigating but I figured out who this is - Long time no see, give me a shout if you ever want to have a beer and talk grass.


----------



## crussell

Not having very good luck with this... Who's the Moderator that could help? @Ware ?


----------



## osuturfman

crussell said:


> Not having very good luck with this... Who's the Moderator that could help? @Ware ?


@Gibby


----------



## Gibby

crussell said:


> Not having very good luck with this... Who's the Moderator that could help? @Ware ?


Try this http://thelawndiscord.com or https://discord.com/invite/rey9mTEyVu


----------



## Deke

crussell said:


> Thanks guys! Will have some updates coming soon. Last game is in a week and then we are hitting it hard.
> 
> @osuturfman and @SumBeach35 , I tried logging into Discord the other day and was having difficulties with verifying my account. I'll take another swing at it soon, seems cool.
> 
> @Deke It took some investigating but I figured out who this is - Long time no see, give me a shout if you ever want to have a beer and talk grass.


I was gonna pm you, but I figured you were much more computer savvy than I was and you would figure it out pretty fast. I got my hands full at my new house trying to get the outside livable before the end of sunmer


----------



## crussell

Been hard at work - Have lots of photos saved and some interesting things to share. Been waiting to post until I can document more results.

Here is a teaser for now. I was amazed when I put these side by side just months apart!


----------



## cnet24

Wow!


----------



## crussell

NEW WHIP

I really wanted one of the baseball helmet bullpen cars like the one in the movie Major League, but this seemed more practical.

Had been tracking this at an auction down in Seattle and was able to scoop it up for a good price.

Just ordered the proper field finisher attachment from John Deere, and will be replacing the bunker rake that is currently on the back.


----------



## crussell

Alright - Time to kick off a proper 2021 Journal.

Let's back up to early May. The season was just coming to an end, and we had a plan of attack as soon as the last game was played May 6th.

In case you missed my posts from the beginning of this year, we had a lot of ground to make up.

I spent the season getting things in order. I read my new text book, I got familiar with programing our irrigation controller, sprinkler head adjustments, ordered seed, lined up our topdressing mix, and gathered the manpower and equipment resources we would need.







For seed, I looked up the most recent NTEP studies I could find done by Washington State University for our region. Many of the top performers were hard to locate, but after a call to Hogan Seed I was able to order 150# of "Palmer IV" Perennial Ryegrass and "Washington" Kentucky Bluegrass. Earlier I was shying away from KBG, but after more research this specific variety has been shown to succeed in our climate. I wanted to get some KBG established but ultimately will be leaning heavier on the PRG moving forward.



I had to get a little creative with the topdressing material. I have always used a straight sand for leveling purposes, however to establish the new seed I wanted to retain some moisture. Nobody in close proximity offered a compost/sand top dressing mix, and since I didn't want to buy a hundred bales of Peat Moss, I called my buddy who works for a local sand/gravel company and he was able to mix up an 80/20 sand to compost mix for us. By compost, I mean a manure mix, straight from the farm and very rich in smell. The measurement was not precise. 8 scoops of one, 2 scoops of the other, toss them around a little bit and load it into a dump truck.





The week of the last game, I had seen too much clover. I spot sprayed the big patches with Glypho to kill them off before re-seeding.



So now we were days away from getting started. Although we hadn't actually done anything yet, I was able to check the first item off the list of this years goals.


Get the field playable for the short 6 week season, ending early May. This will leave lots of time left in the Spring growing season to make more drastic improvements
Amend the soil condition by re-aerating and topdressing with sand + roll. The field has always been rock hard and incorporating some sand into the profile will make irrigation more effective, and lessen compaction issues.
Establish new Perennial Ryegrass - Previous years I had been overseeding with KBG, but I should have done more research because KBG is pretty much doomed in Western Washington since it is not well adapted to our climate. I think a lot of the dead appearance was due to the failed attempts to establish KBG (based on a non-scientific study of a test KBG area at my house that died after a year to what I think was disease).
Thin out the weeds - I don't think I'll ever win the war on Poa A/T but there is plenty of clover and broadleafs that can be easily eradicated. I'm going to stay away from the Pre-Emergents due to the overseeding except maybe some Tenacity.
Maintain through the Summer with a good irrigation schedule, frequent mowing, fertilization, and routine spray apps of PGR, FAS, Herbicides, Extreme Blend, Fungicide, Etc.. as needed.
Late Summer/Early Fall - Aerate and topdress with sand again, and over seed, again + roll.
I've got everyone talked into buying a growth tarp for the winter. It is about a $1,500 investment for the 90'x90' infield, but I think is a worthwhile spend to (1) allow the fall overseed to establish, and (2) accelerate the playability come next February when the season kicks off. February in Washington is not an ideal time to be waking up grass.
I'm on the lookout for some equipment. Hoping to find another JD 2653A since I ended up selling mine. Also looking for a JD 1200A Bunker/Field Rake. We had one available the last couple years but it was loaned to the field and has since been taken back. Those things are super handy (and fun to drive).

More to come!


----------



## crussell

The weekend of May 8th was our earliest opportunity to hit "go".

Had a full plate planned for the weekend:


Mow
Verti-Cut
Aerate & Collect Cores
Top Dress + Drag
Overseed + Roll

First had to figure out some logistics for our equipment and material needs:


Top dressing mix was delivered the day prior (Check)
Seed was on hand(Check)
Reserved a reciprocating aerator (Ryan Lawnaire 28) from the local rental shop
Loaded my truck up with verticutter, shovels, spreaders, tools, blower, basically everything I could think of to grab
Friend offered up his tractor to use loading the top dresser. This meant borrowing another friends trailer to get the tractor from point A to point B
Needed to find a topdresser... In the past we've topdressed the old fashioned way. Dumping piles on the field, using gorilla carts, shovels, rakes, you know the drill if you've seen @wardconnor 's videos. This year I wanted to make it easy on ourselves. After calling around to a few people I know in the golf course equipment world, I was striking out on anyone that had something for our application and it was unlikely they would loan such an expensive piece of equipment out. Next, I found a rental outfit about 2 hours away that rents an Eco-Lawn spreader. This would work, and I was almost prepared to make the drive to and from. But... Remember the local rental company I reserved the aerator from? I mentioned to them that I was going to drive hours away to rent a topdresser. The guy called me later and said I didn't need to worry about making the drive. He knew of a private homeowner that owned an Eco Lawn 250, who agreed to let us use it free of charge. This was an awesome and unbelievably generous offer. Shout out to Carl's Mower and Saw in Ferndale for helping us out!

A few days prior I sprayed an app. of Plant Growth Regulator. Normally you wouldn't do this prior to top dressing, as you want the grass to push through as fast as possible. But this was an obvious move for us to give our overseed the best chance to succeed and compete. Plus, I really didn't care if the existing turf got smothered out.

Started off the weekend mowing low. Set the mower to 0.5" HOC to really shave the turf down.



Next, I ran my Verticutter over in a single pass.



Followed by two passes of aeration.





We collected all of the cores - I found the best way was to have somebody use a blower to get them in rows. Once in rows, we used leaf rakes to get them in to piles. Once in piles, we used plastic scoop shovels into a gorilla cart. This took several hours but was worth it. We now had open core holes to work sand into.

At this point, I've struggled on deciding when to overseed. Should it get put down now that the ground is slit and cored allowing the best seed/soil contact? or would it get burried in sand and be wasted? If I overseed after topdressing, will the seed stay moist enough sitting at the upper layer of our sand mix?

I decided to do both. I put a portion of our seed supply down prior to topdressing. I spent extra time with a drop seeder at the high traffic areas and flung out the rest with my broadcast spreader.

Using the tractor and top dresser, we put down about 6 cubic yards of material that we had stock piled over on an adjacent field.





Once the sand was down - We used a riding mower with a steel drag mat to get it worked in. Finally spread more seed and rolled it all in with a big steel roller that was honestly too big for the riding mower but it handled it like a champ.

Happy to say, we got all of this done in about a day and a half.



Last thing for the day was setting our irrigation program for 16 times a day at 3 minute cycles, then poked in my "Keep Off" signs and walked away to go drink a few beers.



Time to check another item off the list:


Get the field playable for the short 6 week season, ending early May. This will leave lots of time left in the Spring growing season to make more drastic improvements
Amend the soil condition by re-aerating and topdressing with sand + roll. The field has always been rock hard and incorporating some sand into the profile will make irrigation more effective, and lessen compaction issues.
Establish new Perennial Ryegrass - Previous years I had been overseeding with KBG, but I should have done more research because KBG is pretty much doomed in Western Washington since it is not well adapted to our climate. I think a lot of the dead appearance was due to the failed attempts to establish KBG (based on a non-scientific study of a test KBG area at my house that died after a year to what I think was disease).
Thin out the weeds - I don't think I'll ever win the war on Poa A/T but there is plenty of clover and broadleafs that can be easily eradicated. I'm going to stay away from the Pre-Emergents due to the overseeding except maybe some Tenacity.
Maintain through the Summer with a good irrigation schedule, frequent mowing, fertilization, and routine spray apps of PGR, FAS, Herbicides, Extreme Blend, Fungicide, Etc.. as needed.
Late Summer/Early Fall - Aerate and topdress with sand again, and over seed, again + roll.
I've got everyone talked into buying a growth tarp for the winter. It is about a $1,500 investment for the 90'x90' infield, but I think is a worthwhile spend to (1) allow the fall overseed to establish, and (2) accelerate the playability come next February when the season kicks off. February in Washington is not an ideal time to be waking up grass.
I'm on the lookout for some equipment. Hoping to find another JD 2653A since I ended up selling mine. Also looking for a JD 1200A Bunker/Field Rake. We had one available the last couple years but it was loaned to the field and has since been taken back. Those things are super handy (and fun to drive).


----------



## BBLOCK

&#128077;&#128077; Keep up the great work!


----------



## crussell

About 10 days after our seeding efforts - We had germination.

It's safe to assume the first germination we saw was the Perennial Ryegrass, with the KBG a few days/week behind.

It was easiest to track the progress at our bare areas. Those areas of clover that I sprayed with Glypho really turned into ugly bare patches in a hurry. But sure enough, new grass started to show it's face.



An area that I used as a good control plot was the two "on-deck" areas. We had in the past cut the sod out and in-laid two artificial turf circles. We now removed those and filled them in with our sand mix and heavily seeded.

Before Seed



10 Days



I kept a careful eye on areas that weren't showing signs of new growth. These troubled areas included the hard packed high traffic areas in front of the pitchers mound and near 3rd base, as well as some bare spots that were right at the end of the sprinklers radius, where the water thrown the furthest created a splash zone and washed out the new seed.

Here's an example of an area that gets hit with the heavier brunt of the sprinklers. You can see the grass is laid over.



To help remedy these problem areas, I used a technique I learned from a groundskeeper on Twitter. I bought a sheet of plywood (only 1/4" because lumber is crazy expensive right now) and drilled 3/4" holes on a 4"x4" grid pattern. 288 holes to be exact.

Using this plywood template, I would lay it over a bad area and "drill and fill" the area. I used a 3/4" x 5" auger bit to drill each hole to a 5" depth. Then I would shovel up the spoils.

I would mix up a "divot mix" like you'd find at a golf course. Using no form of actual measurement, I mixed sand, peat moss, and seed together in a wheel barrow. Then I would spread this material on the plywood and work it into the holes.





It was worth the effort, it worked! However I wish I would have tightened up the grid spacing, and done larger holes. It only improved a small percentage of the areas, but established turf none the less and provided some protection for me to place more seed mix.





This takes forever by the way. And I went through a lot of Dewalt batteries. I would try to do a few areas every day after work.


----------



## crussell

Now a few weeks after germination, things were growing nicely and it was time for it's first mow. I dusted off the rotary mower and sharpened the blade to take a little off the top before following up with a reel mow at 1" HOC. During this time I've also been spoon feeding starter fertilizer at about .25#N per week.





The new seed was filling in a lot of the bare areas from my glypho application, and my "drill and fill" methods were looking successful. But, there was a few areas that were not filling in very well and still looked "blah". By this point, I was tired of drilling holes and was looking for an easier way to get some seed coverage more efficiently.

I found this Seed Stitcher online. I had seen similar ones before, but liked this one because it was more aggressive than a spike wheel, but not as aggressive as a tined cultivator. Based on their photos and Youtube video, it appeared to leave an ideal seed bed. I ended up ordering and was happy I did. It made easy work of re-seeding the bare areas, and even with reduced watering, the seed established.





Here's an area behind Home Plate that I did with the seed stitcher, photo's taken just a few weeks apart.


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## crussell

Continuing with my rapid fire posts to try and catch my journal up to real time.

By June 19th, things were getting back to normal. I stopped with supplemental seeding, dialed back the irrigation schedule, and started regular mowings.

June 19th


June 22nd




Temperatures have warmed up and we had some humid days. I was starting to see some signs of disease and needed to get a spray up down to help suppress this, as well as some Triclopyr to start thinning out the clover and other broadleaf weeds.



I ran into a little mis-hap with my spray app. During the spray (using indicator dye) I thought the coverage looked a little inconsistant. Heavier in some areas, lighter in others. I thought maybe the mowing stripes were playing tricks on my eyes, or I was overlapping too much. Well as soon as I wrapped up I noticed my middle nozzle was clogged and was shooting a jet stream, apparently the whole time. This nozzle is directly in the middle of my push sprayer and out of view while I'm pushing it along. You'll notice the heavier streaks. Was not too worried about causing any harm, mostly frustrated that I wasted a spray app with poor coverage.



A few short days later, the Clover was starting to wither.



Will be following up with another application of triclopyr and fungicide.

At this point, I've gotten all of the seed down and established that I can before summer. Will plan on more seeding efforts come late Summer. Crossing another item off the list.


Get the field playable for the short 6 week season, ending early May. This will leave lots of time left in the Spring growing season to make more drastic improvements
Amend the soil condition by re-aerating and topdressing with sand + roll. The field has always been rock hard and incorporating some sand into the profile will make irrigation more effective, and lessen compaction issues.
Establish new Perennial Ryegrass - Previous years I had been overseeding with KBG, but I should have done more research because KBG is pretty much doomed in Western Washington since it is not well adapted to our climate. I think a lot of the dead appearance was due to the failed attempts to establish KBG (based on a non-scientific study of a test KBG area at my house that died after a year to what I think was disease).
Thin out the weeds - I don't think I'll ever win the war on Poa A/T but there is plenty of clover and broadleafs that can be easily eradicated. I'm going to stay away from the Pre-Emergents due to the overseeding except maybe some Tenacity.
Maintain through the Summer with a good irrigation schedule, frequent mowing, fertilization, and routine spray apps of PGR, FAS, Herbicides, Extreme Blend, Fungicide, Etc.. as needed.
Late Summer/Early Fall - Aerate and topdress with sand again, and over seed, again + roll.
I've got everyone talked into buying a growth tarp for the winter. It is about a $1,500 investment for the 90'x90' infield, but I think is a worthwhile spend to (1) allow the fall overseed to establish, and (2) accelerate the playability come next February when the season kicks off. February in Washington is not an ideal time to be waking up grass.
I'm on the lookout for some equipment. Hoping to find another JD 2653A since I ended up selling mine. Also looking for a JD 1200A Bunker/Field Rake. We had one available the last couple years but it was loaned to the field and has since been taken back. Those things are super handy (and fun to drive).


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## crussell

With the turf on a good path, I didn't want to forget to give the dirt skins a little love.

Been routinely spraying any weeds with Glypho. Everything has pretty much died off now.



We use an infield conditioner that is essentially top dressed and worked into the surface. This material will work it's way into the turf due to play, heavy wind, dragging the infield, etc.

It's important to get this material back to the skin surface so that a raised lip does not develop. Common methods include brooming, blowing, or as I did, using our 1" water hose to wash it out of the turf.

We have lost a lot of our conditioner but have a new pallet of material standing by for the next season. Also once I get the weeds taken care of, we are due for some fresh edging.





Also I already posted this - But picked up a new infield rake and have since equipped it with the John Deere Field Finisher attachment. I enjoy hopping in the seat of this thing. Much better than pulling a drag mat behind our riding mower. It has a scarifying mid rake that helps with the more aggressive grading work, while the finisher on the back provides a nice floated finish.

I'm looking into a spray setup that I can easily mount to the back for our spray apps. My current push spreader tank setup works fine, but is a bit undersized. A full 12 gallon tank is heavy and awkward to maneuver, and is just a little under capacity for the 13,500 SF. I always seem to finish about a gallon short.

Would like to be able to hold about a 20 gallon tank on the back with at least a 5 nozzle boom. All detachable/removable when not spraying.



This also checked another item off the list:


I'm on the lookout for some equipment. Hoping to find another JD 2653A since I ended up selling mine. Also looking for a JD 1200A Bunker/Field Rake. We had one available the last couple years but it was loaned to the field and has since been taken back. Those things are super handy (and fun to drive).


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## crussell

Last weekend brought on an extreme heatwave for our area - Western Washington rarely sees 90 degree temperatures but we surpassed 100 degrees multiple days in a row.

I know 100 degrees is probably a cold summer for a lot of you in other parts of the country, but it we were roasting! AC is not common around here, my house got to 97 degrees inside and I slept miserably.

With that being said, the field got some heat stress. I had ordered a pellet pro which showed up right when things started cooling off. I used the Underhill Moisture Maximizer pellet and shot everything I could using a full pellet. Gave the "hot spots" some extra attention.



This 1" hose setup is awesome, I love it. I have never measured the flow or PSI but let me tell you it's a cannon.

Does anyone know if you are supposed to water the wetting agent in further? I wasn't sure, so I just ran the sprinklers for about 5 minutes afterwards.


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## SeanBB

This whole thing is great. Can't wait to see it all dialed in and painted. I'm not even a sports guy, but I'm into this!


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## crussell

Been steadily mowing the last few weeks, applying some spray apps including 2-4-D and Triclopyr to tackle the clover and broadleafs. Going to make a switch to some Ethofumesate and tenacity and see if I can't put a dent in some of the Poa A.

Sprayed fungicide last night. I've finally started keeping an eye on disease symptoms and checking the disease pressure forecast. I use this map, it's the only one I've found that forecasts the PNW for disease pressure.

https://www.greencastonline.com/tools/pestoutlooks.aspx

Since reading into disease control, I have bought three jugs of fungicide from different Frac Groups. I went with Eagle 20 EW, Quali-Pro Propiconazole 14.3, and Quali-Pro TM 4.5.

I haven't quite pinpointed the exact diseases that are present, but I have it narrowed down to Take All Patch, Anthracnose, and I had early spoted patches of Red Thread. These are all currently high pressure right now as well. The fungicides I bought are effective for all of these, so I don't think I can go wrong.

Decided to start with one, and stagger the application of the other two products to get them in a rotation. Last night I went with Eagle 20 EW and also put in some chlorothalonil that I had left over.


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## crussell

Also tinkered with some of the sprinkler heads - Since it hasn't rained in the last month or so, some hot spots are standing out. I swapped a few heads out with bigger nozzles and adjusted their radius to try and get better coverage of these areas.


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## Deke

One of these nights after work I need to swing through ferndale and check out the field.


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## crussell

Deke said:


> One of these nights after work I need to swing through ferndale and check out the field.


For sure you should


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## crussell

Mowing every three days or so - Sprayed on Saturday with a second does of Tenacity, some TM 4.5 Fungicide, and a low dose of PGR (.2 oz rate).

Things are looking pretty good, except for some dry spots that have got my attention. I've been doing my best to hand water these whenever I'm at the field, but I need to make some adjustments to the irrigation layout. I've already swapped a few nozzles around, and adjusted the spray radius, but it's been difficult to get good coverage. Part of the problem, is that the field is exposed to a constant south wind that limits the spray pattern of these heads that are trying to throw water 40' against the wind.

We've had about 6 weeks or more without any measurable rainfall, so I'm a little behind.

I need to dig up a head and investigate what things look like. I know they used swing joints at the heads so I should have some adjustment for minor relocation, but I also want to see if I can tell where the 2" laterals are running in case I feel I need to add another head.

I gathered some layout dimensions while I was out there on Saturday. I decided to skip the rain gauge or tuna can test, I already knew I had areas with poor coverage and decided I first wanted to map the layout so that I can see on paper where my issues are.

I used a 5 gallon bucket over each head, then shot the distance from other heads to the bucket, and scratched down my notes. Took that back home and mapped things in CAD.







This gave me a pretty good visual as to what each head was doing. What I saw was pretty consistent with the actual field conditions. Dry spots which you can see below to the left and right of the pitchers mound.



Using this, I'm going to look at some head changes. Currently using the Hunter I-25 SS 1" rotors, which use 2 nozzle to cover the "long" and "mid" range. but I've noticed it is not consistent coverage, it basically lays the water down in rings like a bullseye. I want to try one of the Rain Birds with the three nozzle "Rain Curtain" and see how it does.

If anyone has good things to share or recommendations on a different 1" rotor, I'm all ears!


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## g-man

I would try to add more heads if possible. There is barely any head to head coverage.


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## crussell

g-man said:


> I would try to add more heads if possible. There is barely any head to head coverage.


That's the best solution. Right now I have no idea where the laterals run, but a lot of the heads are low and need to be raised so I'm going to use that as a reason to dig them up and see if I can tell which directions the laterals are going and connect the dots.

Then I should know enough to see where I can tie in and be intentional about keeping trenching to a minimum.

From what I know, these are 2" laterals and about 24" deep, will take some effort for any trenching.


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## crussell

Busy 8 hour day at the field yesterday - Went down there in the morning to do a few things and next thing I knew it was dinner time :lol:

It was an overcast morning (mostly haze from wildfire smoke) so I hand watered the dry areas to supplement our normal 5 am irrigation cycle.

Turf is looking a little pale from two recent applications of Tenacity - Wasn't quite ready for a mow so I decided to get in to some other things that I've been putting off.

I wanted to do some edging and try to regrade some material, so first scarified the entire skin as I had high hopes of also grading out some other areas around the bases.



Then I brought out the string lines and started laying out the new edges. From the center line of the base paths, a normal dimension is 2' to the edge. We were well under 2', on purpose to allow incremental edging over the years. I measured out a 20" offset and laid out another string line for the edger. This was much more labor intensive than I remembered... Probably because the last time we edged there was 4 of us working the rakes and shovels. After a few blisters, I got all of the inside edges done and decided to save the back edges for another day.



Next on the agenda - I needed to do some irrigation adjustments. Almost all 9 of the infield rotors had settled well below the grade of the turf, and some didn't have clearance at full pop up height. I found one in particular that was both low, and needed to be moved about 4 feet. I figured this was a good candidate for me to dig down to the lateral for some exploration on the irrigation system so that I can plan adding some new heads later. Fortunately, I found the lateral only 10" down which saved me some digging in the hard clay soils. They used 1/2" flexible pvc swing joints which made relocating easy.

I'm a little perplexed why they necked down to 1/2" for the swing joints, then adapted back to the 1" rotor. While it seemed odd, I got over it quickly because there is no way I'm digging up every connection and re-fiting the laterals for larger swing joints. The heads still shoot like a cannon and that's all I care about.

Question - I need to add at least two heads to address some of the poor coverage dry spots. Option 1 is a deep trench to add more PVC laterals. Option 2 is a less intense trench and lay some long runs of 1/2" flexible PVC like what's used for the swing joints. Am I wrong to want to go with option 2?

Low Head Relocated - Before and After:







Did this one, and raised another. I'll plan on raising 1 or 2 heads each time I'm out there, until they are all good.

Put down some fert, then ran the system and adjusted a few heads.

Things I ran out of time for:

Fungicide App
Grading, watering, rolling the entire skin area
Remainder of Edging


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## Bmossin

I love this journal. Very nice job cutting out for the heads...I really appreciate the cleanliness.


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## crussell

Bmossin said:


> I love this journal. Very nice job cutting out for the heads...I really appreciate the cleanliness.


Thanks man!


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## crussell

Mowed last night and applied Eagle 20 EW fungicide at 1.2 oz rate.

Since I freshened up the edges on Sunday, they are now very abrupt drop offs when running the mower on/off them. I need to finish grading the skin area and pull some material back to the edges but I'm afraid there is not currently enough material out there to work with. It seems the entire area could use a good 1" average of fill material.

~9,000 SF x 1" compacted depth = 27 compacted yards = 35 "truck yards"

Legit infield mix has a specific clay/silt content, and last I looked into it, a truck load was like $3,500 delivered.

Other fun fact - I was looking into rebuilding the pitching mound. By the time you add up the clay bricks, clay packing material, new rubber, etc. it's like $2k in material :shock:

The City still has CARE act funds available to distribute - I've submitted a request for funds through the High Schools non-profit booster club, due to COVID prohibiting regular maintenance in 2020 and the increased level of effort in 2021 to restore the condition of the field. It was worth a shot, fingers crossed.


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## Jeff_MI84

I watched a video of the Echo 250 in operation. That must have been super fun to use.


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## crussell

Steady she goes - Lot's of mowing taking place, and regular fertilizer apps.

Last Saturday spent most of the day focused on edging. I managed to get the Home Plate area and Pitchers Mound freshened up. Still have more edging to tackle around the field, and still have some sprinkler heads to raise.

Before & After:





Mowed again last night, and put down a spray app of fungicide and PGR. Wheels are in motion for a fall overseed, possibly this weekend :thumbup:

Pic from before the spray app:


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## crussell

Recent Progress:

Last week - Sprayed Propiconazole and Ethofumesate.

Saturday - Sliced field in two directions. My slicer blades are at about the end of their life span, but the deepest setting was just enough to cut into the soil. Then over seeded ~40 lbs of Perennial Ryegrass with a drop spreader. I set the spreader fairly light, and did numerous passes in different directions and gave extra attention to some of the bare areas. Afterwards, I spot checked a few areas on my hands and knees and was happy to find that the seed had dropped down deep into the canopy. Previously when I used a broadcast spreader, seed liked to sit up in the grass blades.

Watered it in for a while, then ran my John Deere 1200A around the field, doing laps to tread in the seed. This should be more effective than our big steel roller. Sprinklers are set to 4 min every hour throughout the day. Temps still hitting 70+ degrees here, so hoping in a week or so I've got some germination.


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## crussell

Last Weekend - Between recent rain, sun, and some previous fertilizer, the growing conditions were good. I hadn't mowed in over a week, so I was pretty much bailing hay out there. I spent more time walking back and forth to dump clippings than I did actually mowing. Ended up having to double cut to get it tamed.





Also I was dog sitting this good boy named Thomas. He enjoyed running around the field for a few hours!


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## Bmossin

That looks awesome. This is one of my favorite journals.


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## rhart

Looks fantastic!


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## cnet24

Unreal the recovery here! Looks great.


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## crussell

Weather has turned pretty soggy around here which pretty much takes the wind out of my sails. Passed up a few opportunities to mow until this weekend. Had to mow once with the rotary to knock it down, then again with the reel. Definetly broke the 1/3rd rule and turned my usual 1 hour mow into about 4 hours of double cutting and dumping clippings every-other pass.



Put down some Urea and might have another couple mows left before putting the field away for the winter.

Got a quote on a growth cover tarp, which we are deliberating on.


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## Jeff_MI84

I really like reading this journal.


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## crussell

Brought the rake home for the winter to give it an oil change and some TLC.

Next thing you know I'm stripping it halfway apart to wire in for a spray setup.

Everything will be hardwired to a Nilight Rocker Switch on the dash, with only a plug hanging out the back fender where I can connect to a spray tank/boom setup that will be removable.


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## livt0ride

Nice project. Can't wait to see the result!


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## crussell

Just dawned on me that the players take the field in a few weeks - So finally starting to mock this up.

Going to start ordering pump and fittings.


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## crussell

andddddd wow. I just pulled up my last parts order for my first sprayer I built in 2018, to start putting together a new order. Prices on SpraySmarter have literally doubled in the last 4 years, and the pump price doubled from Northern Tool. I shouldn't be too surprised, but dang.


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## crussell

Baseball team is weeks away from taking the field. We didn't get the growth blanket like I had hoped for, so will be doing what we can with half dormant winter grass.

Just finished my sprayer build. So far have only tested it spraying water out in the street, but looking forward to getting it to the field to try and figure out calibration. Built very similar to many of the Franken-Sprayers on TLF with common TeeJet and Banjo components, and a 5.5 GPM Norther Tool pump.

The boom came with yellow TeeJets but I'm starting off with the Brown TeeJets, shooting for 1 gal per thousand. My machine does not have a speedometer so I'm going to have to develop some "feel" for the spray apps, or figure out how to mount a bike speedometer on it.

I bought a few extra fittings and rigged up a quick coupler to a 3/8" hose barb that I plan to rig up to a spray wand for spot spraying large areas, like spraying weeds in the dirt surfaces. I see a DFW wand in my future.

Lastly, was time to replace the slicer blades again.

Getting excited for another summer pretending to be in the Big Leagues!


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## crussell

Few other things on the build:

The tank/boom setup is easily detachable, with just a few wing nuts to spin off.

Uses a dash mounted switch - I very much like having the sprayer hard wired into the electrical. The switch runs off the keyed ignition and is wired to a relay, where the pump is powered off the machines battery.

The stock drain cap would not seal, and had a constant leak when I was testing. I decided to run a small "tail" with a valve to help keep any draining liquid off the fenders.

Added valves between the middle and outside boom sections. This will allow me to shut off the right boom, left boom, or both and just spray with the middle 3 nozzles.


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## atticus

You, sir, are DEFINITELY in the big leagues. Very impressive. Can't wait to see what the season looks like! Does the team know they have a nationwide fan base? Or at least that their field does..

Most importantly- you gonna tackle that outfield this year??


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## crussell

atticus said:


> You, sir, are DEFINITELY in the big leagues. Very impressive. Can't wait to see what the season looks like! Does the team know they have a nationwide fan base? Or at least that their field does..
> 
> Most importantly- you gonna tackle that outfield this year??


Ha no - But the kids seem to like it. Think I might make a dedicated Twitter account for the field this year.

The outfield needs love, but sometimes I feel I'm exhausting too many resources just to keep up with the infield. This sprayer would be good if we wanted to do any blanket apps, but man that is a lot of chemicals... We had talked about adding some irrigation heads out there, but by the time I did the math it was going to be way too many zones, way too many heads, etc..

It gets rolled every Spring, but it desperately needs topdressing with all of the dips and holes out there. That TONS of sand (pun intended) and would be back breaking without a golf course type topdressing machine.

Basically too many dollar $ign$$$$$$$$


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## atticus

crussell said:


> atticus said:
> 
> 
> 
> You, sir, are DEFINITELY in the big leagues. Very impressive. Can't wait to see what the season looks like! Does the team know they have a nationwide fan base? Or at least that their field does..
> 
> Most importantly- you gonna tackle that outfield this year??
> 
> 
> 
> Ha no - But the kids seem to like it. Think I might make a dedicated Twitter account for the field this year.
> 
> The outfield needs love, but sometimes I feel I'm exhausting too many resources just to keep up with the infield. This sprayer would be good if we wanted to do any blanket apps, but man that is a lot of chemicals... We had talked about adding some irrigation heads out there, but by the time I did the math it was going to be way too many zones, way too many heads, etc..
> 
> It gets rolled every Spring, but it desperately needs topdressing with all of the dips and holes out there. That TONS of sand (pun intended) and would be back breaking without a golf course type topdressing machine.
> 
> Basically too many dollar $ign$$$$$$$$
Click to expand...

I definitely get that. You need a grounds crew! (And a slush fund haha) Does the team have any kind of booster organization or anything? My high school baseball team had one that would have eaten something like this up.


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## fortyeightjake

Love your sprayer setup. What size tank is that?

I'm getting ready to build a platform for one to mount up to the 3 point hitch on my garden tractor. Is there a build thread somewhere that I could reference? I'm thinking about just buying the 20 gallon Fimco boom sprayer but I'm worried about it having cheap components.

Also, great work on the field. It looks amazing!


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## crussell

@atticus We do! I'm actually on the Booster Club board. The baseball program just held another annual fundraiser that was pretty successful, brought in around $8k. However the money gets pulled in many different directions, between uniforms, equipment, baseballs, field needs, etc..

@fortyeightjake Mine is a 26 gallon Fimco tank - I bought a blank tank, and then bought the Fimco boom attachment separately. I essentially have one of their ATV kits, but wanted to use different plumbing components like you mentioned. So far the tank and boom seem to be money well spent, I don't think you can go wrong there.

Check out Connor Ward's video here - This is a common setup you'll see all over TLF. He includes a parts list as well.


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## fortyeightjake

Awesome, thanks for the info, I'll check that out!


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## crussell

First mow last night! Knocked down the grass with the rotary, dumped lots of clippings. Turf is 10x better than it was this time last year.

Tested out the new weed sprayer wand. Worked well, just had to make a conscious effort not to drag the hose or push the wheels through any glyphosate.

Currently drinking my coffee this morning planning today's activities. Lots to do!


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## crussell

Legs are sore, back is sore, arms are sore, everything is sore.

Friday - First mow of the year, bagged with the rotary, followed by spraying weeds.

Saturday - Verticut, followed by another mow with the rotary. Mow again, with the Reel this time. Groomed the skin surfaces.

Sunday - Edged everything. Luckily we had a sod cutter for the worst areas, as well as our walk behind edger. Left all of the sod and clumps in piles for the players to cleanup at practice today. Had some leftover seed from last year, so put that down as well as some fertilizer.

Tested my new sprayer build with water. For the most part it should be great. Since I don't have a speedometer I had to try and feel out the right speed. I started with 20 gallons in the tank, and finished with 10 gallons. This works out to about 0.70 Gallons per thousand. I was putting along at about half throttle spraying at 30 psi. Next time might try to slow down just a hair, and maybe bump the pressure up a bit. Only flaw in my sprayer setup was the standard nozzle bodies that came with the boom were not the "no-drip" style, so I had steady drips when the pump was off (seen in the photo below). Just ordered new nozzle body assemblies that are no-drip.

All in all, this is the best the field has ever looked coming out of winter. Almost two weeks until the first home game, but she's ready!


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## Wile

I really love reading your journal. Such great stuff here!


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## crussell

Wile said:


> I really love reading your journal. Such great stuff here!


Thanks!


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## crussell

New toy arrives tomorrow - Premium content coming this year lol. Feel free to follow along on Twitter @FdaleHSbaseball


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## livt0ride

Wooohooo! Gonna be some sweet drone shots!


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## crussell

livt0ride said:


> Wooohooo! Gonna be some sweet drone shots!


I'll try not to fly it into the backstop netting :lol:


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## BBLOCK

Wow field is looking great! Keep rocking


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## crussell

@BBLOCK Thanks man!

It's tough this time of year, temps are mostly 40's maybe peaking in the low 50's and still lots of rain. Grass is looking pretty yellow from knocking down the winter growth to a 1" HOC. Mowed again on Sunday and flew the drone around.

Patiently waiting for the Spring weather to come around!


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## crussell

Update: It's been raining a lot.


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## crussell

Was down at the field yesterday to watch a Home Game - Discovered my Sprayer Tank and Gorilla Cart went missing over the weekend... TLF does not have an angry-enough Emoji to really show how I feel.


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## livt0ride

I would be livid!!! :evil:


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## LegionLawn

That rough, man. I'm sorry to hear that. There's nothing more frustrating than someone stealing from you instead of working hard for their own money.

Hopefully everyone who showed up for the game had a great experience on the awesome work you've put in. The field looks great. You have done great work. Keep it up!


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## Cluelessone

Oh that sucks. I'm so sorry. I like reading this thread and was actually talking to my SO about how cool it was that you do all this. What a bummer.


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## fortyeightjake

Dude, that sucks! I'm 3/4 of the way done my sprayer so I know you had some money invested in that. Luckily it's easy enough to spot if someone was out using it in their yard. I'd file a police report and put up signs. If they knew they couldn't use it without being seen, it would probably end up for sale online.


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## livt0ride

Missing the updates. Anything new going on with the field?


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## crussell

livt0ride said:


> Missing the updates. Anything new going on with the field?


Sadly, a couple weeks ago I made the decision to step away from the field... As much as I enjoyed spending my time down there and getting my exercise on the field, it was just too much for me to balance with my daily life at the moment.

What started off as me mowing the field with an old McLane reel mower and trying to kill off a few weeds, led to me trying to take on more and more. Mowing 3-4 times a week is enough of a time struggle, then trying to spend my weekends edging, fertilizing, spray apps, topdressing, verticutting, aerating, overseeding, adjusting irrigation, etc... I'd spend a 10 hour Saturday down there and still feel like I got nothing done.

Anyways, appreciate everyone who's followed along. Was a lot of fun (and a lot of work). This 32 year old has a few other things to get figured out in life before I start laying stripes on the ball field again. Looking forward to playing more golf, and focusing on my lawn at home!


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## BBLOCK

Good on you for all the work you put in there. Really turned that place around, totally understand the decision. That's a fulltime volunteer job, something for a retired guy. Looking forward to see what you do at home w all the extra time


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## ksturfguy

It was awesome following along. You did great work! Enjoy the extra free time.


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## Deltahedge

@crussell I've enjoyed following along and the updates have been great. I'm sorry to hear the work on the field is coming to an end, but I totally understand having different priorities now than when you began, and how the list of things to work on alway gets longer and longer. I know how you can to the the point where a 10 hour day feels like you found more things to work on or fix than things you actually were able to accomplish. Good luck on all your future endeavors.


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## Chris LI

Congratulations on your achievements on that field! Maybe your TLF time/posts can become a new thread with your home lawn.


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## Wile

You have done some awesome work and I've enjoyed your journal a lot. You have more than earned that free time.


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## A3M0N

Sometimes you just have to take care of yourself! Self-care is very important for your mental health. I enjoyed reading about your progress!


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## livt0ride

That's too bad for us. It was fun to see the project and how much you improved it. I really enjoyed what you were able to share. Sounds like you will be able to get some much needed time back though. Hope all is well!


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## MuttGrunt

Just finished reading this entire thing. OP should get to name the field at this point. Amazing stuff.


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## g-man

@crussell no final pictures of the field?


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