Seed Specialist Urges Repair Of Winter Sports Pitches
According to specialist seed merchant Hurrells, different sports ground are subjected to different levels of damage; this means that football and rugby pitches as well as racecourses need to be hardwearing whereas cricket squares demand good wear tolerance and the ability to be closely mown.
With increased winter growth a must for winter sports fields – especially football and rugby pitches – Hurrells recommends use of its Colosseum cultivar.
Colosseum – a medium fine, mid green perennial ryegrass – provides active winter growth, growing in temperatures as low as 5 degrees centigrade, an especially ideal choice for the current wet cold soils. Its vigour and excellent wear recovery make it ideal for winter sports pitches. Bred from a few surviving plants from a test cricket pitch, the surviving plants were crossed and resulted in a cultivar capable of withstanding adverse conditions – and with better drought tolerance than many of the European bred cultivars – and has since been used – with great success – at major New Zealand sports venues such as Eden Park and Wellington Stadium.
Nick Gladstone, Managing Director of Hurrells said: “Coldstart – which is made up of 50 per cent Colosseum and 50 per cent Carnac – is a mixture that provides professional level sports turf. No other grass in the UK can grow with a soil temperature of only 5°C like Coldstart and this is what gives it its unique qualities – all other perennial rygrasses grow at between 9° and 12°C.
”Football and rugby pitches – particularly in the winter months – demand good wear tolerance and ability to recover from damage. Coldstart provides just this.”
“We also work closely with numerous greenkeepers around the country to develop new mixtures especially suited for golf courses. We now have more than 15 mixtures combining different types of cultivars. Whether it be for greens, tees or fairways we can cover any requirement and help ensure the establishment of a superior and highly successful golf course.”
For summer sports turf use Hurrells recommends Cachemire, a revolutionary sports turf perennial ryegrass. Supplied to Hurrells customers in 2009, 100% of them reported excellent results.
Hurrells amenity and turfseed mixtures are available for:
• Hockey pitches
• Tennis courts
• Bowling greens
• Golf courses
• Racecourses
• Rugby pitches
• Football pitches
Hurrells amenity and turfseed mixtures are all formulated with its cultivars listed by The Sports Turf Research Institute to achieve the very best performance.
The company is one of the UK’s foremost suppliers of amenity and turfseed mixtures to sporting arenas up and down the country with mixtures to suit individual sports, their environment and climate. The company is also acknowledged for its expertise, providing independent advice without obligation.
For further information please call Nick Gladstone on 01377 271400 or visit www.hmseeds.co.uk.