INDUSTRY RESEARCH depth increased but was unaffected by aerification . Drainage decreased with increasing fraise mowing depth . However , aerification offset this reduction and increased drainage from 37 % to 79 %. With fields already closed for play , no difference in recovery rate , and improved drainage , it makes sense to core aerify immediately after fraise mowing .
Fraise mowing enables sports field managers to ( potentially ) remove all thatch from their fields . What would have taken years to do with vertical mowing , hollow-tine aerification , and topdressing can now be done in an afternoon with a fraise mower . Be aware that there is very little to no green grass on the field following fraise mowing , and it will be weeks to months before the field looks like a field . But after the recovery period , it will look and perform better than the field before fraise mowing . SFM
Ray McCauley , Ph . D ., is an extension assistant under Dr . Grady Miller at NC State University . He received his B . S . and M . S . at Clemson University in Turfgrass Science and his Ph . D . at NC State University in Crop Science . His Ph . D . research concentrated on fraise mowing bermudagrass with an emphasis on its effects on soil physical properties .
REFERENCES
Baker , S . W . and C . W . Richards . 1993 . Soil physical properties of soccer pitches : Relationships between laboratory and field measurements . Int . Turfgrass Soc . Res . J . 7:489-496 .
Beard , J . B . 1973 . Turfgrass science and culture . Prentice Hall , Englewood Cliffs , NJ .
Chivers , I . and D . Aldous . 2003 . Performance monitoring of grassed playing surfaces for Australian Rules football . J . Turfgrass Sports Surface Sci . 70:73-80 .
Miller , G . L . 2008 . An evaluation of crumb rubber and calcined clay for topdressing sports fields . Acta Horticulturae . 783:381-390 .
Serensits , T ., and A . McNitt . 2014 . Update on field safety testing . SportsTurf . 30 ( 7 ): 8 , 10-11 .
Stewart , B . R ., H . W . Philley , C . M . Baldwin , and J . D . McCurdy . 2016 . When will it be ready for play ? Fraze mowing recovery time in bermudagrass . In : Abstracts ASA , CSSA , and SSA International Annual Meeting , Phoenix , AZ . https :// scisoc . confex . com / crops / 2016am / webprogram / Paper 101905 . html sportsfieldmanagementonline . com June 2021 | SportsField Management
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