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Field Coverscontinued from page 10

sees a P.A.T. field with sub-irrigation, theability to pump the field dry and a root-zone heating system that can maintain65 degrees F. However, at times all thatis not enough to withstand the weatherextremes in the Rocky Mountains.Besides the heat and cold, humidityfluctuations can be drastic, sometimesranging in the 90s on a Saturday after-noon and falling to 50 percent by gametime on Sunday.

The Kentucky bluegrass field is over-seeded with a blend of pre-germinatedperennial ryegrasses during early spring,early fall and prime playing periods.Lujan and his crew use field covers to helpspur the growth and developmentof the seed, especially in early springand late fall. With the cover, they caneven get some growth during thewinter season.

In-Season ProtectionWise cover management can often

save a baseball game from being rainedout. The key is knowing when to putthe covers in place and when and how

to remove them. For Jesse Cuevas,stadium manager for Johnny RosenblattStadium in Omaha, NE, covers areessential for keeping the field in shapefor the televised sessions of the CollegeWorld Series. Midwestern springwarming comes only when it's ready, andthe June weather in Omaha can rangefrom cool and damp to hot and humid.Cuevas uses covers early in the springto spur greening and growth and to con-trol moisture levels to force deep rooting.

As with all baseball fields, duringthe playing season and especially dur-ing the College World Series at Rosenblatt,cover placement becomes a balancing actbetween weather conditions, necessarymaintenance practices and field-useschedules. Cuevas monitors soil-moisturelevels closely to determine how much rain-fall the field can handle within a shortperiod and still remain playable. Coverswill be put in place prior to a game if waterlevels are near field capacity, and rain-fall is predicted.

Football fields benefit from protection,too. Mrock and his crew use seven 20-by-60-yard sections of 14-ounce field coveras necessary to tarp the fields during theApril to December period of active use.

Snow is easily removed from the fieldcover, leaving the protected turf ingood condition. File photo.The covers protect the field from heavyrains, reducing the wet, muddy playingconditions that are so damaging to turf.

At Mile High Stadium, Lujan usesthree covers, each 224 feet across by150 feet wide, to cover the entire turf area,not just the playing field. These covershave one black side and one white side.When covering is necessary in the earlyfall, the white side is placed upward todeflect the rays of the sun. When nighttemperatures fall below 50 degrees F, andthe extra heat is needed, the black sideis placed up. The black surface helps keepfrost from settling or a light snow fromaccumulating.

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Playing LateIn Chicago, winter-like temperatures

may hit in October and hang on untilspring. Mrock uses covers to protect thefields from heavy snows that could ham-per play. For as long as 24 hours priorto a practice or game, he uses covers totrap the heat generated by four 600,000BTU kerosene heaters. This warmingboost helps keep the turf growing a lit-tle later in the season. Even when turfgrowth can't be maintained, the heatkeeps the field surface from freezing, pro-viding a safer arena for the players.

Covers also provide snow protectionat Mile High Stadium. In Denver, snowoften falls in pockets, creating a blizzardat the stadium while the city is clear —or blanketing the city and by-passing thestadium. Lujan covers the field wheneverevents are scheduled and snow is fore-cast, so if removal is necessary, snow iscleared from the cover, not the field.Crews create a giant squeegee on thesnowplow attachment of a 4 x 4 pickuptruck by removing the skids and attach-ing two strips of half-inch thick rubberthat extend the length of the plow. Withthis, they push the snow off the cover for

removal from the stadium. Covers alsoare used during periods of cold, windy,dry weather to reduce turf desiccation.Managing Adversity

Mike Andresen, head groundskeeperfor the Iowa Cubs Sec Taylor Stadium inDes Moines, managed field cover usageto help turf pull through almost con-stant rains and double flooding duringthe 1993 season. The field was origi-nally constructed of native black soilover an old landfill site at the pointwhere two rivers — the Des Moinesand the Raccoon — converge. The soil pro-file has been augmented over the last sev-eral years with annual applications of cal-cined clay.

During the rains, which fell on 60 of80 days, the field was kept covered toretain the possibility of play. Yet someexposure was necessary because whenthe cover remained on for too long aperiod, the ground surface below thecover became dry and hard.

Then the field was flooded, once byriver overflow and once by sewer back-up caused by the inability of the river totake on more water. The flooding also dis-abled the city's water system.

Just before the first flooding, Andresenand his crew had slit-seeded the field withpre-germinated seed. After silt from theflood had been removed twice, they con-centrated on restoring the existing turfand forcing growth of the seed thatremained. The cover was put in place.Then, as the field moisture beneath thecover reached field capacity, and a watersource was still unavailable, Andresenchanged his strategy. The field was cov-ered at night to allow soil moisture to riseto the surface, encouraging the newseedling growth, then removed during theday unless more rains threatened.

Wise cover management can speed turfestablishment, extend field playabilityearlier and later into the season andprotect fields from the need for extensiverepair. The material and labor costssaved through any of these processesmay more than offset the initial cost ofthe cover. •

Steve and Suz Trusty are partnersin Trusty & Associates, a consultingfirm located in Council Bluffs, Iowa.Steve is assistant chairman of the pub-lic relations committee of the nationalSports Turf Managers Association.

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Turf of the Month:

Lawn bowling greens must be maintained properlyfor optimal playing conditions. Photo courtesy: JoeSiegman, ALBA.

Pencross creeping bentgrass, shown here in a testplot, is the turf of choice for most cool-season lawnbowling greens.

Bentgrasses for Lawn BowlingBy Mike Augsdorfer

M ost people think about sportsturf in terms of athletic sur-faces for baseball, football and

soccer. These require sturdy, tough turf-grasses, such as bermuda, bluegrass ortall fescue, that are capable of handlingheavy traffic and divoting. Bentgrass isnot often categorized as a sports turf, atleast not in the sense that these otherspecies are. Bentgrass is commonlyassociated with golf courses, particu-larly golf greens, but it is also a popularturfgrass for low-traffic sports such aslawn bowling.

Of the three species of bentgrass —creeping (Agrostis palustris), colonial(Agrostis tenuis) and velvet (Agrostiscanina) — only creeping bentgrass is wide-ly used for bowling greens. It toleratesclose mowing and produces a dense,carpet-like sod. Colonial bentgrass isless aggressive than creeping bent andis used occasionally in coastal regions.

14 sportsTURF

Velvet bentgrass is considered the mostaesthetically pleasing of the bentgrass-es and is more drought tolerant than theother two species, but it is not used forbowling greens very often.

All species of bentgrass create adense, fine-textured turf which requiresa high level of maintenance. The primaryadvantage of bentgrass is that it toler-ates the very close mowing required ofa lawn bowling green. It can be cut verylow without damage, which explainswhy bentgrass is as popular for lawn bowl-ing as it is for golf greens.

Maintenance ConsiderationsMaintaining a bentgrass lawn bowl-

ing surface, however, requires considerablepatience and persistence. For starters,all bentgrasses have a high thatching ten-dency. Excessive thatch developmentcan result in an unsuitable surface forlawn bowling. Proper lawn bowling con-ditions require a smooth, level surfacethat does not interfere with the natural

roll of the bowl. Heavily thatched areascreate irregular, slow conditions forlawn bowling. Thus an aggressive thatch-control program must be implementedwhen maintaining a creeping bentgrasslawn bowling green.

Turf specialist J.M. Vargas, Jr., aprofessor of botany and plant pathologyat Michigan State University, notesthat turf managers must be especiallycareful with fertilization of bentgrassgreens. "Excessive use of nitrogen isone way to lose your grass in a hurry,"he writes in his book, Management ofTurfgrass Diseases. "As more nitrogen issupplied, more shoot growth is pro-duced," he continues, "but this is usuallyat the expense of the root system."Vargas recommends no more than threepounds of nitrogen per 1,000 squarefeet per season in cool-season regions andno more than four pounds per 1,000square feet when bentgrass is used insouthern regions.

continued on page 1"

FOR PRODUCT INFO FAXED TO YOU NOW! DIAL: 1(800) 817-1889Bentgrasscontinued from page 14

Irrigation is a primary concern withbentgrass bowling greens. Because bent-grass root systems are usually shallow,the tendency is to water bentgrass greensfrequently. Some turf managers willwater bentgrass greens daily in dry cli-mates. However, turf managers must becautious with irrigation to avoid over-watering. "Excess water in the soildenies oxygen to the roots," says Dr.Edgar Haley, chairman of the greens com-mittee of the American Lawn BowlAssociation. "The roots will extend onlyso deep as oxygen is available," he adds.

Haley recommends irrigating onlywhen the green needs water and suggeststhat automatic irrigation systems can bedetrimental to the health of a bentgrassgreen. "Invariably, when greens areirrigated on an automatic basis, theybecome water-soaked, and the roots,deprived of oxygen, extend to a depth of0.75 to 1.5 inches only." In extremely hot,dry conditions, such as those in the

desert Southwest, bentgrass greens maybe watered very lightly at midday - justenough to cool the turf but not enoughto cause any saturation problems.

In 1984 Haley, who is widely con-sidered the foremost expert on con-struction and maintenance oflawn bowl-ing greens, published the fourth editionof his book Maintenance of the LawnBowling Green,which is still used by turfmanagers charged with the care oflawnbowling greens.

While Haley admits that hybridbermudagrass is the preferred surfacefor lawn bowling greens, he adds thatbentgrass works well in cooler climateswhere bermudagrass is not practical.''You only use bentgrass where you can-not use bermuda," says Haley.

He suggests the use of Pen cross creep-ing bentgrass for lawn bowling greens incool season conditions. In his book,Haley also recommends Pencrossfor oversee ding hybrid bermuda lawnbowling greens in the winter. Seasidecreeping bentgrass has also been used for

lawn bowling greens with some suc-cess, but Haley cautions that specialcare must be taken with the Seasidevariety. "Seaside," he writes, "aftera year or so will develop patches of turfhaving variations in density and grainsufficient to cause a slight change inthe behavior of the bowl. Pencrosshas a less tendency to develop thesevariations."

Haley dismisses the notion that creep-ing bentgrass will not root firmly enoughto provide a stable surface for lawnbowling. "Pencross bentgrass will rootdown to seven or eight inches," he relates."If you build your green so that the lev-els of air and water are optimal, that'swhere the roots will go."

Drainage Helps Deep RootingProper drainage is the key to achiev-

ing deep rooting, says Haley. "It's veryimportant that your drainage pipes arelevel," he explains. The right base is alsoa crucial element. 'We use 100% washedsand," he notes.

continued on page 20

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The size of the particles plays animportant role in providing water and oxy-gen to the roots of the grass. "Pure sandofrelatively fine and uniform size (80 per-cent or more of the particles having0.15 to 0.5 mm in diameter) and con-taining little or no clay (under four per-cent) appears to be the ideal soil for thebowling green," Haley writes. The fineparticles allow proper distribution ofmoisture and oxygen to the roots of theplant. Loamy soils may become saturated,and the roots will not get the oxygen theyneed, effectively drowning the turfgrass.

The size of the sand particles alsoaffects the playing surface. "The surfacetension is dependent on the size of theparticle," says Haley. Finer particlescreate a firmer surface for bowling.

Earl Shafer, general superintendentof grounds at DuPont Country Club inWilmington, DE, maintains a bent-grass/Poa bowling green at the club.''We maintain it just like a golf green,"he explains. The primary difference is inthe frequency and timing of aerifica-tion on the bowling green. "We go withthree aerifications: spring, fall and some-where in the middle," says Shafer."Without the third aerification, theedges get worn."

Michael Ashton Phillips, marketingdirector for the ALBA, has played ongreens throughout the country andnotices a subtle difference between play-ing conditions on hybrid bermuda andbentgrass greens. 'eyou get a little morepace out of bermuda," he explains.Phillips feels that bentgrass greens areabout two seconds slower than bermu-da greens. (Pace of a lawn bowling greenis judged by the number of seconds thatelapse from the time a bowl is releaseduntil it comes to rest 90 feet away.)Phillips says bowling on bentgrass greensdemands a slight adjustment in technique."The bentgrass requires more bodilyeffort," he notes.

Lawn bowling is a game of precisionthat requires a consistent, true surfacefor play. With proper maintenanceprocedures, creeping bentgrass providesan excellent surface for lawn bowlinggreens in cool-season regions. Creepingbent may also be used for overseedinglawn bowling greens in wanner climatesduring the winter months. 0

20 sporfsTURF

Bowling Green vs. Golf Green MaintenanceBy Lloyd Woods

At first glance, it would seem that the maintenance requirements of golf and lawn bowlinggreens would be almost identical. However, the differences are significant, and turf managerswho have been involved with both agree that bowling greens require the higher level of main-tenance to produce an acceptable playing surface.

A bowling green must be fast, level and true if bowlers are to play with self-confidence andfinesse. Compared to a golf green, it must be very firm and thatch-free, and if the bowls are torun true, the green should be level to within 1/8 inch over its entire area.

Because of the differences between the weight of a golfball (approximately 2.5 ounces) andthat of a bowl (up to 3.5 pounds), a stimpmeter cannot be used to give a meaningful measureof the speed or "pace" of a bowling green. Instead the standard pace measurement - stated inseconds - is the time it takes a bowl to roll from its delivery until it comes to rest at a point90 feet up the green. Nine seconds is slow, 12 seconds acceptable, and 14 seconds is consideredvery good for a bentgrass green in our climate. The width of draw -the amount that the bowlcurves during its travel- is related to pace. As the pace increases, draws become wider, up toten feet in the case of a 14-second green.

Since good pace is so important, a great deal of the maintenance effort is directed towardcreating a firm surface. This means that thatch production must be kept to a minimum, andthe thatch that does develop must be removed on a regular basis.

Close, regular mowing reduces thatch production. Typically, bowling greens are mowed fouror five times per week at a mowing height of 1/8 inch or 5/32 inch, as opposed to 3/16 inch orso for golf greens. Thatching is also controlled by limiting the amount of nitrogen applied. Onepound per 1,000 square feet per growing month is considered an absolute maximum.

In spite of one's best effort to control it, some thatch will inevitably develop and must be dealtwith. Regular topdressing, as is practiced on golf greens to provide a firm surface, is notacceptable on bowling greens for two major reasons: 1) repetitive topdressing will in time raisethe level of the green relative to the plinth (the board that runs around the inside of the ditchsurrounding the green), and 2) sand on the surface of the green damages bowls and makes forunpleasant playing conditions.

The answer, then, is regular dethatching. Weekly verticutting throughout the playingseason is needed if a firm, fast surface is to be achieved and maintained.

Also, since a dry surface runs faster than a wet one, irrigation must be more disciplined. Ofcourse, this increases the chance oflocalized dry areas, particularly in the case of sand greenswhich are built without any peat or other amendments. Therefore, applying the right amountof water is a real balancing act which can be made somewhat easier if wetting agents are used.

Low thatch levels and the use ofless water tend to reduce the incidence of disease, so pre-ventive use of fungicides is uncommon. However, the same diseases which inflict golf greensare also found on bowling greens from time to time. Fusarium, ophiobolous,pythium, brownpatch, dollar spot, etc., show up on occasion and must be dealt with.

Wear distribution is achieved by moving the rink center (analogous to moving the cup ongolf greens), and the direction of play should be changed regularly. During tournaments andother times of heavy use, the rinks are best moved after every game.

The green must be kept level over its entire 14,400 square foot area (120 feet by 120 feet).Identification oflow areas and selective topdressing is required and is usually accomplished beforeor after the playing season. Core aerating is also limited to the off-season and is an operationthat must be done very carefully since the levelness of the surface may be compromised. All holesmust be back-filled because areas with incompletely filled holes are prone to sinking.

The maintenance regime of close mowing, dethatching, restricted fertility and limitedwater places the green under a great deal of stress, particularly in hot, dry weather and dur-ing periods of heavy play. It is indeed a challenge to maintain the turfin a healthy condition.Fortunately, the bowling season usually lasts only about six months, and the turf gets time forrest and recovery through the winter months, so all is not gloom and doom.

Fortunately too, bowlers seem to be somewhat more tolerant than golfers and will acceptplaying surfaces which are not particularly green if only the pace is maintained and thedraws are wide and true. Of course, even with almost perfect playing conditions, lawn bowlers,like golfers, have been known to criticize the green - more so when the result of their gamewas less than satisfactory!

Lloyd Woods is a greens consultant in Victoria, British Columbia. The contents of thisarticle were originally presented at the 1995 Western Canada Turfgrass AssociationConference and wereprinted in Turf Line News. The article is reproduced with permissionfrom the WCTA. Special thanks to Bob Wick of the WCTA for his help.