Grounds: Cricket Square Tasks for January

Welcome to this guide of cricket square jobs for the month ahead including cutting, brushing and more. There is video content and top tips, in association with Turfcareblog.com (where the article was originally published).

🌱 Cricket Yorkshire has teamed up with TurfcareBlog to share advice for those who look after cricket grounds. Circumstances and resources may differ place to place but if you can pick up something useful here that helps in any way then our job is done.

If the weather is in single digits temperature-wise, take a step back January and early February, as they can be months where we do very little on the squares and that’s fine. The below tasks are just some ideas of what may be possible.

Cutting

Cylinder or rotary mow at around 18-22 mm in HOC (Height of Cut), keeping the squares within this range will help prevent turf disease and help keep a dense grass canopy.

If the square is much longer, take your time to get to this HOC range, avoid hacking the square down and the risk of stressing the plant.

Whatever mower you use, ensure the blades are sharp and cutting to their best to prevent tearing of the grass leaf.

Don’t remove more than a third of the leaf in any one cut to prevent turf stress and yellowing.

📸 Image Courtesy of Sygenta UK

Turf Diseases

Red thread is the most common turf disease and luckily for us, all it often requires is a nitrogen-based fertiliser application, such as you would normally use on the square appropriate for the time of year. Fertilisation is only worth doing if the plant is growing or the product will go to waste.

Fusarium – Turf Disease (see below image)

Due to climate change and lack of cold weather fronts disease outbreaks now can occur on more months of the year.

Prevention is difficult, but the aim is to try and break the disease cycle where you can. brushing the dew off the squares, keeping the height of cut between 18-20 mm can all help break the cycle.

Application of iron sulphur can harden the grass plant against disease outbreaks. Don’t be tempted to try and feed out the disease as nitrogen can further encourage disease. 

Explore the use of preventative systemic fungicides, when the grass is actively growing  and contact fungicides for when it’s growing much less. You do need to be licensed  to apply fungicides and get profession advise from a BASIS advisor, that should be the person who sells such products.

Very expensive outlay, but you can also buy dew clear chemicals, so possibly not realistic at recreational level. 

There is more information on How to Prevent and Treat Turf Diseases in this simple but comprehensive blog.

Brushing

Brush off the dew whenever you can to prevent turf disease forming, there are also a few other benefits to brushing and other than your time, it’s a fruitful task and l highly recommend.

Brushing can also include using machinery and the collection of debris, in winter not a bad practice to do monthly to help keep a clean surface. Always match aggression of brushing with a machine, to the level of growth.

Cartridge brush units are common for such a task.

Worm Caste Management

If the grass grows well, manage ideally by cultural management techniques, such as drag matting and brushing when the castes are at their driest.

There is more information on How To Control Worms On Sports Pitches in this blog here.

Aeration 

Consider aeration of the outfield and squares, if conditions allow solid-tine aeration on the square this month, if you get a opportunity to do more than once vary depths.

Generally speaking, aeration on the square needs to be completed by Mid-January (latest) to ensure the spike holes don’t reopen in Spring/Summer.

Soil Testing

Early in the year is the best time to test the nutrient reserves of the soil, in doing so it will help you plan for the rest of the year.

There is no point applying nutrients the plant doesn’t need; test kits are cheaply available and can be interpreted by a FACTs based advisor (person who sells you your fertiliser).

Sarel Rolling

Sarel rolling is a form of shallow spiking to aerate the surface – the sarel holes will create holes for seed placement during periods of over seeding and can be used throughout the year when the soil is soft enough to penetrate.

Machinery Servicing 

Machinery servicing, absolutely vital along with monthly start-ups of machines. Get those machines serviced to avoid a Spring rush, if using a outside contractor.

Others 

Winter projects around the grounds.

Outfields keep topping as growth dictates, height of cut depending on which winter sport is played on them, but a rough guide 25-30 mm (no sport) to encourage good airflow and prevention of disease. Aeration by whatever form either vertdrain, linear, solid tine is also advisable.

Top Blogs for January

Soil Testing on Sport Turf- How, When, Why

Aeration Advice on a Cricket Squares, Red Thread Turf Disease

Fertilising a Sports Pitch When Cold Weather is Due

Top Tips

If the weather is in single digits temperatures wise, take a step back January and early February, as they can be months where we do very very little on the squares and that’s fine.

The above tasks are just some ideas of what may be possible.

This article was originally published on Turfcareblog.com who we’re partnering with to share advice and support for those who maintain cricket grounds.