Extracts from my Croquet Gazette column
Compaction
Following the extended period of lock down, I have been able to visit clubs around the country again. This year has been wetter than usual I found quite a lot of Dry Patch even in the North where there has been more rain.
Generally speaking it isn’t recognised by groundsmen, contractors and “experts”. They see the symptoms (dead patches of grass) and wrongly think it is caused by compaction. This incorrect diagnosis can be a very expensive mistake for the club who call in contractors to carry out deep tining or even hydraulic fracturing thinking that this will cure the problem. Unfortunately for the clubs this expensive work doesn’t make any difference.
The problem is hydrophobic (unwettable) soil, not compaction. To any lay person it looks like compaction and logic says it is caused by people standing round hoops. So, individuals are taken in and so are committees who vote away funds to cure the problem. I fell for it years ago at Letchworth, before I understood Dry Patch and organised a working party of twenty members to bring garden forks to prick the surface. It proved to be a waste of time.
Dry Patch is caused by waxy lipids created by micro-organisms in the soil. If you punch holes in a block of wax, it still won’t absorb water and the same applies to hydrophobic soil.
Testing for Dry Patch is easy and the cure is very simple too. All you need is a watering can or a sprayer and a bottle of curative. The affected area is sprayed twice, leaving 14 days between applications. It is best to treat before rain or water it in afterwards to get the product into the root zone. Treating 200 sq metres costs £32.50 in my online shop.
Following the extended period of lock down, I have been able to visit clubs around the country again. This year has been wetter than usual I found quite a lot of Dry Patch even in the North where there has been more rain.
Generally speaking it isn’t recognised by groundsmen, contractors and “experts”. They see the symptoms (dead patches of grass) and wrongly think it is caused by compaction. This incorrect diagnosis can be a very expensive mistake for the club who call in contractors to carry out deep tining or even hydraulic fracturing thinking that this will cure the problem. Unfortunately for the clubs this expensive work doesn’t make any difference.
The problem is hydrophobic (unwettable) soil, not compaction. To any lay person it looks like compaction and logic says it is caused by people standing round hoops. So, individuals are taken in and so are committees who vote away funds to cure the problem. I fell for it years ago at Letchworth, before I understood Dry Patch and organised a working party of twenty members to bring garden forks to prick the surface. It proved to be a waste of time.
Dry Patch is caused by waxy lipids created by micro-organisms in the soil. If you punch holes in a block of wax, it still won’t absorb water and the same applies to hydrophobic soil.
Testing for Dry Patch is easy and the cure is very simple too. All you need is a watering can or a sprayer and a bottle of curative. The affected area is sprayed twice, leaving 14 days between applications. It is best to treat before rain or water it in afterwards to get the product into the root zone. Treating 200 sq metres costs £32.50 in my online shop.
Spring maintenance
Low Nitrogen fertiliser can be applied in February and or March. Too much N can be damaging to grass when the days are short. Nitrogen causes the cells to enlarge which is fine if the cell walls thicken at the same time. But cell wall thickening is dependent on photosynthesis without which the cells explode like balloons. The damaged grass is then likely to be attacked by fungal disease which has an easy route into the plant through the open wounds.
Moss can be controlled by spraying Soluble Iron. The Crystals are mixed quickly in water using a paint paddle and a cordless drill. See the video on my website. Iron can easily damage sprayers. Use a good quality Soluble Iron and run plenty of clean water through after spraying so that no iron is left in the pump or pipes as this could re-crystalise and block the sprayer.
Low Nitrogen fertiliser can be applied in February and or March. Too much N can be damaging to grass when the days are short. Nitrogen causes the cells to enlarge which is fine if the cell walls thicken at the same time. But cell wall thickening is dependent on photosynthesis without which the cells explode like balloons. The damaged grass is then likely to be attacked by fungal disease which has an easy route into the plant through the open wounds.
Moss can be controlled by spraying Soluble Iron. The Crystals are mixed quickly in water using a paint paddle and a cordless drill. See the video on my website. Iron can easily damage sprayers. Use a good quality Soluble Iron and run plenty of clean water through after spraying so that no iron is left in the pump or pipes as this could re-crystalise and block the sprayer.
Top-dressing during the summer?
It is possible to lightly top-dress problem areas during the playing season. To fill a dip you can apply a light dressing of sand of around 2mm. If you are mowing at 5mm, thetop dressing won't smother it. A week or so later you can apply another 2mm and so on. This way you can cure localised dips quite easily without disrupting play and seeding isn't usually necessary. For this purpose, I use round grained sand from a local quarry which costs £10 for 250kg and mix in some finely graded seeding compost to provide some organic content (available in my shop if you can’t get it locally).
It is possible to lightly top-dress problem areas during the playing season. To fill a dip you can apply a light dressing of sand of around 2mm. If you are mowing at 5mm, thetop dressing won't smother it. A week or so later you can apply another 2mm and so on. This way you can cure localised dips quite easily without disrupting play and seeding isn't usually necessary. For this purpose, I use round grained sand from a local quarry which costs £10 for 250kg and mix in some finely graded seeding compost to provide some organic content (available in my shop if you can’t get it locally).
Liquid Fertiliser – why use it?
The liquid Biofeed fertilisers that I supply contain humic acid and seaweed. Humic acid is derived from humus and, along with seaweed, promotes active soil biology, helping thatch breakdown and healthy growth. If you are using a growth regulator, it is best to have the Biofeed without seaweed.
Liquid fertiliser enters the plant mainly through the leaf and any that misses the leaf will be washed into the root zone where it is absorbed by the roots. This means that the fertiliser enters the plant quickly and has the advantage that there are no granules left on the surface. The lawn can be used as soon as dry, usually within an hour.
The liquid Biofeed fertilisers that I supply contain humic acid and seaweed. Humic acid is derived from humus and, along with seaweed, promotes active soil biology, helping thatch breakdown and healthy growth. If you are using a growth regulator, it is best to have the Biofeed without seaweed.
Liquid fertiliser enters the plant mainly through the leaf and any that misses the leaf will be washed into the root zone where it is absorbed by the roots. This means that the fertiliser enters the plant quickly and has the advantage that there are no granules left on the surface. The lawn can be used as soon as dry, usually within an hour.
Green Waste Compost fights back
Last autumn I filled some low areas on my croquet lawn. I filled the dips, then seeded and covered with top dressing which, according to the books, should be fine. WRONG! The germination was very patchy and I wished I had used Green Waste compost to cover the seed. That is what I advise everyone else to do, but this was an experiment and it proved a point again. You can’t beat Green Waste Compost for seeding. It is available quite cheaply in every county. It is household waste composted to PAS100 and has an amazing ability to hold moisture which is exactly what is required for seed germination and seedling establishment. The only downside is that most suppliers don’t grade it, so it can be lumpy and have bits of wood in it. For this reason it usually has to be sieved. My supplier grades it to 4mm and you will find it in my shop. It is not the cheapest way to buy way to buy because of transport costs but worth it because it saves a lot of time and gives great results.
Last autumn I filled some low areas on my croquet lawn. I filled the dips, then seeded and covered with top dressing which, according to the books, should be fine. WRONG! The germination was very patchy and I wished I had used Green Waste compost to cover the seed. That is what I advise everyone else to do, but this was an experiment and it proved a point again. You can’t beat Green Waste Compost for seeding. It is available quite cheaply in every county. It is household waste composted to PAS100 and has an amazing ability to hold moisture which is exactly what is required for seed germination and seedling establishment. The only downside is that most suppliers don’t grade it, so it can be lumpy and have bits of wood in it. For this reason it usually has to be sieved. My supplier grades it to 4mm and you will find it in my shop. It is not the cheapest way to buy way to buy because of transport costs but worth it because it saves a lot of time and gives great results.
Leather jackets meet their doom
Gone are the days of spraying Crossfire to kill leather jackets. That product was banned several years ago. Ryde Croquet Club have tried a new technique they had heard about. They pegged out a sheet of black plastic over the area and left it overnight. Lo and behold, the next morning they had 200 leather jackets under the plastic.
Gone are the days of spraying Crossfire to kill leather jackets. That product was banned several years ago. Ryde Croquet Club have tried a new technique they had heard about. They pegged out a sheet of black plastic over the area and left it overnight. Lo and behold, the next morning they had 200 leather jackets under the plastic.
Seeding – nutrition and soil conditioning (Dec 2020)
My croquet lawn is recovering from the levelling I did in September. Poor weather delayed the seeding part of the process. So I still have have some bare areas. I seeded one area on 4th November and covered with green waste compost. The weather was autumnal and it took 16 days to germinate instead of the normal 7 or 8 days. There are other patches to do. I have tried many ways of seeding and the compost method is always more successful than any other. Just spread the seed and cover with 8mm of Green Waste compost. This compost is unusual in that it retains moisture very well which is ideal for seed germination and afterwards breaks down in the rootzone without causing a hill. It is composted to BSI PA100 standard and is made from household waste. I believe that all counties have their household waste composted in this way so, you should be to buy it locally. However, it is usually quite lumpy so I use a graded (sieved) compost which costs more but is worth it. I can supply at £12 per bag for 6 bags (delivery included). One 40 litre bag is enough to cover 5 sq metres and it stores well if kept in a dry place. Soil temperature is important and the rye grass that I use needs 9 degrees or more. Seedsmen used to say that seeding could be done at any time before Christmas. That isn’t what it says on the bag but I am going to try it anyway.
During the winter I have been spraying monthly with liquid fertiliser and liquid iron to kill off any fungal attacks. It seems to keep the moss away even using a weak dilution. Worms started congregating again but autumn conditioning has dispersed them.
My croquet lawn is recovering from the levelling I did in September. Poor weather delayed the seeding part of the process. So I still have have some bare areas. I seeded one area on 4th November and covered with green waste compost. The weather was autumnal and it took 16 days to germinate instead of the normal 7 or 8 days. There are other patches to do. I have tried many ways of seeding and the compost method is always more successful than any other. Just spread the seed and cover with 8mm of Green Waste compost. This compost is unusual in that it retains moisture very well which is ideal for seed germination and afterwards breaks down in the rootzone without causing a hill. It is composted to BSI PA100 standard and is made from household waste. I believe that all counties have their household waste composted in this way so, you should be to buy it locally. However, it is usually quite lumpy so I use a graded (sieved) compost which costs more but is worth it. I can supply at £12 per bag for 6 bags (delivery included). One 40 litre bag is enough to cover 5 sq metres and it stores well if kept in a dry place. Soil temperature is important and the rye grass that I use needs 9 degrees or more. Seedsmen used to say that seeding could be done at any time before Christmas. That isn’t what it says on the bag but I am going to try it anyway.
During the winter I have been spraying monthly with liquid fertiliser and liquid iron to kill off any fungal attacks. It seems to keep the moss away even using a weak dilution. Worms started congregating again but autumn conditioning has dispersed them.
The Vital Statistics of a Croquet Lawn (Oct 2020)
This year I installed irrigation for my croquet lawn. There are four pop-up sprinklers sited halfway down each boundary. Each sprinkler on the East and West boundaries sprays from corner to corner with a radius of 19 yards. The North and South sprinklers also spray corner to corner with a radius of 15 yards. I set the spray time to start at one o’clock in the morning to reduce evaporation. The system can be controlled remotely by an app on my phone.
It was very dry in May and again in August. The irrigation system was used 24 times between May and September at the rate of 4.9 cu metres each time. So, the total usage for the year was 118 cu metres which cost £195. In return, the lawn has played really well all year and has looked fantastic. There has been no drought damage. This has shown me that irrigation probably pays for itself in reduced repair costs and improved playing quality for members.
From 1st May to 9th September I mowed 34 times which took 23 hours and removed 67 boxes of grass clippings. A further 3 hours were spent applying fertiliser. I levelled the lawn a year ago and remove 100 metres of fairy rings. The trenches were 2 feet deep and 85 tonnes of infected soil was removed. I spread bicarbonate of soda into the trenches before filling with fresh soil. The fairy rings haven’t returned but I have had random toadstools appearing.This year I have done two laser surveys of my lawn which have shown that part of the lawn that was infilled last year in the levelling process has de-compacted which I wasn’t expecting. This autumn I have been fine-tuning the levels by top dressing, guided by the rotary laser.
This year I installed irrigation for my croquet lawn. There are four pop-up sprinklers sited halfway down each boundary. Each sprinkler on the East and West boundaries sprays from corner to corner with a radius of 19 yards. The North and South sprinklers also spray corner to corner with a radius of 15 yards. I set the spray time to start at one o’clock in the morning to reduce evaporation. The system can be controlled remotely by an app on my phone.
It was very dry in May and again in August. The irrigation system was used 24 times between May and September at the rate of 4.9 cu metres each time. So, the total usage for the year was 118 cu metres which cost £195. In return, the lawn has played really well all year and has looked fantastic. There has been no drought damage. This has shown me that irrigation probably pays for itself in reduced repair costs and improved playing quality for members.
From 1st May to 9th September I mowed 34 times which took 23 hours and removed 67 boxes of grass clippings. A further 3 hours were spent applying fertiliser. I levelled the lawn a year ago and remove 100 metres of fairy rings. The trenches were 2 feet deep and 85 tonnes of infected soil was removed. I spread bicarbonate of soda into the trenches before filling with fresh soil. The fairy rings haven’t returned but I have had random toadstools appearing.This year I have done two laser surveys of my lawn which have shown that part of the lawn that was infilled last year in the levelling process has de-compacted which I wasn’t expecting. This autumn I have been fine-tuning the levels by top dressing, guided by the rotary laser.
