Field Maintenance - Soil Additives

It isn't the powdery substance that makes it work, its the constant care!

I've been maintaining our LL 60 and 90' field for more than 6 years and there's only one secret. Whenever anyone used the field, they need to drag it, fill the holes in the mound and batter's boxes, and if there's time water it.

There is a special way to fill a hole such as in front of the rubber or batter's boxes. Fill the hole with an inch or two of soil, and pack it and lightly water it. Do that until the hole is overfilled, and then pack it, preferably with a tamp. When you're done, water it and don't spare the water!

You don't need to flood it, but in order to get the soil to bind together, you need to get some moisture down to the base of the hole. Its works much better if you moisten the soil in layers as you're filling it.

This applies to the infield if you have a grass infield, and always to the outfield. NEVER ALLOW THE DRAG TO TOUCH THE GRASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When you're done dragging the field, stop the drag on the dirt, roll it up and lift it off. Then take a rake and tidy the area up.

Even though you don't think so, just as few grains of soil each time you do it will soon have a lip there that's nearly impossible to get rid of without serious work. You're going to get a lip even if you don't drag onto the grass, but not doing that will make it easier to control.

Infielders and runners have a habit of kicking dirt onto the grass and it will build up if you don't stay on top of it! depending on the height you mow your infield there are several things you can do. Our infields a re hybrid Bermuda and mowed twice a week at 3/8" with a golf course greens mower so its real easy for me to spot trouble.

I try to do this after every game, but at a minimum of once a week. I get a hose with a high pressure nozzle and hold the nozzle 6-12" off the grass and use the water pressure to blow the soil and rocks onto the infield dirt or pitchers mound. if your grass is longer, you'll need to hold the hose higher, but with some practice, you won't was the soil away from the roots and get done what you want.

If you have an older field that already has the lip on it, you can help things a bunch this way. get some fertilizer very high in nutrients for the roots and make small applications regularly to the last foot or so nearest the infield dirt, but no more than once every two weeks. The point is to keep the roots growing.

Now you use your HP nozzle to actually wash away a small layer of soil to start wearing away the lip. But be careful and don't get in a big hurry and try to get rid of it all at once. If you get 1/4 to 1/2 half inch a week, you'll give the roots time to recover and the newly exposed stem time to get toughened up. If you do that religiously for a month or two, you will soon have that lip gone and good healthy grass to replace it. That procedure will work very nicely on the mound too and will keep that ugly tear drop at bay!

If you really want to make your infield the envy of the league, make sure you make the recommended applications of a good fertilizer program like Scott's. that means a pre-emergent in the spring, a weed controller in the summer and a root builder in the fall. Products like Weed-be-gone work wonders to get rid of the broadleaf weeds like clover and dandelions and may be use any time the turf is growing. Since they aren't fertilizers, they can be applied without fear of screwing something up as long as you follow the instructions.

Keep a supply of "clean" sand and box of quick sprouting grass seed somewhere handy, and if someone takes a gouge out of the turf or there's a bare spot, hand broadcast some seed on the spot and cover it with about a half inch of the sand. If you're lazy like me, get a 5 gallon bucket, fill it halfway with sand, throw in a bunch of seed, fill it with a high quality potting soil and mix it up. Then use that to fill your holes and spots. Always make sure that if you put down seed that it gets some moisture every day. Don't worry about the ugly spots on the grass, in a few days they'll be gone.

Since you're putting in all this money and time to get your infield looking good, don't be stupid and use a mower with a grass catcher! The nutrients go into the grass and are transferred up the stems to the blades. When you cut those blades, the nutrients are still in them and if you take them away, all it means is that you'll need to replace them more often.

By leaving them on the turf, they will dry out, work their way down to the soil and eventually decompose creating natural fertilizer and enriching your soil. There is an unwelcome caveat on that though. You never want to remove more than 1/3 of any plant or you'll put it under stress where it will be more susceptible to disease and insects.

During the summer, if you're watering properly, fertilizing regularly and there's lots of sun, and you have something other than bent or Bermuda, you can count on the grass growing an inch every 2 days. If you try to keep the field mowed from 1-2 inches, you better count on mowing at least 3 times a week. That sounds like a lot, but because you're doing it more often it will take less tie to mow and the clippings will be much finer.

BTW, a rule of thumb is 1" of water per week in temperatures between 80 and 95. That's not ironclad and depend on the type of grass, but its a pretty good rule. Don't try to apply the inch all at once either. To find out how much water that is, put an aluminum pie plate in a representative place and turn on the water. Believe me, an inch is a lot of water, so don't be surprised if you try to get the inch all at once and the field floods.

One thing that will do more for your infield than anything else is to top dress and aerate it regularly. If you have a golf course around, often they will lend you the equipment. If not, you can rent an aerator for a few bucks and do it yourself. If you aerate, top dress afterwards. But even if you don't aerate, top dress!

Two yards of sand will easily allow a dressing of 1/4 to 1/2 inch on a small infield. All you need is a few guys with strong backs to sling the dressing. When you're done, use the drag to knock the dressing down. That will also spread it out more evenly. Depending on the bucks you have to work with, anything from sand to a real top dressing mix can be used. Don't waste you're money on beach sand. Its generally cleaner than necessary, but don't get sand that has a bunch of pebbles and weed seeds in it either.

Again, call a golf course superintendent for help in locating the materials. This kind of thing is right up their alley and most will be glad to even come take a look and give you free advice. Be careful in the advice area too! What you're doing isn't trying to make a pretty lawn, but rather a playing field. Don't listen to Old Joe just because his lawn is the prettiest in town. You need to know your turf and take care of it accordingly.

I got so carried away, I almost forgot the original question! Sorry. As you may have guessed, I like this stuff!

Back to the infield soil. The best thing I can tell you is to contact a professional. That means finding someone who takes care of a professional field or very good college field. I often call our AAA team's field maintenance superintendent for advice, but if you have nothing like that in the area, go on-line! I've been able to communicate with the field crews at a couple of the major league ball parks and they are always willing to share information!

A park like Raley Field here in Sacramento has different soils all over the place. The mound is one mixture, the base paths another, the batter's boxes another and the track still another. The mixes are experimented with until they work best for what is desired in this location and then they are tended like Grandma's garden! You need to find out what works best in your area base on weather conditions and use and if you can get hold of one of those guys, you may be pleasantly surprised!

In fact, if you can find one of those kinds of parks that's closing or rebuilding, you may be able to get their old soil! I missed out on getting some of the old infield soil from Candlestick by 4 lousy days! That stuff is like gold! Do some research. If you approach those guys right, you may be very surprised and pleased at what happens. I could tell you what basically works best here, but I'm afraid that wouldn't be best for you, so I won't do it.

I almost forgot something very important! Although most people think the reason for dragging and preparing the field after use is to get it ready for the next day, they probably don't really understand the main reason that needs to be done.

Especially in place with high humidity, but anywhere if there's an automatic sprinkler around, dew will form on the top layer infield dirt, and what it does is create a crust. Depending on the amount of moisture, it can be a real bear to get rid of footprints and cleat marks. It not too bad if you're lucky enough to have a small tractor to pull the drag around, but if you're like most places, its strictly man or kid power! Do it when you're done and then spray it with water and chances are the next team will have to do very little work to prepare the field for play.

Jeez oh man! That reminds of something else!

If and when you water the infield dirt before a game, don't just put enough spray on it to turn the color dark brown! The purpose of watering the field isn't to keep the dust down, which it does, the purpose is to give players a good solid footing! If you just spray the top, all you do is get the water down a little bit that doesn't do much to help the players.

SOAK IT! try to give it enough water do that the moisture will get down at least an inch. Of course if you don't have a decent soil mixture, don't turn the place to mud! It generally takes me 45 minutes to give a good soak to our big field and at least 20 minutes on the little one. that's with a 3/4 inch hose tipped by a medium high pressure nozzle being fed by a 45lb booster pump, so make your adjustments according to what you have available.

WHEW! Kinda got carried away there didn't I! But believe or not, there's more!

Anyhoo, I hope you found something in that dissertation to help!