How do the groundsmen improve pitch this week?

Robert California

Robert California

Well-Known Member
As someone with no knowledge about pitches, turf and maintenance etc, just how do the staff go about making the pitch better for Thursday, or it is pointless?

Other than walking about digging forks in, what does anyone else know what else they do to make it better?
 
No grass growth at this time of year, its lying dormant. Prob another month before it is able to help itself. Club needs to find a way of keeping the rain off it, pitched covers leading water to drainage channels all around the pitch. Looks like it needs relaying though.
 
Tougherthanbullets said:
No grass growth at this time of year, its lying dormant. Prob another month before it is able to help itself. Club needs to find a way of keeping the rain off it, pitched covers leading water to drainage channels all around the pitch. Looks like it needs relaying though.
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I wish someone would tell the grass in my back garden that mate.Seriously though the Club use special lighting on the turf so time of year doesent matter.Agree with your point about drainage though.
 
Is there an issue with the water table at Ibrox? We dug down a bit to increase capacity a while back. We should really have a hybrid pitch by now anyway, but even that might not be enough if the grass roots are saturated.
 
What about the portable lamps that we spent a lot of money on? I thought they were to encourage and accelerate grass growth?

I used to see them stored behind the Broomloan stand during games but I approach the stadium from the other side now so don't know if we still have them.

I'm no gardener so don't know if there is a genuine reason if these can't be used, although even if they can I wouldn't have thought 4 days is enough time to make a difference.
 
Don't they use a heat lamp or something when they initially lay the turf? No idea if this is an option they consider at this time of year.
 
Ted Rangers said:
Is there an issue with the water table at Ibrox? We dug down a bit to increase capacity a while back. We should really have a hybrid pitch by now anyway, but even that might not be enough if the grass roots are saturated.
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The pitch is actually below the Clyde water table I think
 
If I ever win the euro millions my plan would be to build in covers/lights behind the goal in a trench that then runs on rails up the touch lines.
Spurs have this for their grow lights. (I appreciate this was designed into their new stadium) Pie in the sky probably to store the covers but I think the pit ch should be in a tent all the time apart from games/promotions. Like Wimbledon courts etc.

would probably use up most of my £160M euro win.
 
williewoodburn said:
That doesnt stop the water being collected in a sump and pumped away. I'd imagine thats what they are doing.
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Has the volume of water possibly overwhelmed this then? It has been a pretty terrible winter. Any plan to dig down further could be ruled out if this is part of the problem with the pitch. Maybe we should go plastic...
 
they can't its February nothing really grows so its damage limitation



that being said no way should our pitch be in the condition it is and questions quite rightly need to be asked ......
 
Not long after SG arrived he asked that the grass be cut shorter by a couple of mm, ground staff said not a good idea. Don’t know if that was the reason for new pitch though.
 
I've heard because the pitch is so soft it would do more damage than good trailing the heat lamps over it. Not a lot you can do at this time of year once a disease hits it. Speaking from experience once it gets to that stage with very little growth on it and no way of accelerating it they are pretty much snookered just now. Keeping the bad bits as dry as possible would be my goal. In hindsight it's a pity we never went with the hybrid pitch in the summer.
 
Slim Jim said:
Not long after SG arrived he asked that the grass be cut shorter by a couple of mm, ground staff said not a good idea. Don’t know if that was the reason for new pitch though.
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reason for hybrid as thats all gerrard had been used to at liverpool and celtc were installing a hybrid , mid season it was easier to install at the training ground and initially it wasn't a success ..... but that was almost 1 year ago and because it wasn't a success they held off from doing it at Ibrox last summer
 
marvsbeliever said:
If I ever win the euro millions my plan would be to build in covers/lights behind the goal in a trench that then runs on rails up the touch lines.
Spurs have this for their grow lights. (I appreciate this was designed into their new stadium) Pie in the sky probably to store the covers but I think the pit ch should be in a tent all the time apart from games/promotions. Like Wimbledon courts etc.

would probably use up most of my £160M euro win.
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And the rest would be wasted!
 
jigster said:
they can't its February nothing really grows so its damage limitation



that being said no way should our pitch be in the condition it is and questions quite rightly need to be asked ......
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If I remember correctly our first game on that new pitch although it looked really good was cutting up badly but a few on here said that it would settle and be a great pitch, a mess and a disgrace is what it is.
 
Miko said:
What about the portable lamps that we spent a lot of money on? I thought they were to encourage and accelerate grass growth?

I used to see them stored behind the Broomloan stand during games but I approach the stadium from the other side now so don't know if we still have them.

I'm no gardener so don't know if there is a genuine reason if these can't be used, although even if they can I wouldn't have thought 4 days is enough time to make a difference.
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I saw them take them in immediately following our game yesterday
 
sinky1969 said:
6 home games in the space of 30 days during a really shit spell of weather doesn't help.
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I saw the state of the pitch on the news sat evening and I was dreading it yesterday.
All in, I thought the ground staff did well to get it where it was very playable.
I also didn't think it cut up as much as I was expecting.
Saying all that, if we went to a euro tie and saw the state of our pitch for another club, we would be complaining.
 
I did the stadium tour on Friday afteenoon. The pitchlooked alot better at tye game than it did on Sunday looked to me that alot of sand had went down probably an action from the call off.

Have been very disappointed as the pitch has been a carpet for years now
 
Miko said:
What about the portable lamps that we spent a lot of money on? I thought they were to encourage and accelerate grass growth?

I used to see them stored behind the Broomloan stand during games but I approach the stadium from the other side now so don't know if we still have them.

I'm no gardener so don't know if there is a genuine reason if these can't be used, although even if they can I wouldn't have thought 4 days is enough time to make a difference.
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they were being used when i was up a couple of weeks ago
 
After Thursday we dont have a home game until march a good 2 weeks at least to get some work done maybe lay new turf on the worst affected parts of the pitch first thing friday morning it takes a couple of weeks to bed in
 
Keep thinking of Parma pitch late 90s that lost everything and was rolled mud (not yet found a photo)
 
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jigster said:
they can't its February nothing really grows so its damage limitation



that being said no way should our pitch be in the condition it is and questions quite rightly need to be asked ......
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We have huge lights we use, at one time kept the pitch in pristine condition.
Did Gerrard not ask for the pitch to be relaid?
 
Glasgow has a rainfall of 300 days a year. This winter has seen the highest rainfall for many years. The pitch on Sunday held up well considering all the rain that fell on Saturday.
 
We have 13 days after braga game before we play accies at home, I expect there to be an improvement but not by much due to the cold weather at this time of year. Too many folk are commenting on something they no nothing about. Pitch wasn’t as bad yesterday as what I was expecting and some folk made out , it had no impact on the quality of football played
 
Great white tadpole said:
We have 13 days after braga game before we play accies at home, I expect there to be an improvement but not by much due to the cold weather at this time of year. Too many folk are commenting on something they no nothing about. Pitch wasn’t as bad yesterday as what I was expecting and some folk made out , it had no impact on the quality of football played
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Yes, some of the comments are beyond ridiculous which seems par for the course. Now I don't know anything about what's happened on this pitch but only @Dumbarton Rock is even close to sense.

Last years pitch was great - yes it was, however that's not the problem

Why was it relaid? - cos it had to be, it was stripped and topped

Why did it cut up early doors? Cos it didn't get time to bed in as ideally as any groundsman would like and our budget wouldn't allow anything else.

Why is it such a mess? Because it has Been near incessant rain, appalling conditions for growth or maintenance. There's obviously a drainage problem that causes a surface problem leading on to what we see now. It's difficult to resolve cos it won't stop raining without further damaging the surface.

Mortons pitch is in better nick - good for them, ask yourself where their pitch is located?

We need new groundsman - no we don't.

It's a disgrace - I know, ban the rain.
 
Don’t imagine they will be able to do much in the time available and the weather between now and then will be a factor.
 
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