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Baseball field maintenance

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Joe Bubba
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Posts: 1
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2002-03-27          36794


I just purchased a used Kubota L235. It will be used to do maintenance on four Little League baseball fields. Not having any prior experience in this field of work has become a problem. On the grassy portion of the infield I would like to remove the grass clumps, and smooth out the underlying dirt. Any suggestions? My idea is to use a core plug aerator, and make several passes with this. After aeorating, I would drag the field to break up the plugs and level the ground in one operation. Are there any attachments made for this type of operation? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.



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Baseball field maintenance

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TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley
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2002-03-28          36807


I used to be responsible for the use of city soccer fields used by my league and later my district. I talked to several park maintenance supervisors, and found that there's a lot to making and maintaining athletic fields that never would have occurred to me. Since little league is your basic good cause, maybe a grounds supervisor somewhere would talk with you about maintenance.

One of the supervisors I talked to ranted about the original field construction. Seems like it's wasn't constructed to provide adequate drainage and some stumps were covered up rather than removed. The poor original construction caused him permanent maintenance headaches.

Drainage and keeping grass growing on heavily used areas are the two big problems. Poor drainage and poor grass leads to ruts when fields are used wet. Ruts promote broken ankles. Anyway, field maintenance is something of a specialty and it would be good to talk with somebody who does it professionally.
....


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Baseball field maintenance

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ouimguy
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 6 Norman Oklahoma
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2002-04-16          37523


I maintain athletic fields and the best way to accomplish what you want to do is with a topdresser. These tend to be a more specialized piece of equipment than you tend to see at rental yards, and not very many people keep a topdresser around the house. Your idea of aeration does have merit though. Aerate and pull plugs then roll the area with a roller, then mow to chop up the cores, soak the grass with water, then look to see any improvements. This may (will) take multiple time to accomplish the goal. You can also add a soil mix, similar to what you currently have in the infield, to any noticeably low areas and repeat the process. Remember to leave enough time between aerations that your grass can recover from the shock of aeration. Healthy grass 2 to 3 weeks is enough. ....


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Baseball field maintenance

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JoeT
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2002-09-12          42316


The clumps you are talking about are probably because you have rye grass or tall fescue in your grass mix. These grasses root deeply which is their advantage (you'll notice it's probably all you have left) The better idea would be to aerate or use a verticutter (thatching machine) to rough the ground up seed with a rye blend or tall fescue blend.

I'm assuming you don't have an irrigation system so anything with blue grass would be a waste of money since it doesn't survive drought very well.

Use a starter fertilizer and then roll your seed with an infield pro or riding tractor (anything with knobby tires)
to press the seed in. Try to water if you can. ....


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