Case Study: Establishing the best grass species can be tricky

Establishing the best grass species can be tricky

By Alex Glasgow,

NZ Sports Turf Institute A large part of a combined primary/ intermediate school playing fi eld in Auckland needs to be re-established because it has had temporary classrooms and construction carparking on it for a few years.

During that period, the school had less than half of the total playing fi eld area available and so that area was subject to heavy use. That reduced playing fi eld area coped with the heavy wear remarkably well because it has a Kikuyu turf sward – this is a drought tolerant grass that has good wear tolerance plus an ability to spread back into areas if the cover is worn away. This school fi eld wasn’t established in Kikuyu in the fi rst instance but over the years Kikuyu gradually spread throughout the fi eld to establish a full Kikuyu cover. Unfortunately, the presence of the temporary classrooms and the construction carpark killed off much of the Kikuyu that was present in that area. The aim was to have a complete Kikuyu cover on the entire playing fi eld area and, which required the re-establishment of Kikuyu on the area. This could not simply be done through the traditional method of sowing seed in the autumn. Instead, establishing Kikuyu would require the fi eld to be sown initially in a traditional species (rye grass) to establish a short to medium-term turf cover.

Kikuyu will subsequently be established into the area via sprigging or plugging and its spread will be promoted so that a full Kikuyu sward replaces the rye grass within a couple of years. So, instead of the easy option of simply planting the traditional grass species, there is a plan in place to establish a bett er grass species that is more complicated to establish in the fi rst instance.

Dense Kikuyu turf cover on intact sports fi eld area – the aim is to establish the same on the area to be re-established in the background. Image courtesy of NZ Sports Turf Institute

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