12 SportsTurf | May 2010 www.sportsturfonline.com

FieldScience | By William T. Patton, Jr.

WHEN I BECAME THE SUPERINTENDENT OF GROUNDS at the SidwellFriends School in Washington, D.C., in April 2008, my first challenges were toimprove the quality of our 2-acre, multipurpose, non-overseeded bermudagrassathletic field and to reestablish and preserve the cool-season turfgrass in well-worn common areas of the campus. In addressing these issues I wanted to inte-

grate minimal, yet effective, use of pesticides in order to align the environmentally conscienceethos of the school with our turfgrass management strategies.

Sidwell Friends School, a Quaker private school whose students include the Obama girls, has a15-acre, urban campus in northwest Washington, D.C. for our Upper School and a 5-acre subur-ban campus for our Lower School in Bethesda, MD. Our Plant Manger, Steve Sawyer, I and acrew of three groundskeepers are responsible for maintaining all turf and landscaped areas of the

campuses, including plants that rangefrom 80-year-old boxwoods to nativespecies perennials. The perennial plantsand flowers, which are grown through-out the campuses, including on thegreen roof of our LEED PlatinumCertified, green middle school, are a pri-mary aspect of our sustainable landscapeinitiative. Our athletic fields include twonatural turf fields and one synthetic turffield (a second synthetic field will becompleted in September 2010).

CHALLENGES OFMULTI-PURPOSEBERMUDAGRASS FIELD

Our bermudagrass athletic field isused for baseball and softball games andpractices in the spring, then boys andgirl’s soccer games and practices in thefall. Sidwell has varsity, junior varsity,and 7th and 8th grade teams for each ofthese respective sports. Additionally, thefield is used for physical education class-es throughout the school year.

This soil-based field had originallybeen Kentucky bluegrass and itremained so for decades. While search-ing for a better playing surface whichwould tolerate our high level of use, theschool first sprigged the field withbermuda in the early 1990s when usingbermuda in this part of the transitionzone was not entirely common for highschool sports fields.

Initially, the Vamont variety ofbermuda had been planted but the fieldis now 75% Patriot hybrid bermudaafter several seasons of sprigging withPatriot. We have found that Patriotoffers excellent wear resistance for ourlevel of use and a dark green color.However, in some areas of the fieldwhere drainage is inadequate, the Patriotbermuda has been susceptible to winterkill. Though turf blankets are highly rec-ommended for winter protection of

TURFGRASS CHALLENGES at Sidwell Friends School

I and a crew of three groundskeepersare responsible for maintaining all turfand landscaped areas of the campuses

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bermuda fields in our region, we have notyet invested in blankets for our field.

In the spring of 2008 the field wasapproximately 30 percent covered with annu-al bluegrass). The patches of dark green Poagrowing in the light brown, dormant bermu-da were highly unattractive; more important-ly, our baseball coach mentioned that theclumps of Poa were making it difficult forplayers to field balls. Ground balls wouldoften strike a clump in the infield grass andthen veer off in unpredictable directions.

To immediately address the coach’s con-cern, I applied Revolver to all the Poa-infest-ed areas at a rate of 0.4 ounces per 1,000square feet. By the end of April, a tenaciouscrop of tufted knotweed, which had plaguedareas of this field for years, had reared itsugly head. I made three successive applica-tions of Momentum herbicide (Triclopyr, 2,4-D, Clopyralid), spaced just 6 days apart.Each application was made in the morning,just after the dew had evaporated from theleaves, for maximum effectiveness. With theexception of a few stragglers, which werespot-sprayed in the following weeks, the Poaand the knotweed were under control.

Later, in early September 2008, I appliedDimension (dithiopyr) pre-emergent controlto the field at a rate of 0.25 lbs. of activeingredient per acre which targeted the Poabefore its seeding season. In spring 2009, thefield was 95% Poa free. Subsequently, it hasremained under our action threshold for thefield.

The bermuda is not actively growing forthe first two thirds of the baseball and soft-ball seasons and it goes back into dormancyduring the final third of the soccer season.However, Steve and I have chosen not tooverseed the bermuda because Patriot thriveswithout competition from perennial ryegrass.Furthermore, our not having to overseed thisfield with 1,000 lbs. of perennial ryegrassseed saves money for other priorities on cam-pus and conserves water, as fall irrigationwould be required with a fall over-seeding.

Because our bermudagrass field is used forbaseball and softball as well as soccer, wefaced a dilemma as to whether or not base-ball and softball would have skinned infieldsbeyond the grass diamonds. If we had chosento have skinned infields, we would later need

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to install over 11,000 square feet of sod inthe infield areas after every baseball and soft-ball season so that soccer would not have toplay on bare parcels of soil. Instead wedecided that baseball and softball would playon grass infields (with cutouts for the bases,home plate areas and pitcher’s mounds)rather than having to sod two fully skinnedinfields every fall. The baseball playing sur-face of dormant bermuda has received posi-tive responses from our baseball coaches andother coaches in the Mid-Atlantic AthleticConference (MAC) in which Sidwell’s teamscompete.

The few negative comments we heardabout our dormant baseball field were in ref-erence to the lack of color. Some asked,“What happened to our grass?” othersinquired as to why we were “playing on dirt.”Many people in Washington, D.C. areNortheasterners, who are often not familiarwith bermudagrass or its habits. This March,we contracted with Community Bridge, Inc.,the local provider of YardGreen grass paintingsystems and had the entire field paintedgreen. We hope that green paint on the fieldwill please the baseball spectators as well asattract the sun’s heat, which may help bringthe turf out of dormancy more quickly.

In June, after the spring baseball and soft-ball seasons have ended, my crew and I cutdown the pitcher’s mounds, dig and removethe infield soil mix from the skinned areas(we stockpile the infield mix for re-use thefollowing season), and install 2,500 squarefeet of Patriot bermudagrass sod into thecutout areas of the field. When soccer prac-tice starts in late August, the players have afully green surface, with no indication thatthe field had been configured for baseballand softball just three months earlier.

USING HYBRID BLUEGRASSIN COMMON AREAS

Around the administration building, a19th-century manor house called ZartmanHouse, and other common areas of campusturf, we are using Scotts Thermal Blue blue-grass. Thermal Blue is a hybrid of Kentuckyand Texas bluegrass varieties, which hadbeen developed to be more drought and dis-ease tolerant than existing Kentucky blue-grass varieties.

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14 SportsTurf | May 2010

This March, we contracted withCommunity Bridge, Inc., the local providerof YardGreen grass painting systems andhad the entire field painted green.

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Use of Kentucky bluegrass in theWashington, D.C. area has become rare overthe past 25 years because it would die duringdroughts, whereas tall fescue could go dor-mant during droughts and revive with fallrains. D.C. humidity also causes dollar spotdisease outbreaks in Kentucky bluegrass.Therefore, most D.C. area lawns hadswitched to turf-type tall fescues in the1980s despite the risk of brown patch dis-ease and intolerance to wear for which tallfescue is also known.

Steve Sawyer had decided 5 years ago totry overseeding the common areas of thecampus with Thermal Blue bluegrass mostlybecause of the hybrid bluegrass’s aggressiveuse of rhizomes to spread and fill in areasdamaged due to foot traffic. Thereafter, wehave found that the hybrid bluegrass hasperformed well under the intense pressuresof constant foot traffic from students walk-ing to class or playing Frisbee and by anannual spring graduation ceremony, which isset up on the back lawn of Zartman House,

followed by nearly 3 months of summercamps with activities taking over nearlyevery square foot of turf.

We overseed the turf areas that receivethe most traffic in both the early spring andthe early fall. We core aerate and the slit-seed the hybrid bluegrass into the soil at ashallow depth of 0.38 inches. We lightlytopdress all seeded areas with an organicmaterial, such as Leafgro, to protect theseed and to enhance the overall turfquality.

After overseeding, we try to prevent foottraffic caused by students’ “cutting corners”across turf areas by installing homemadebarriers using grade stakes and ropes. Ibought a bundle of 1 x 2 x 36-inch oakgrade stakes to use as fence posts. I drilled0.875 inch holes at the top of the stakesthrough which the ropes are threaded. Toimprove the appearance of theses rough cutstakes, I sanded them and then appliedwood stain and outdoor polyurethane tothe stakes.

With the stakes set approximately 10 feetapart and a light brown 0.625 inch twistednylon & polyester rope, I barricade the turfareas to be protected. Originally I hadintended to take the stakes down after theseed had germinated but I received positivefeedback from others on campus about theappearance of the barriers and their positiveimpact on the gardens. Additionally, thesebarriers certainly cost less than either metalof plastic post and chain systems that I hadseen on other properties.

ENVIRONMENTALLYCONSCIENCE PESTICIDEUSE

Our Integrated Pest Management (IPM)approach to pesticide use on the athleticfields and areas of campus turf is to try tokeep pesticide use to a minimum. Becauseenvironmental concerns are prioritized atSidwell Friends School, we have the leewayto take our chances with regards to pestinfestations. Essentially, we are willing to

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tolerate a goosegrass outbreak, for example,in a turf area where students routinely con-gregate; therefore, we may not apply a pre-emergent control to those areas.Conversely, we apply preemergent controlsto full-sun areas of the Zartman Houselawn and on the bermuda field becausesummer annual weeds and grasses cannotbe tolerated in these areas.

Our approach to broadleaf weeds is tocrowd them out with healthy, dense turf-

grass. We have implemented a vigorousoverseeding and topdressing program forthe fall and early spring (spring over-seed-ing is done only in high traffic of shadyareas). Because white clover, for example, ispartially a result of inadequate soil nutrientlevels, we focus our topdressing efforts onthese areas as part of our approach to elimi-nating the clover. With the exception ofhigh profile areas, such as areas near side-walks, we usually let winter annual weeds

die on their own with the help of mowingand higher temperatures which come inmid-spring.

Higher bluegrass mowing heights of2.125-2.25 inches in the spring and fall andup to 2.5 inches through the summer forthe hybrid bluegrass have also been a criti-cal factor in keeping weeds out of our turf.We have some densely shaded areas inwhich fine fescues are growing and theseareas do best if they are never mowed.Sharpening our mowing blades weeklyhelps with preventing turfgrass diseasesfrom spreading which is important becausefungicides are never used on our campusdue to concerns regarding inhalation haz-ards.

When we do make pesticide applica-tions, we do so in the early morning hoursbefore students and faculty arrive, or onweekends. We use Lesco’s Eliminate forbroadleaf weed control because it hasnoticeably less odor; thereby, the applica-tion brings less attention and causes lessworry to others on campus. Once we havedecided what level of pest infestation is tol-erable, our IPM approach has made ourjobs easier while also availing us the envi-ronmental and economic benefits of usingless pesticides on our campuses. ■

William T. Patton, Jr., is superintendentof grounds at the Sidwell Friends School inWashington, DC.

FieldScience

After overseeding,we try to prevent foottraffic caused bystudents’ “cuttingcorners” across turfareas by installinghomemade barriersusing grade stakesand ropes.