November 6,
2018
  With the Maryland SoccerPlex 
A weekly newsletter to keep you informed about EVERYTHING Turf at the Maryland SoccerPlex.
This week we will go through the crazy fall weather we have been experiencing
No more rain!
Saying it has been a dreary, miserable, wet fall is quite the understatement. "This has been one of the toughest years for rain that I can remember in my time at the Plex," is all our Director of Grounds Ryan Bjorn, can say to describe it. At the SoccerPlex one of the things we hate doing the most, is having to close the fields. Our grounds crew works tirelessly throughout the week to prevent that from happening, but unfortunately the ultimate decider is often times the weather. The amount of rain without rest is the hardest part of this fall. To give you some perspective, the total amount of rainfall in September 2018 was 7.15 inches; in September 2017 the total amount of rain was 1.79 inches! There was a stretch at the end of September where we had 7 straight days of rain. Overall for 2018 we already have 7.66 inches more total rainfall than we did at this point last year and we still have almost 2 months left for the year!

Have you noticed that this year the rain does not fall until the Thursday, or Friday? This contributes to the hardship because it does not give the fields time to drain at all. One to two days of drying time is not long enough to allow the saturated fields to dry whereas a rain event on Monday or even Tuesday have a higher probability of being playable by the weekend.
What does it mean?
Other than the obvious that rain makes the fields wet, it is the prolonged and vast amounts of rain that are the issue. When it rains the water will go down into the soil or drainage system on certain fields, and slowly dissipate. When we get a continuous amount of rain like we have, the entire soil profile becomes saturated with water, which makes the fields unsafe and not playable. In addition, the water causes the ground to compact, making it even harder for the water to properly drain as it should. Even practices that our grounds crew does like aerification or deep tine aerification will not have much success because there is nowhere else for the water to go. Many times we could not even put our mowers on the fields because they were so water-soaked that the mowers were too heavy and would have damaged the fields if they were used.
Next Week
Check back in next week as we look at how the unseasonable temperatures effect our fields!
Ask Us Your Questions
Do you have a burning turfgrass related question? Ask us! We will be happy to answer it in future iterations of Turf Talk - just email us at [email protected], subject line Turf Talk Question.
 
Many Thanks to Fine Earth Landscape, Inc. for 
Their Continued Support of the Maryland SoccerPlex.

Learn more about Fine Earth here.
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