Turfgrass Maintenance and Management in Soccer Fields In

Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 26 (2017) 191–197

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Urban Forestry & Urban Greening

journa l homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ufug

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Turfgrass maintenance and management in soccer ﬁelds in Slovenia

∗

Miha Curk, Matej Vidrih, Zigaˇ Laznik, Stanislav Trdan

University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Agronomy, Chair of Phytomedicine, Agricultural Engineering, Field Crop Production, Pasture

and Grassland Management, Jamnikarjeva 101, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

a r a

t i c b s t

l e i n f o r a c t

Article history: In the ﬁrst systematic study of turfgrass in Slovenia, which was performed in 2015 in 20 soccer ﬁelds,

Received 22 May 2016

sward cover, composition of turfgrass, and the occurrence of fungi, pests and weeds were evaluated.

Received in revised form 22 July 2016

Turfgrass managers of all investigated soccer ﬁelds were interviewed with the aim of documenting the

Accepted 13 August 2016

main steps of the maintenance, i.e., control methods for pests, diseases and weeds, irrigation methods,

Available online 16 August 2016

frequency of mowing, fertilizing, aeration, seeding, and daily foot trafﬁc. Soil analyses (pH, P2O5, K2O, and

organic matter) of all soccer ﬁelds was performed. Four of the investigated soccer ﬁelds are owned or used

Keywords:

by the clubs from the Slovenian First League; four of the soccer ﬁelds are owned or used by the clubs from

Agrotechnical measures

the Slovenian Second League; six of the soccer ﬁelds are owned or used by the clubs from the Slovenian

Composition of turfgrass

Third League (all leagues are organized by the Football Association of Slovenia); and six of the soccer

Fungal diseases

Soil analysis ﬁelds are owned or used by clubs from the lower ranks of competition. In the spring (April to May) and

Sward cover summer (July) periods of the sward cover evaluation, we did not observe signiﬁcant differences between

Weeds the soccer fields: in the first period, soil cover by grass on all fields ranged from 90 to 100%, whereas soil

cover by grass on all ﬁelds in the second period ranged from 95 to 100%. The highest sward cover was

determined for the ﬁelds of the First League clubs, whereas the lowest sward cover was conﬁrmed for the

ﬁelds of the Second League clubs. In both periods of evaluation, 100% presence of grasses was established

on eight soccer ﬁelds. As expected, the majority (3) of the ﬁelds were used by the First League clubs,

and the lowest (1) number of ﬁelds were used by the clubs from lower ranks of competition. This rate

of use indicates greater knowledge and awareness about the importance of grass maintenance by the

soccer ﬁeld managers in higher-ranked competitions. We determined the highest presence of clovers in

the turf (10.2%) in the summer period for the ﬁelds of the Third League clubs, followed by the clubs from

the lower ranks of competition with 5.5% in the same period and the spring period for the ﬁelds of the

Third League clubs (4.0%). The presence of herbs in the turf was 1.0%; the highest presence (0.8%) was

recorded in the ﬁelds of the Third League clubs in the spring evaluation period. The infestation of grasses

by soil fungi was only conﬁrmed only in the second evaluation; however, the total infested area on all

19 soccer ﬁelds did not exceed 1%. When comparing the results of the soil tests among the competition

levels, we did not ascertain differences in pH values; large values of P2O5 were detected on eight ﬁelds

and large values of K2O were only detected on two ﬁelds. On 15 soccer ﬁelds, the content of soil organic

matter was very high. We conclude that the turfgrass maintenance and management of soccer ﬁelds in

Slovenia signiﬁcantly differs and that the budget allocated by the owners for maintenance of the ﬁelds

is not the most important factor in determining the appearance of the soccer ﬁelds. We discovered that

several managers lack knowledge about proper turfgrass management, mineral fertilizers are often not

professionally applied and the usage of pesticides on almost half of the soccer ﬁelds is negligible.

1. Introduction

Soccer is a very popular sport in Slovenia; therefore, soccer

ﬁelds are distributed throughout the country. The differences in

ଝ

This article is part of a special feature entitled: 5th ETS 2016 Conference: Turf- their appearance are noticeable as budgets for maintenance and

grass – towards sustainability and perfection for aesthetic, recreational and sports

management substantially vary (maximum of 100.000 D /year).

published at the journal Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 26C.

∗ Despite the popularity of soccer, no studies of the maintenance

Corresponding author.

and management of turfgrasses were performed in Slovenia prior

E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Trdan).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2016.08.003

192 M. Curk et al. / Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 26 (2017) 191–197

Table 1

List of soccer ﬁelds, their geographical locations, dates of evaluation, corresponding clubs and the rank of competition.

Rank of Location Club Altitude Climate Geographic Longitude and latitude Dates of evaluation competition location

◦ ◦

SLO 1st League Ljubljana Stoziceˇ NK Olimpija 300 m A–C C N 46 08,042 E 14 52,422 April 21, 2015 July 15, 2015

◦ ◦

Domzaleˇ NK Domzaleˇ 300 m A–C C N 46 13,686 E 14 60,180 April 16, 2015 July 21, 2015

◦ ◦

Maribor Ljudski vrt NK Maribor 274 m C NE N 46 33,755 E 15 38,435 May 28, 2015 July 23, 2015

◦ ◦

Zavrcˇ NK Zavrcˇ 226 m C NE N 46 23,002 E 16 02,895 May 20, 2015 July 23, 2015

◦ ◦

SLO 2nd League Radomlje NK Kalcer Radomlje 333 m A–C C N 46 17,299 E 14 62,019 April 14, 2015 July 15, 2015

◦ ◦

Ptuj NK Drava Ptuj 230 m C NE N 46 25,007 E 15 52,541 May 20, 2015 July 23, 2015

◦ ◦

Dob NK Roltek Dob 311 m A–C C N 46 92,345 E 14 37,540 April 16, 2015 July 21, 2015

◦ ◦

Senˇ curˇ NK Senˇ curˇ 419 m A NW N 46 15,014 E 14 25,173 April 24, 2015 July 21, 2015

◦ ◦

SLO 3rd League Ruseˇ NK Pohorje 284 m C NE N 46 32,612 E 15 30,305 May 28, 2015 July 23, 2015

◦ ◦

Kocevjeˇ NK Kocevjeˇ 462 m C SE N 45 38,176 E 14 51,318 May 14, 2015 July 28, 2015

◦ ◦

Komenda NK Komenda 334 m A–C C N 46 12,378 E 14 32,451 May 11, 2015 July 28, 2015

◦ ◦

Lesce NK Sobecˇ Lesce 502 m A NW N 46 21,808 E 14 09,444 April 24, 2015 July 21, 2015

◦ ◦

Ivancnaˇ Gorica NK Ivancnaˇ Gorica 345 m C SE N 45 56,172 E 14 47,514 April 21, 2015 July 15, 2015

◦ ◦

Ljubljana ZAKˇ NK ASKˇ Bravo 301 m A–C C N 46 06,968 E 14 49,995 April 21, 2015 July 15, 2015

◦ ◦

Lower ranks Bled NK Bled 509 m A NW N 46 22,459 E 14 06,070 April 24, 2015 July 21, 2015

◦ ◦

Vrhnika NK Vrhnika 292 m C C N 45 57,825 E 14 17,960 May 7, 2015 July 15, 2015

◦ ◦

Dobrova NK Dolomiti 313 m C C N 46 04,058 E 14 24,482 May 7, 2015 July 15, 2015

◦ ◦

Mirna NK Mirna 257 m C SE N 45 57,193 E 15 03,484 May 14, 2015 July 28, 2015

◦ ◦

Stojnci NK Stojnci 216 mC NE N 46 22,253 E 15 59,557 May 20, 2015 July 23, 2015

◦ ◦

Dobrovce NK Dobrovce 266 m C NE N 46 28,554 E 15 42,215 May 28, 2015 July 23, 2015

NK = Nogometni klub [Slovenian word for football club [FC].

to this study, however also in other European countries this types competition (which indicated the management budget). Three of

of investigations are very rare. In this regard Larsen et al. (2004) the chosen soccer ﬁelds are located in the northwestern Slovenia

investigated the effects of various cultural management practices [NW], eight of the soccer ﬁelds are located in central Slovenia [C],

with the aim of controlling weeds without herbicides. Kumral et al. three of the soccer ﬁelds are located in southeastern Slovenia [SE]

(2012) reported about the occurrence of new pest of turfgrass in and six of the soccer ﬁelds are located in northeastern Slovenia [NE]

football ﬁelds – longicorn beetle Dorcadion pseudopressi Breuning –, region. Four soccer ﬁelds are owned or used by the clubs from the

while effective and environmentally acceptable method of its con- Slovenian First League, four soccer ﬁelds are owned or used by the

trol – the use of entomopathogenic nematodes – was presented clubs from the Slovenian Second League, six of the soccer ﬁelds are

by Susurluk et al. (2011). Vandenbossche et al. (2011) conﬁrmed owned or used by the clubs from the Slovenian Third League (all

the importance of plant-parasitic nematodes in turf grass, also in leagues are organized by the Football Association of Slovenia), and

football ﬁelds, in temperate Europe. It is known that as one of the six of the soccer ﬁelds are owned or used by the clubs from the

sturdy of all turf grounds soccer ﬁelds are hard to manage as on lower ranks of competition. The soccer ﬁelds are situated between

one side season long foot trafﬁc in different types of weather can 216 m (NK Zavrc)ˇ and 509 m (NK Bled) above sea level. Detailed

literally destroy a grass sward (Dowgiewicz et al., 2011). And on information is listed in Table 1.

the other side the playing schedule rarely allows for aggressive turf

management practices that are absolutely essential to keep grass

alive (Glab and Szewczyk, 2015). Our main hypothesis was that

turfgrass on the soccer ﬁelds that are owned or used by clubs that

compete in the Slovenian First League (with large budgets) are bet-

ter maintained and managed and more attractive than the turfgrass

2.2. Sward cover and composition of turfgrass

on the soccer ﬁelds that are owned or used by clubs that compete

in lower-ranking competitions (with small or no budgets).

Two parameters—sward cover and composition of

turfgrass—were evaluated using our method, which was based on

2. Materials and methods

the methodology developed by McElroy et al. (2005) and Flessner

et al. (2011). We placed a 1 m wooden frame on ﬁve randomly

During our study, we visited 20 soccer ﬁelds; each ﬁeld was

chosen subplots (two spots were located on each half of the ﬁeld

visited twice in spring (April–May) and summer (July). The soccer

and one spot were located in the middle of the ﬁeld), which

ﬁelds are located in different climates (Alpine [A] and continental

diagonally crossed the soccer ﬁeld. Using this method, we obtained

[C]) and are owned or used by clubs with different management

comparable results for all locations. For each of the ﬁve subplots,

budgets. At each location, we investigated the following charac-

we evaluated the sward cover and composition of turfgrass. The

teristics of turfgrass: sward cover, composition of turfgrass plants

sward cover was documented by estimating the turf uniformity

(grasses, legumes and herbs), common diseases, pests, and weeds.

(Beard, 1972): if no bare spots were visible within the wooden

We also interviewed the turfgrass managers and documented the

frame, then the spot was marked as having 100% cover. If bare

steps of maintenance, i.e., pest, disease and weed control meth-

spots were visible on the ground within the wooden frame, we

ods, irrigation, mowing, fertilizing, aeration, seeding, and daily foot

estimated the percentage of the bare spots and subtracted this

trafﬁc).

percentage from 100%. For the second parameter—composition of

plant cover—we estimated the percentage of grasses, legumes and

2.1. Investigated soccer ﬁelds other herbs in the spots. If no legumes or herbs were detected in

the subplot, we marked the spot as having 100% grass cover. Each

Twenty soccer ﬁelds were selected for investigation (Table 1). ﬁeld was also inspected for the occurrence of weeds and the weed

Two factors were considered prior to selection—geographical loca- species in the turf. We inspected the entire ﬁeld in addition to the

tion (chosen to evaluate the impact of climate) and rank of area within the wooden frame. Download English Version: https://daneshyari.com/en/article/6461804

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