Football pitch maintenance equipment is essential if you want to ensure that your artificial turf surface continues to meet the highest playing standards. Failure to have the necessary maintenance equipment will not only prevent your field from meeting the FIFA quality standard but also put players at risk of injury and could result in your club being excluded from competition.
To keep your grass pitch football pitch maintenance equipment in the best condition, you need to carry out daily, periodic and major maintenance activities. There are many different pieces of equipment that can be used to perform each task and some may be more suited for one type of maintenance than another. Mark Harrod Limited stock a wide range of Pitch and Ground maintenance equipment from the UK’s leading manufacturers that are suitable for clubs, schools and local authorities.
A regular maintenance activity is scarification, which is the removal of dead grass from the surface of the ground to reduce weed growth. This should be done at least once a year on all natural grass pitches and more regularly in the case of high-usage grounds. Using a tractor-mounted drum or air injection scarifier is the most efficient way to carry out this task. These machines have a number of additional attachments that can be added to help with other maintenance tasks such as deep spiking, surface slitting or line marking.
After scarification, it is usual to apply a top dressing to the sports surface to improve soil conditions and drainage. The Blec Multivator is a machine that is able to simultaneously decompact, aerate and recycle some of the top dressing material back onto the surface of the pitch, which means less waste, a lower cost and a faster work rate.
Seeding a new seed to replace worn areas or reseed a tired pitch is another important maintenance activity. This must be done in a specific manner to ensure good germination and minimise the loss of seed to birds or the elements. The Grassmaster mechanical seed drill can be used to dispense seed and simultaneously cut and slit the surface of the ground, making it ideal for this purpose.
Certain parts of the pitch are more intensively used, such as goal areas and the penalty spot, so they are likely to wear more quickly than other sections. It is not possible to prevent this wear, but it can be minimised by paying special attention to these areas during maintenance and by adding extra infill where necessary.
During the winter, cold weather and poor light can create an ideal environment for fungal disease to develop in your turf. To protect the integrity of your field, it is important to treat any areas of the pitch that are affected with fungicides on a regular basis. This will help to maintain the health of your grass and allow it to continue growing to its full potential. A spreader can be used to evenly apply a range of materials to your football pitch, including fertiliser, fungicides and grass seed.