Sodding usually happens after a concert, while the players are in training camp, and before our first preseason game or the first open practice for the public. It takes 1.5 days to remove the existing sod and approximately 1.5 days to completely sod the field. Tat’s followed by one day to prep the sod. Ten the field can be played on by any sport at any level.

on a truck, turn it around or place pallets off to the side to be used on areas of the field that would be considered out of play.

We go with big roll sod that is 48-inches wide and don’t use netting. We stipulate our sod come in on pallets because that results in less handling of the rolls themselves. Contractors lay the sod for us, but during the installation, our crew works with them. We operate the Sidekick to push the sod together for tight seams and two or three crew members hose it down. We also move the pipes and tubes, so close to 30 people are involved.

We use the same contractors consistently and try to get the same people on the same team so they’ll know what they’re walking into. Our crew handles the material take out. It goes to a hauler who picks it up and gets rid of it at no charge for free use of the material.

Kentucky Bluegrass Sod

Fraze mowing is used here to remove the existing sod prior to in season resodding.

Establishing the Relationship

Get to know the sod grower and find out what past work they’ve done. Make phone calls to check on their sod quality, consistency and any other information you can gather. We work with Carolina Green Corp., Indian Trail, North Carolina, for our Bermudagrass sod.

Once you’ve identified the sod grower, make site visits. We go about once a month, starting in May until we sod. Take pictures. Take soil and tissue tests. Look at weather patterns, both at the farm and in your town to determine if potential weather conditions could impact trucking, harvesting or installation. Consider all the alternatives. Could harvesting the sod after the sun goes down in the summer improve the sod quality? Could shipping in a boxed, refrigerated truck improve the quality?

Installation

Who is installing the sod—the sod supplier or another contractor? If it’s another contractor, meet with them so they understand what kind of sod they will be handling.

Questions to be addressed include: Is the sod 42-inches or 48-inches wide? Will it have netting? Are the rolls on pallets? Who is unloading the sod? How long are the rolls and how much will each roll weigh? Who has the truck drivers’ contact information? Depending on how far the sod farm is from your site, these are all important details. Chances are, if you’re dealing with thick cut sod of any type, you will need the field to be playable shortly after installation and don’t have time to work out the kinks as you normally would with thin cut sod.

Do not sacrifice quality. Walk around the truck and smell the sod. If it smells sour or you don’t like the look of what you see

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You need to ask the same questions and do the same homework for your Kentucky bluegrass sod. Tuckahoe Turf Farms in Hammonton, New Jersey, the sod farm we use for our Kentucky bluegrass, is 40 miles away from our site.

Our conversations begin about 14 months before the sod delivery date, around the time their fields would be seeded. Te grower’s fields are prepared as if the sod would be growing in our stadium, with the same topdressing, plant growth regulator, fertilizer and irrigation. Consider the growth pattern with Kentucky bluegrass. It’s at its weakest in August and September, which could lead to playability issues and poor footing. Tat’s one of the big reasons we go with thick cut Kentucky bluegrass. It weighs about 17 pounds per square foot.

Our post-installation sod maintenance includes rolling and we go to “big Bertha” because it takes the extra weight to get the results we want with thick cut sod. With a sand- based soil profile it will not create a hard field. Typically, we don’t topdress at this point.

Issues

Consider these potential issues and develop strategies to deal with them. A loaded truck breaks down on the way to your site—sod, a perishable item, will be exposed to prolonged 90-degree weather. It rains on the loaded truck while it is traveling to your site. Te truck will be covered with windscreen or a solid tarp—choose windscreen. An accident on the highway shuts down traffic or the trucks leaving the sod farm are caught in a traffic jam. It rains at the sod farm during harvesting—will there be tarps at the sod farm to cover the grass? Sod freezes on the way to your site—will you have room to store it inside?

Scalding of the grass is more common with bermudagrass. It can occur with excess moisture in the sod roll and high temperatures. It also can occur on the surface when the sod is covered and traveling during the day. It can happen

TPI Turf News March/April 2017