Seed Trials

As you Cricket Groundsman will know things are a bit busy at this time of year. I am just in a period of 14 games in 16 days and its wet which compounds the problems.

Since the last post I have managed  a few day away in the Lake's with Anne, my daughter Louise, and my grand children Annabelle and Noah, the weather was beautiful and we had a good time but I wish I could take Noah's batteries out on occasions he is harder work than pulling sheets on and off  covered in water. 

Here they are trailing round the gardens of Mire House near Keswick -well worth a visit if you are in that part of the world.

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 I have some ongoing seed trials on my square and here is a pitch that was sown with 100% Colosseum from Hurrells Seeds.

100% Colosseum

As I write this post this pitch has had 4 games and has had a fair amount of rolling. It has looked good and played well despite having had a period of 8 days under sheets with only a few hours of air over that time.

I have left it open to the recent rain but it looks like recovery is going to be very poor which is a surprise as this cultivar was bred from seed that had survived a test match. 

We shall see.

After talking to a few of my colleagues who look after  winter sport pitches I get the impression that a lot are using Limagrains MM60 seed so I have grown some in pots to compare it to a winter sports mix I have which is 35% Top Gun 35% Colosseum and 30% Carnac below are a couple of photos.

The say amount of seed was sown in each pot on the left is my Hurrell's mix  on the right is MM60 which has 4 DRPG Dwarf Perennial Rye Grass cultivars. The photo's were taken 15 days after sowing and they were sown on the 15 May 2014

I am also trialing some new cultivars from the US in this picture Hurrells is on the left MM60 in the centre with  Gray Fox on the right I have put this in to show a comparison as you can see the American Gray Fox is doing very well.

I have 5 pots of Ryegrass and 3 pots of others which are 2 Smooth Stalked Meadow Grass and a Hard Fescue.

Below is another picture.

Back row is Left to right is

Silver Dollar, Hurrells mix, MM60

Middle row 

Gray Fox, Vantage

 Front centre is 

Citation.

Today I have taken some more photos they are below.

The 2 photos above show the Hurrells mix on the left and the MM60 0n the right after three weeks 21 days.

Make your own mind up about them.

Here are the other DPRG from the US I think you can see the names OK again after 21 days.

I thought that they were all ready for the first cut so I got the kitchen Scissors out and cut the back to about 1" after I took these photos.

Here are the 2 SSMG with the Hard Fescue in the middle this is as the others after 21 days from sowing.

I have put this photo up so you can see the difference in germination/establishment between the Rye Grass and the finer grass's. All seeded on the same day.

Two days after I sowed the grass seed I remembered I had a sample of wild flower mix so I got some of that is just to see what it would do in a small pot and below is the picture.

I havent got a clue what's in it but it grows very quickly it was a sample that Hurrells were handing out at BTME at Harrogate back in January.

Here are all the Ryegrass pots after cutting At this stage there's not a massive difference I do like the look of Gray Fox and Vantage not sure about Silver Dollar. 

We will see.

Plan View of the lot.

Back in the garden in front of my chrysants which need potting on urgently.

It is another poor day in Leeds today, yesterday the 1st team should have played but the rain started at lunch time and didn't stop till late afternoon so that was the second successive league game the 1st have been rained off at home.

Lets hope for an improvement.

Keep dry

Hodgy