This week sees me attending the GMA Saltex show on Wednesday and Thursday at the NEC. I’m looking forward to meeting up with many turf industry colleagues and friends after our long time apart. 

This year the GMA are celebrating their 75th year of organising the event and no doubt they will be hoping for a good attendance to help mark this historic anniversary of the trade show. 

I have been coming to this exhibition for more years than I can remember. I, like many of us, will be looking forward to the chance to meet face-to-face with many of our industry’s leading manufacturers and suppliers. Myself and the editor of our sister title Service Dealer, Steve Gibbs, will be at the show and we have a shared stand at F109. We look forward to meeting you during the two days. A list of the 190 plus companies attending can be found here.

I have also, along with two other parks professionals, been invited to give a talk on the impact that COVID and climate change is having on parks and green spaces. This takes place on Thursday 4th November at 10am in Theatre 2 at the show. You can read a complete list of all the live education seminars here.

There will no doubt be many new innovations and products to see during this year’s show. I hope we have a good turn out and see an increase in footfall for the event. The exhibitors invest a lot of time and money attending our trade shows, so I believe we as end-users should make more of an effort to attend. There is a lot to be gained from attending these annual industry events.

Aeration

As for the weather, it is now starting to get colder with soil and air temperatures dropping into single figures and, along with the recent wet weather, ground conditions are becoming more favorable for some deep aeration work to be completed. The months of November / early December usually see a plethora of aeration techniques being deployed on winter games pitches. 

Cricket clubs will endeavour to get any deep spiking on their squares completed before the end of November. As for golf courses they will continue to aerate fairways, tees and green when conditions allow. 

During the winter months pore spaces, particularly in soil dominant root zones, will be filled with water (saturated). Playing on saturated soil profiles will certainly result in surface damage. Soils, when saturated, lose their stability and strength. The action of players running, stopping, sliding and turning in studded/bladed boots will result in surface damage. The severity of the damage will be dependent upon the soil type and the ability of the top 100mm to drain quickly. 

To help keep the top 100mm free draining a programme of surface aeration is necessary. This is achieved by regular spiking with slit tines to a depth of 150 mm or more when conditions allow. 

There are a number of specialist machines that can help with improving surface drainage - for example the versatile tractor-mounted Verti Drain machine. Linear aerators have also been around for many years and continue to do a good job of decompacting pitches down to a depth of 200mm.

In recent years we have seen the development of a lot of compressed air aided machines such as the Sisis Javelin Aer-Aid 1500, Air2G2, GP Air machine, OxyShot and the The airter to name a few that can aerate to greater depths. 

It is essential to include a variety of aeration techniques to prevent pan layers being created. This usually happens if you continue to use the same aeration tine / corer set at the same depth and will result in a compacted layer forming at the base of tine / core depth. Most turfgrass managers try and vary methods of aeration, changing the depths, size and diameter of tines. 

The variety and choice of implements and devices now available is excellent, providing different tine sizes, operating widths and shattering features that can meet the requirements of any facility and, more importantly, do not disturb the playing surface and allow play to continue after use. With the demand for higher quality, all year-round playing surfaces turfgrass managers are always interested in trying out new techniques to keep playing surfaces aerated. In recent years we have seen the development of pressure air and water aerators that offer deeper aeration than conventional aerators.