After switching over to Johnsons Sports Seed four years ago, grounds manager at Norwich City, Gary Kemp, has praised the combination of Johnsons J Pitch, and J Premier Pitch.

Gary Kemp, Norwich City FC

The products have been used at the Carrow Road stadium and across the surfaces at the club’s training ground. While delivering improved disease resistance and great wear tolerance, it’s the speed of establishment that grounds manager Gary Kemp says has really impressed.

“One of the main issues we have is the very short turnover period between the end of the season and the start of the next,” explains Gary, who heads up a team of nine grounds staff. “With concerts and other events we often have just a few weeks to complete our renovations.”

With the advice of his DLF Seeds regional technical manager Craig Spooner and external contractors, this is now possible. “As our window of opportunity reduced, we trialled various seed mixtures and found that Johnsons delivered the quickest and strongest germination and establishment.”

Now solely using the Johnsons J Premier Pitch and J Pitch mixtures, Gary says he has been very happy with the results across the two facilities. “Year on year it helps us deliver our renovations on time, giving great wear tolerance and great colour which is particularly important for our stadium pitch. This last year has also been one of the best years we’ve had in terms of disease occurrence, despite the peaks and troughs we had with temperatures and rainfall. We think we’ve saved close to £10,000 in fungicide applications this year, and this is only going to become more important, with changes in legislation, moving forward.

“With Johnsons, you know that there’s a huge amount of research and development going on behind the scenes to develop mixtures that help us out with everyday problems, such as disease resistance, the ever-challenging issues with the weather and shade issues in stadia. The results we’ve achieved with their mixtures are proof that we can withstand those factors and it puts us in the best position to cope with whatever is thrown at us moving forward.”