As sports turf enthusiasts and field maintenance specialists we see the all to common turf "wart", the divot, caused by sports play. Unfortunately the divot repair typically produces an even more noticeable "wart" for several days.

Tom Russell, Golf Course Superintendent, Missoula Country Club, has perfected a divot mix to minimize the noticeable "wart". He has incorporated sand, water, green paint, compost, and seed using a cement mixer.

To help speed up the recovery of the existing turf and help accelerated the seed growth consider a new product by http://www.growthproducts.com/home_page.cfm">Growth Products called Repair Plus. According to Growth Products Growth Plus is a unique blend of organic nutrients, biostimulants, natural wetting agent, humic acid and growth promoting rhizobacteria< (PGPR). Growth Products states that Repair Plus should be be mixed with top dressings and seed to heal damaged turf roots and accelerate new growth. It will encourage desired grass species to fill quickly and avoid undesirable grass varieties. Now using Growth Plus and the prescribed divot mix formula your sports fields may not suffer the noticeable turf "wart" phenomenon. We periodically get calls about adding a growth regulator to the paint during field marking operations. This technique will slow the growth of grass so the lines will not be mowed off as quickly. Several years ago Iowa State University conducted turf trials using two of the most common grow regulators at that time, Embark and Primo Maxx. I've spoken to several turf managers who have used these products and all agree that less is better, 1/2 oz. per diluted gallon of paint seems to work the best. Just make sure you don't double stripe when using the growth regulator. Syngenta Primo Maxx PBI/Gordon Embark.

Tru Mark used Embark T&O on a local sports field in conjunction with field marking paint application in fall 2010. The rule of thumb is 1/2 ounce to 30 milliliters (1 ounce) per gallon of diluted paint approximately every 4th week. It is better to side on using less, especially if the grass is under stress. Ensure you don't double strip with this mixture unless you compensate with the original dilution ratio. With a mowed line (1/2 inch shorter than regular cut height) prior to field striping paint application, the line held up longer with better coverage and visibility. Subsequent paint applications where done at a more diluted paint solution and/or we were able to go up to 10-14 days between striping.

Do you have a favorite recipe to improve your sports turf surfaces? We'd love to you hear your solution and the story behind it.