Enhanced Plus Maintenance

A category of turf maintenance which categorises variables in a way that captures the general outcomes and returns from inputs to a sports turf surface.

It was difficult to choose a term for this level as it is similar to another called “over-engineering”, so there can actually be a fine line between the two terms.
This type of maintenance will be an extra added activity, often going outside of optimum conditions for grass growth, but which is primarily and extensively focused on meeting specific presentational expectations. Examples for a football pitch, especially where it is based on a sand profile – reinforced turf surface, would be:
• intensive divoting of football or rugby pitches following a game.
• cleaning a surface following a game (typically with rotary mowers set high to remove surface grass debris).
• additional nutritional inputs, possibly more spoon feeding on a regular basis.
• more frequent irrigation where sand dominant profile constructions, and/or
• additional mowing, including at lower than optimum heights of cut may also be practiced.
There will be minimal and very small marginal additional returns in quality made for the additional, often very high, inputs, when compared with the high end of the enhanced maintenance, yet visual differences will still be noticeable. See also Baseline Maintenance, Core Maintenance, and Enhanced Maintenance.