Module 4:

4.4 How much is needed?

Introduction

1  

The quantity of material that is applied to a football pitch over a year will vary considerably. It can range very little being applied, just a bare minimum to keep the pitch in safe and playable condition for several recreational games, up to considerable quantities of materials for the most intensively maintained pitches and the top level of the game.

Most of the materials categorised as essential will be used to some extent on most pitches, whilst those materials in the desirable category may have anywhere from none to quite a lot.

The quality of the pitch will significantly influence the quantity of materials applied, with higher quality pitches typically requiring and using more materials than lower quality pitches.

2  

Other influencing factors include:

• The geographic location of a pitch, with more often being needed in the south with a longer growing season.
• Pitch condition, which may be from heavily worn to actually still good coverage at the end of the season. A pitch with little visible wear and low usage may require less renovation work being needed, resulting in less grass seed, fertiliser, irrigation and top-dressing materials.

Some general guidance for quantities is given below. We have provided one maths question for each of the materials quantities to help you get into the calculating mode needed for this subject. Each question is based on a typical scenario that might be encountered by a groundskeeper in managing a pitch. You will probably need a calculator to help with some of the questions and some note paper to work through some calculations. There is no getting away from it, but groundskeeping needs skills in arithmetic.

Before looking through the comments do try each question first. You can then also try and estimate the quantity of different materials that you use, or should ideally use, on your football pitch.