The influence of the grass mixture composition on the quality and suitability for football pitches

Karol Wolski,Henryk Bujak,Adam Radkowski,Karen Khachatryan,Iwona Radkowska,Wiktoria Grzebieniarz,Joanna Markowska,Łukasz Sobol,Marek Brennensthul,Grzegorz Pęczkowski

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-99859-9

Abstract

The selection of grass mixtures with appropriate visual and functional parameters for sowing football fields is a key element in shaping the sports infrastructure, ensuring the spectacularity of a match and comfort for players. The aim of the research was to investigate the properties of lawn grass mixtures and their suitability for football pitches. The experiment was conducted at the Toya Golf & Country Club (51° 20′ E, 17° 07′ N), Wrocław, Poland, between 2007 and 2009. 12 grass mixtures were selected, mainly based on red fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, and perennial ryegrass. The assessment was carried out using a nine-point scale, according to the Plant Variety Office methodology for crops and turf grass. Six features of sports turf were studied: appearance, density, colour, leaf fineness, overwintering, and susceptibility to disease and they significantly varied, depending on the grass mixture and the year of research. Our study showed that mixtures based on the dominance of meadow grass were characterized by higher values of the general visual aspect, colour and slenderness of the leaf blade and these based on the dominance of perennial ryegrass and co-dominance of perennial ryegrass and meadow grass were the most useful in terms of wintering, resistance to diseases and sodding.

Highlights

The selection of grass mixtures with appropriate visual and functional parameters for sowing football fields is a key element in shaping the sports infrastructure, ensuring the spectacularity of a match and comfort for players
The experiments are most often carried out according to the methodology of Lawn National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP) and the Research Centre for Cultivar Testing (COBORU, Poland) (Domański, 1998; Polish DIN Standard 18035-4, n.d.)
Visual quality assessment of sports pitches is conducted in many countries, among others in the United States and Europe, according to the Lawn National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP) and the Research Centre for Cultivar Testing (COBORU, Poland)[30,33]

Summary

Introduction

The selection of grass mixtures with appropriate visual and functional parameters for sowing football fields is a key element in shaping the sports infrastructure, ensuring the spectacularity of a match and comfort for players. It is worth noting that at present, in the mixtures of lawn grasses in the temperate climate is limited and strong dominance of Festuca rubra is noticeable For this reason, alternative, competitive solutions are currently being sought that will allow the abovementioned effects to be achieved, while maintaining high-quality turf, ensuring appropriate conditions for the game. During the turf testing with the valuation method, particular emphasis should be placed on the aspects related to the general appearance of the turf, the density of the turf and the color of the g rasslands[17] Comprehensive assessment of these parameters is made by assigning points to the turf, using a 9-point scale. Important parameters in relation to the quality of football turf are Surface Mechanical Testing[20], including: (i) ball-surface interaction; (ii) surface performance and aesthetics; and (iii) player-surface, wintering and grassland resistance to p athogens[21,22]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion