From Nat Bailey Stadium in Vancouver where the Vancouver Canadians play ball in front of thousands of fans to the City of Kamloops’ 8 sports fields and beyond, we’re suppliers for sports field sod in use all over BC and Alberta. We can tell you that the sod you see on your installed grass lawn in front of your house isn’t the same as the sod that goes on athletic fields. Professional sports stadiums, high school athletic fields, golf courses (indeed, golf courses are almost in a category by themselves) and more all require sod that can stand up to the worst punishment that a high school linebacker, World Cup soccer player or really awful golfer with a set of rusty clubs can dish out.
The sports fields you see on TV or during a live game is only rarely, if ever, natural grass sod grown in place. It can take up to two years in cooler climates for natural grass fields to fully establish themselves – time that most professional sports organizations, schools and other groups just don’t have. Most organizations will professionally install sod to ensure it’s up to exacting standards when it’s needed (For example, reducing slippage by players during wet weather).
Installing sod for sports fields may be standard, but today’s sports field managers and landscapers can’t just keep going back to what they’ve used in the past. The old habit of saying “I’ve used the same material for 50 years” doesn’t cut it anymore, if it ever did. To get the best performance out of athletes, prevent injuries and reduce the cost of maintenance on the field itself, they need to use the right kind of grass sod – and make sure it gets installed correctly as well.
Installing Top Quality Grass Sod on a Sports Field
One of the biggest differences actually comes from what goes underneath the grass sod. We were talking recently with Daryl Todd, President at Veratec about the process that goes into it – we’re a dealer for reinforced turf that uses their Fibrelok fibres that interlink with the grass, helping ordinary turf sod endure powerful, continuous impacts from hard-running athletes.
Whatever kind of system you’re using, before the sod can be laid down on the sports field, you need to prepare the sub-base, Daryl notes. This is not a small job. Typically, a contractor uses excavation equipment to get rid of the extra material, put in drain lines and a sub-drainage system, often a 4-inch or 6-inch perforated pipe surrounded by gravel. At that point, you can start putting in the root zone, a 12-inch to 18-inch layer of US Golf Association-spec sand-based product (ideally 80 percent sand and 20 percent high quality organic compost for moisture retention). At Western Turf Farms, we grow our sod on washed sand, which has gotten excellent results over the years from our loyal customers.
Particularly for high-impact sports fields, you need a quality of sand that resists compaction. At the same time, if you’re on the wet west coast like our many grass sod customers around Vancouver, that sports field will also need sand that allows for a high filtration rate. The ideal gradient of sand will drain rapidly so the ground doesn’t get swampy after a storm, but also is able to hold enough water for the grass to grow up healthy.
Once you’ve got the under-layer prepped and properly installed, the process is the same as for a grass sod lawn: we harvest the sod precisely when it’s needed, so there’s no time for the product to degrade before our professional drivers and trucks it gets to your location. Our landscaping installation partners all over BC and Alberta handle it from there (unless you’ve got your own experienced landscaper) to lay down the rolls in even lines until all of the ground is covered.
What Kind of Sod Should You Install On Your Sports Field?
Western Turf Farms grows a range of custom sod varieties that can match up to tough punishment and a range of weather conditions from Vancouver Island to Alberta. From WTF Sand Sport and Fescue to Bluegrass, Perennial Rye and our Supreme flagship blend, we’ve got the sod to help make sure the sports headlines are all about the high-performing antics on your field – not about what’s installed under their feet.
Ask us about sod with Fibrelok HPRS, a fibre reinforced natural grass turf that provides all the benefits of natural grass with the performance of synthetic grass. The high performance rootzone system is specifically designed to greatly enhance the durability and health of your natural turf sports field. It has proven to significantly increase ‘playing days’ of natural grass fields even under the most intense usage and wet weather.
