Grass Guru Helps Field Stay Green
By Neda Raouf (write the author)
May 04, 2006 – A nationally renowned turf expert brought his 64 years of experience and know-how to a local school last week to help a high school field stay green.
George Toma, who has prepared fields for every Super Bowl for years, surveyed the field at Ralston Valley High School, dispensed advice to local maintenance staff and shared life stories.
"I'd like to see more holes," he told Jefferson County Public School staff as he pointed to the field. "You get that seed in there and it germinates and the band and football team won't knock it out."
Toma was there working with the company Hall-Irwin Corp., which is working with the district on the field's rehabilitation effort.
"We'd have nothing but dirt from hash mark to hash mark," he said. "It's hard to keep that field going with the use it gets and with the wind and the dry conditions."
Hall-Irwin has donated some goods and consulting services and has also contracted with the district for some services, said Howard Goldberg, supervisor of landscape services.
"We're looking for some additional help and expertise for the uses we have," Goldberg said.
Typically, a crew of 28 takes care of the district's 250 fields, in additional to playgrounds, graffiti, fences and plenty of other tasks, Goldberg said.
And over the past few years, the level of activity on the fields has significantly increased.
Some schools have up to six levels of lacrosse. Some have summer activities where they did not in the past.
However the budgets have either decreased or stayed the same in recent years, and funds don't go as far with inflation, he said.
"It's that much more punishment that the fields are taking," he said.
Toma paced the field and offered his take and advice to the Jeffco School District's maintenance staff.
With his compact, strong-looking tanned hands – one bearing a large Super Bowl ring – he gestured to the ground and dispensed advice and his own turf care philosophy.
He explained that Lassenite Pozzolan helps absorb water and then slowly release it.
Several of the maintenance staff gathered around as he discussed how this could extend the depth of roots zones and survivability.
And the grass needs to be mowed with greater frequency.
Among Toma's other principles:
• You don't cut grass when you want to cut grass. Toma said he has cut Olympic-sized fields with hand mowers, a task that has taken up to six hours in some cases.
• Sharpness of grass is important.
• Never remove more than one-fourth of the height cut.
Hall-Irwin has received donations from other companies to help the field.
Jim Mueller, with Hall-Irwin's athletic division, said that totally replacing the field could cost from $60,000 to $80,000, but several companies have come together to help treat it.
The treatment will instead cost between $13,000 to $15,000 – which would be the total cost without donations.
Hall-Irwin coordinated having some other companies to donate some products and services.
Donating companies include Green One, Western Pozzolan, A-1 Organic, Extreme, Estes Chemical.
"We want it to re-heal itself," Mueller said. "This is kind of a passion for us."
Article reprintied with permission of Arvada Sentinel, 5/20/2006
Lassenite ATS is available in a variety of sizes depending upon application and soil type. Contact Steve Beck for more information.