Can microbes produce greener sports turf?
With football managers blaming the state of the pitch for the failure of their teams to win big matches, anything that improves the condition of turf can only be welcome. In this article in Microbiology Today (pdf) Alan Gange describes how mould diseases can devastate the sward and some work being done to exploit the power of beneficial microbes to act as “biostimulants” and improve the health of turf grasses:
April 2009: both Manchester United and Arsenal lose their FA Cup semi final matches at Wembley Stadium. Afterwards, both managers, Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger, blamed the state of the Wembley pitch, Ferguson describing it as “spongy and dead”. A few days later, the head groundsman was sacked and the pitch re-laid at a cost approaching £100,000. This is the sixth time that the pitch has been replaced since it was first laid in 2006. Whether the pitch or the groundsman were in any way to blame for the fact that Everton scored more times in the penalty shoot-out than did United is, of course, debatable. However, these facts illustrate how important the quality of the playing surface is in sport and the vast sums of money that are spent to construct and maintain these surfaces. The highest quality turf surfaces are to be found on golf courses. There are over 2,500 golf courses in the UK and nearly 32,000 worldwide. The quality of the tees, fairways and greens is of the utmost importance and are always to blame when one’s approach shot hits the rough or that critical putt is missed! Sports turf is an unusual plant community, composed of just a few grass species. In British fairways and football pitches, the predominant grass is Lolium perenne (perennial rye). In our golf tees and greens, the desirable grasses are species of bents (Agrostis) and fescues (Festuca), with many cultivars of each species available. However, all turf systems become invaded by the weed grass Poa annua (annual meadow grass). Poa is undesirable, because it is nutrient and water hungry, susceptible to disease and provides an inferior quality playing surface. The control of Poa is the key to successful sports turf management.
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Tags: Agriculture, Bacteria, Biology, Biotechnology, Environment, football, Fungi, golf, grass, Microbiology, Mycology, Science
