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| Home » News » GWAZAE beats clay and compaction for rapid drainage |
| GWAZAE beats clay and compaction for rapid drainage |
By Richard Rennie and Sven Furstenberg
A sticky clay loam layer, dense compaction and intense rainfall can make keeping playing fields at their best a challenge for any grounds man.
Jeff Stevens, Turf Supervisor for Tauranga City Care’s Parks division says the city’s Blake Park Rugby One field typifies the sort of difficulties he and his team face.
The intensely used field plays host to dozens of games in the course of a season, with teams competing from all around the Western Bay region.
This frequent use combined with the clay soil profile exacerbates water logging and pugging. Jeff says water logging is common on the fields, and not only makes management difficult, but also makes play dangerous.
While Bay of Plenty rainstorms often pass quickly, their impact on the field would linger for weeks at a time.
Game quality was being compromised and Jeff was keen to seek a better way to move the water quicker through the challenging soil.
He gladly accepted a trial of the GWAZAE Single Probe aerator, offered by local manufacturer Page Macrae Engineering.
The aerator is an innovative local design that combines high quality components with simple one-tractor operation.
Cutting edge technology enables the GWAZAE to inject a massive 124 litres of air within 0.4 of a second into the subsoil surface.
Hard pans and compacted soil profiles are blasted to rejuvenate drainage channels and allow greater air movement within the plant root structure again.
Using the aerator to at closely spaced intervals on Blake Park, Jeff aimed to increase the porosity of the soil, and the rate of water drainage through the difficult profile.
The first downpour of rain after the treatment highlighted how effective the GWAZAE was.
“We had 50mm of rain within a 24 hour period and I was impressed to see the field draining within hours to a degree it had never done before.”
Jeff admits he was converted by the simplicity and effectiveness of the GWAZAE and continues:”As a direct result following the highly successful trials held on several sports fields we have programmed the GWAZAE into our annual renovation programme for Tauranga City Councils sports fields. All slow or poor draining sports fields will be programmed to be aerated by the GWAZAE each autumn prior to the winter rains.”
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