Soil
Ground Rules
Soil is the natural growing medium for grass, whatever its type and structure it’s the life giver and engine room of your pitch.
What are the elements of good soil?
Structure
Well-structured soil has sufficient channels (pore space) throughout. This allows for movement of nutrients, air and water as well as helping a pitch drain after rainfall.
Type
There are different soil types, at a recreational level indigenous soil type will generally be based on geography as constructed pitches are less prevalent. Different standards of pitch need different types of soil, some pitches are constructed with sand to be fast draining. Soil selection should be cost-effective, safe and support the other factors of grass growth. Sports sand is commonly recommended for rugby pitches.
pH
pH is a scale that specifies how acidic or alkaline the soil is. Our Soil Analysis resource within the Maintenance Tasks section provides more detail on this. It’s something that can be amended over time (if required) given sufficient resources so it falls within an ideal pH level that allows for optimum grass health.
Moisture
The ability of the soil to maintain the correct amount of water available to the grass roots is critical for pitch health.
When water evaporates more than it is taken in, the grass plants will wilt and soil can become hard or powdery.
When there is too much moisture and the soil is waterlogged, the roots can’t absorb water owing to a lack of oxygen. This has many negative knock-on effects: Our Dealing with Pitch Use in Wet and Waterlogged Conditions resource within the Managing Extreme Weather section provides more information on this.
Top-dressing (sand-dressing)
Top-dressing is a sand/soil blend typically applied to the pitch surface to provide an even surface; improve soil structure and drainage; provide a seed bed; or to adjust moisture and nutrient retention.
Top-dressing materials are usually a blend of sand, clay and silt. On rugby pitches a sand dressing is typical. This should be a high quality, screened and graded silica sand. It should be pH neutral, screened to remove stones and debris and graded to contain an appropriate percentage of medium to coarse sand that promote good drainage and resist compaction. These sands are washed to remove impurities such as clay, silt and organic matter.
This type of sand is expensive but there is a reason for this, the use of building sand or sharp sand widely available is unsuitable for sports pitches and will render them poorly draining or unstable not providing the structure and texture required for healthy grass growth.
