Seedball’s seed box collection grows

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Seedball’s seed box collection grows: Disruptive wildflower gardening company, Seedball, has expanded its existing seed box collection by introducing nine large editions, each containing an impressive 12 seed balls.

The large seed boxes are beautifully illustrated with the flowers they include, as well as the wildlife that will love them once bloomed. The eye-catching designs are guaranteed to draw people in and inspire them to plant for wildlife!

Seedball’s seed box collection grows

Seedball’s seed box collection grows

With nine options to choose from, including: Common poppy, Cornflower, Oxeye Daisy, and Forget-me-not, alongside Seedball’s most popular seed mixes, Bee Mix, Butterly Mix, Garden Meadow, Annuals Mix, and Shade Mix, there is an option for all garden types and styles. The large boxes are ideal for scattering over spacious beds, covering one square metre each. They’re also perfect for filling to five medium sized pots, great for adding bursts of colour to patios and hanging baskets, while supporting local pollinators.

Multi-award winning, Seedball, created by two conservation scientists, aims to help to fill gardens, balconies and window boxes with native wildflowers, bees and butterflies. Native wildflowers are naturally slow to germinate, and as such, loosely scattered seed can often be eaten by ants, birds and mice. Seedball helps to solve this problem by encasing the seed in a protective ball of clay, peat-free compost and chilli.

For retailers wanting to find out more, please visit the Seedball Trade website at: https://www.seedballtrade.co.uk/

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GMA’s ‘NextGen’ to Inspire Future Workforce

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GMA’s ‘NextGen’ to Inspire Future Workforce: During #GroundsWeek 2024, the industry’s annual awareness week, the GMA has announced that its Young Board of Directors has been relaunched as the GMA’s ‘NextGen’. The group of talented young grounds professionals will represent the grounds management industry, whilst acting as ambassadors for the GMA, in the association’s aim of encouraging more young people into grounds management.

Workforce development has become increasingly important over recent years, with research revealing that 20% of grounds staff could potentially leave the sector over coming years due to an ageing workforce and two in five grounds professionals being over the age of 50.

GMA’s ‘NextGen’ to Inspire Future Workforce

GMA’s ‘NextGen’ to Inspire Future Workforce

Since this research was conducted, the GMA has invested funds into raising the profile of the sector through public-facing activities, like its #GroundsWeek and Back to Play campaigns, earning widespread media coverage from regional local radio to national media outlets, like BBC Sport and ITV News.

The association has also forged closer relationships with sport’s National Governing Bodies which recently included working with the FA and the Women’s Super League, alongside Women in Football and Arsenal FC, to make history with the first all-female grounds team to prepare a pitch in the WSL for the North London Derby.

Since this activity was started, there have been green shoots of optimism with research conducted by the GMA in 2023 showing that there has been an increase in the percentage of young people in the workforce, with under 35s now making up nearly 30% of the workforce compared to 19% in 2022. There has also been an increase in the number of grounds managers aged 24 and under, and an increase in the percentage of grounds managers stating that they became involved in grounds management due to apprenticeships, with the figure now being close to 20%.

Armed with four new members and a fresh rebrand, as well as the support by sponsor, Reesink Turfcare, the GMA’s NextGen will build on recent signs of optimism by targeting young people, including those still at school and those at the start of their careers.

The new look and feel of the group creates a fresh and youthful brand identity, giving it a ‘club’ aesthetic that will enable the group to grow by better resonating with its target demographic whilst still aligning closely with the GMA’s existing brand.

Their work began on Tuesday 19th March, where new NextGen ambassador, Jack Langley hosted a Schools into Stadia event at Ashton Gate. Over the day, a group of local secondary school children got a taste of what it’s like to be a grounds person, as well as learning more about the wide range of careers that can be pursued in the grounds care sector.

Commenting on the new approach, GMA NextGen Executive Sponsor, Jennifer Carter is optimistic about the future:

“#GroundsWeek is all about celebrating the grounds management industry and encouraging more people to consider joining. So, what better time is there to celebrate the achievements of a talented group of young people and to announce their renewed efforts to inspire other young people too?

“We’ve already seen what impact they can have on the sector, with three GMA NextGen ambassadors representing the industry during the recent women grounds showcase at the Emirates Stadium, and I’m confident that their fresh energy and focus will be highly impactful on the hearts and minds of other sport-loving young people.

“There are opportunities across the sector, both on the ground as well as in the businesses that support it, and we’re already seeing signs that recent years of hard work are starting to pay off. We as an industry need to keep up the momentum, and our NextGen ambassadors will play an important role in helping us drive this change.”

Longtime member of the group and currently acting as leader of the NextGen, Joe Broadwood is confident the new look and feel will resonate with its target audience:

“The new name and brand will give our group its own strong identity that is stand-out and brings a youthful feel. Our industry is intrinsically connected to sport, so the ‘club-feel’ of the brand will help us appeal to younger people who share our passion for sport and are interested in pursuing a career close to sport.

“In looking to appeal to younger audiences, we hope this relaunch will better support us in our mission to inspire the next generation of grounds staff.”

#GroundsWeek runs from 18 – 24 March 2024. To find out more about the week and how you can support it, visit: thegma.org.uk/groundsweek.

Keep an eye on GMA social media channels to find out more about its NextGen.

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It’s ‘Sandfiller Season’ says GKB Machines

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It’s ‘Sandfiller Season’ says GKB Machines: Careful management of organic matter levels is critical to optimising both the health and play characteristics of golf greens.

When it comes to managing these thatch layers, there is no universal tool or technique that will suit every course, however methods and machines are now at our disposal that are far less disruptive and can incorporate additional operations such as simultaneous sand injection which helps to bring surfaces back into play even quicker. One such machine is the Sandfiller from GKB.

It’s ‘Sandfiller Season’ says GKB Machines

It’s ‘Sandfiller Season’ says GKB Machines

The GKB Sandfiller scarifies the surface down to depths of up to 40mm, removing organic matter and creating channels which are simultaneously filled with sand or a combination of sand and seed – maximising efficiency and improving drainage and ground firmness in one pass. The unit features a 400L hopper to collect the removed material, leaving a clean and tidy finish and allowing the surface to be back in play almost instantly.

One venue who employed the services of a contractor last September to conduct the Sandfiller operation is Wenvoe Castle Golf Club. Head Greenkeeper Lucy Sellick explains, “The wetter winters, combined with a smaller than normal greenkeeping team, meant we were looking for a fast and effective solution to removing organic matter and firming up the greens. The contractor began on a Thursday morning, and by Friday lunchtime all 19 greens were back in play – with organic matter removed, backfilled with 22 tons of kiln-dried sand and just one team member brushing in the remaining surface sand. Any concerns we had about how the Sandfiller would handle our Mackenzie style slopes and undulations were also unfounded.”

“Now in February, our organic matter readings have reduced, and the greens are definitely firmer. Despite all the rainfall, we’ve managed to get a triple on the greens which just wouldn’t have been possible before.” She concludes, “We had the Sandfiller in during spring renovations back in 2023 to carry out scarification work only, and have it booked in again this September where it’ll play an important role in our pre-winter renovations and organic matter management once again.”

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Rangeline improves range economics and visuals

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Rangeline improves range economics and visuals: Sand bunkers are expensive items for golf courses to maintain, given the standards now expected by golfers. This level of maintenance is only justifiable for bunkers that get plenty of use: if a lot of players visit a bunker, then it is worth spending the money to keep it in primo condition. 

But on practice ranges, where bunkers are purely aiming tools, and never get any actual play, bunker maintenance is wholly a waste of money. Thus it is tempting for course operators to dig holes on their range, fill them with sand, and leave them be. But this approach too has its problems: wind and rain will cause the bunker sand to move around and to be contaminated with other substances, reducing, even possibily eliminating, the value of having the bunker on the range in the first place. The newly-launched RANGEline product from ZLine Products, is the answer.

Rangeline improves range economics and visuals

Rangeline improves range economics and visuals

RANGEline consists of sand-coloured synthetic material, which is installed on the range in lieu of bunkers. It is UV coated to ensure that the color can withstand sunlight exposure and seamlessly replicates the aesthetic value of sand bunkers on the range, giving golfers a powerful aiming tool, but it is essentially maintenance-free. The product was formerly known at SRL-16, but has been redesigned to be thicker and denser, so it absorbs impacts better.

“RANGEline helps course operators improve the playability and shotmaking of their practice ranges, without increasing maintenance costs,” says Casey Jones, inernational operations manager of ZLine. “It is very cost-effective – the cost of the product is roughly the same as sand – and over time it will produce an excellent return on investment. Ball picking from RANGEline is much easier than from a sand bunker, as the picking machine can drive over it. Even if the ‘bunker’ is inaccessible to the picker, it is far easier to rake up the balls than to pick them from sand – which has to be done by hand.”

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AIM for clean greens

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AIM for clean greens: A new Syngenta one-box fungicide programme is now available, providing a well-proven, cost effective and agronomically strong season-long disease control strategy.   

The AIM programme contains three leading Syngenta fungicides, specifically selected to provide an effective sequential strategy for summer through to winter, including Ascernity, Instrata Elite and Medallion TL.

AIM for clean greens

AIM for clean greens

Sean Loakes, Syngenta Turf Technical Manager for UK & Ireland, advocated the AIM approach optimises the potential to protect turf from immediate disease risks, while also providing longer term pathogen reductions that more effectively prevents disease outbreaks right through the season.

“Starting the programme with Ascernity, targeted at the increasing issues of summer anthracnose and dollar spot infections, followed by Instrata Elite in early autumn has proven to prevent the hugely damaging early outbreaks of microdochium patch.

“The AIM pack then gives a further follow up of Medallion TL for when conditions cool. That gives outstanding protection against damage through the critical time of limited turf recovery,” he advised. AIM is available for golf courses, sports turf and any turf surfaces covered by the products’ label recommendations.

The AIM strategy is fully supported by the Syngenta Turf Advisor App designed to guide optimum fungicide application timing. That includes local disease risk forecast models and disease pressure levels over recent days and weeks, along with a host of weather data to refine decision making.

“Turf Advisor also provides instant assessment of growth potential (GP) of turf, for appropriate product selection.” Sean advocates the multi-active benefits of systemic Ascernity are best utilised while turf is actively growing, with a GP above 20%, while Instrata Elite remains extremely effective as growth slows to 5%-25% GP.

When growth slows further, the contact activity of Medallion TL effectively protects the leaf from disease infection, while also targeting pathogen spores in the thatch and root crown to reduce the risk of infection.

The further advantage of the AIM strategy is that each application contains different fungicide modes of action. The rotation of fungicides and utilising multiple modes of action is the basis of a good fungicide resistance management plan, he added.

“Targeting disease earlier in the season prevents damage to the leaf, reduces stress on the plant and effectively breaks the disease cycle – enabling fungicide programmes to maintain playing surface quality and longer lasting results throughout the season.

“Early disease outbreaks act as infection source for further spread as the season progresses,” he warned. Even where scars have dried up, millions of spores would have been released that can be waiting in thatch or organic matter for the right conditions to develop and trigger new infections.

“Disease management in the autumn is essentially a numbers game. The potential for disease outbreaks is dependent on both the number of pathogens present, and the conditions for it to multiply rapidly.

“Reducing the initial turf disease pathogen population gives the opportunity for cultural Integrated Turf Management (ITM) controls to be more effective.”

STRI trials in Yorkshire showed how the AIM programme of Ascernity at the onset of microdochium patch pressure, followed by Instrata Elite and then Medallion TL, kept disease down below 3% of surface area affected throughout the season, when infection in the untreated area quickly hit 15% and reached over 25% of disease cover. In high pressure trials at ISTI in Ireland, the AIM strategy was the only fungicide treatment approach to keep disease in complete control.

“The actual timing of each application and number of treatments required will be site specific, according to risks and pressure,” pointed out Sean. “The sequence of using the three products is now very well proven, and more convenient and cost effective in the AIM one-box solution.”

Preventing disease outbreaks from mid-summer gives the best chance to go into winter clean, and come out green in the spring.

AIM is distributed in the UK and Ireland by ICL. The AIM one-box solution is also eligible for extra Turf Rewards points to qualify for turf management products and education resources: www.icl-growingsolutions.uk

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