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Hello. This is a video on maintaining quality turf under high traffic conditions. It is
by Garett Heineck and Sam Kohler. This should be a good tutorial on how to maintain a good
looking lawn under high traffic situations, and how to identify when traffic is not the
only problem present. Here we see a playground, it is obviously spot when a lot of kids will
be running around, as you might notice and know from you r own experience there are a
lot of barren areas where people play. Here is another spot see a location with a lot
of traffic damage, and its also important to note its not just people walking over the
same area over and over again but also due to the presence of many rocks and other debris
that are causing decreased turf quality, and that is something else you need to be aware
of when your maintaining a high quality turf. This area near a sidewalk, you can see has
some traffic damage, from people walking off of the sidewalk and on to the turf. And this
may also be a common problem with turf near sidewalks. You can see there is water buildup
where the soil structure has been destroyed and therefore no turf can grow. Now that we
have seen examples of turf that has poor quality due to trafficking or some other problem we
can now learn how to associate poor turf quality with trafficking or some other problem. Here
we can see this area is affected by high traffic, it is right next to the playground. You can
see the soil is trampled down there is not much soil structure left for the roots to
grow in so this is a area where we would want to apply practices which would remediate high
traffic in a turf situation. Here is an area that is affected by high traffic but also
soil structure due to many rocks and gravel in the area. It is important to note that
in a area such as this implementing practices for traffic isn't necessarily going to make
for a high quality turf. Situations like this which are not discussed in this video, you
may have to use other methods such as improving the soil structure or adding top soil, so
its important to note that its important to note that you must look for all the different
possibility that cause poor turf not just trafficking. So now that we can identify what
the problem is we can work on finding the correct solution for the problem. In many
cases it is a simple matter of finding the correct species for your high traffic area.
This is a picture of tall fescue, which works well under high traffic stress as well as
is drought resistant fairly low maintenance. You can see in the picture before that the
leaf blades look fairly broad, but as you can see from a far tall fescue turf can really
look nice. This is the probably easiest way to remediate poor turf quality due to trafficking.
But, with anything there are always problems, here in this picture you can see there has
been over seeding done in bare patches, which definitely may have even with a tall fescue
species. So keep in mind you will never keep perfect turf with a lot of traffic. Some other
agronomic practices that might help maintain high quality turf under high traffic could
be: overseeding bare areas, irrigating infrequently and deep, don't over fertilize try to keep
to a pound or two of nitrogen per thousand square feet per year and aerify your lawn
as needed to reduced thatch accumulation. All these things will help you maintain high
quality turf under high traffic situation. In closing its important that none of these
recommendations work in a vacuum. You first need to remember that trafficking is not always
the problem. And you need to make sure that it is before you use methods to help alleviate
it. Also you need to remember that you need to combine the right species with correct
agronomic practices to support high quality turf in a high traffic situation. Also that
if you still have problems maintaining high quality turf remember you can always contact
you local turf extension agent for further advice. Special thanks to Mario Gagliardi
and Sam Bauer of UMN Turf.