Spring Baseball Field Maintenance Checklist

The first day of spring is just around the corner, which means that baseball season will soon be coming to your athletic field! Before spikes meet dirt in the coming weeks, it’s a good idea to have your field maintenance plan in place and ready to implement. Here’s a basic checklist of baseball field maintenance tasks to cover.

Early stage field preparation

Before beginning your spring maintenance routine for your athletic field, try to tackle the following tasks:

• Remove weeds on the skinned (dirt / clay) areas and edge infield
• Drag the skinned areas and baselines
• Recondition the mound and home plate areas on the field and in the bullpens
• Replace and tamp loose divots in turf areas
• Mow turf areas
• Collect trash from the field and bleacher areas

Spring Field Maintenance Routine

Once your field has been prepped, you are ready to begin your spring field maintenance routine. A proper spring field maintenance routine should include the following steps:

• Test your soil – Have your soil professionally tested to determine its makeup and nutrient levels; these test results will determine the best way to care for your field.
• Aerate – Once you know the results of your soil and tissue tests, you’ll know which aeration technique is best to use. Generally speaking, the more frequently you use your field, the more intensive and frequent aeration actions will be needed.
• Top dress and over-seed – Top dressing is a mix of sand and compost; once the top dress is applied, the field should be over-seeded – especially in worn areas.
• Fertilize – Fertilizers contain nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium – macronutrients that help stimulate new growth and increase the turf’s resiliency.
• Apply herbicide – An herbicide may be needed to control invasive weeds such as dandelion, ground ivy, plantain and buckhorn.
• Perform needed facility repairs – Inspect your facilities and fix problems that occurred over the long Connecticut winter.

You might be ready for baseball season, but is your athletic field? Make sure it is with professional athletic field maintenance in CT by the pros at Diamond Landscapes & Athletic Fields. Contact us today to learn more!