Winter Seeding & Landscaping in Beijing

Depending on where you are in the world the winter seeding of rye seed can really help your field for the next sports season. Where you are geographically will determine the timing of your particular winter seed program.  In most northern locations its to late but with proper turf blankets and the right seed you can still establish some growth as long as the field is not frozen.  Over-seeding Bermuda fields is pretty common where as over-seeding Bluegrass fields with a winter rye is very rare.

We over-seeded in Beijing with PH.D Turf and Axcella winter rye turf seed. The PHD rye blend has been around a while and the Axcella brand has added a couple new varieties. We actually used the Axcella 2.  DLF International Seed Company has helped us out tremendously with product selection and local assistance. In particular, Mr Li has been a great help.  Applying seed with a broadcast seeder is the best application method as a drop spreader requires a perfect overlap or your field or lawn could look like a race track in the spring when the grass comes up.  You can use a small walk behind drop spreader to apply the seed to areas close to the clay as this will reduce a lot of seed growth in the clay. Initial watering and a little topdressing can make the difference on the amount of seed that actually germinates.  We applied about 12 pounds per thousand sq ft in Beijing for the Olympic Fields.  Since there is a possible MLB event scheduled in March of 08 we needed to be ready, At the same time the rye seed can actually help protect the dormant Bermuda grass.  Establishing seed with turf blankets or evergreen covers has become a staple for many turf managers.  In Beijing they  add a twist during the first 3 weeks.  They cover it with plastic then apply the geotextile based evergreen cover over the plastic.  The wind plays havoc with these covers and the pins holding them down need to be checked daily.  We even had them push infield clay on the edge of the turf blanket to help hold it down during the high winds.  They have actually applied a very dark geoclothe..which kind of spooks me as you really want to allow the sunlight to come through.  They have said it is common in the country so we need to do a wait and see...so far so good.  I guess with the winters being in the single digits during Dec and Jan they are not concerned with killing the turf with the covers. 

Another interesting part of the Olympic project...Planting trees in China during the winter has also began.  Each hole is dug by hand where we would have a tractor and auger to drill the mammoth holes.  They are planting over 1000 trees around the baseball venue and every hole is being dug by hand.  As mentioned in previous blogs...labor is not an issue here in this country.   Hope you all have a nice Christmas and New Year.  Standby for a "Crazy 08".  Its going be a huge year for Baseball Internationally .