Football Pitch FAQ 18. How often should we aerate the pitch over the winter?

This does depend very much on soil moisture content because if the soil is quite moist to wet then the main result will be smearing and compaction taking place.

Ideally the soil should be relatively dry to slightly moist when aerating to get the most out of the activity, otherwise more harm than good can be done.

When conditions are suitable, and if they stay suitable, then fortnightly to monthly aeration might be typical. The frequency and type of aeration or decompaction work will also be influenced by the amount of usage taking place as well.

In practice what you might find is that a football pitch on a heavy to medium loam soil (even where pipe drains are installed) will have limited, if any, opportunity for optimum aeration over the winter period.

It is usually advisable to not plan to aerate these pitches from October/November right through to March as they will probably contain higher quantities of water within the soil profile throughout this entire period which would just result in a worse condition than without aerating. Selective hand forking of wet areas, combined with sanding, is what might be considered more suitable over the winter period for heavier soil based pitches.

Where a pitch is on a sandy loam then careful monitoring of the soil profile might indicate that some aeration can take place when conditions are drier. However, this would need to be planned on a proactive basis being dependant on soil conditions rather than just aerating say every 6-weeks.