Football Pitch Renovation 
End of season renovation work will typically consist of cultivation of worn areas, if not the entire pitch, including scarification, or chain harrowing on basic level pitches, decompaction rather than routine aeration work, fertiliser application, overseeding and top-dressing.
Where limited renovation works can only be carried out then a fertiliser might be applied a week or so before the start of renovation, which might just be aeration, chain harrow, with selected overseeding and limited top-dressing (maybe 20 tonnes at the most, if budgets permitted as this alone would cost in the region of £1,500 to carry out by a specialist contractor), to allow the nutrients to become available in the soil solution at the time of the other works.
Allowing for a selected additional top-dressing and overseeding of thin areas if there is poor germination and initial establishment in some areas following the main renovation can be a helpful reserve plan. The outcome of the main renovation will be significantly influenced by many factors, not least the prevailing weather conditions, but also the effectiveness of the maintenance activities which have been undertaken to nurture the young grass. The plan for follow-up overseeding and light top-dressing will depend on available budgets, but if a small contingency of 5 tonnes of sand along with anywhere from 1 bag to 4 bags of grass seed might be a baseline from which to start.
Top class football pitches, especially where reinforcement material is included, will typically be stripped of their surface vegetation by planing or fraise mowing as part of the start of the renovation process.
Powered scarification, such as a SISIS TM1000, might take up to 6 hours for a deep (50mm) scarification, whilst a shallower depth of about 8mm might take in the region of 2-hours. Depending on the extent of any thatch as well as undesirable surface vegetation which needs clearing out, the number of scarification activities might be from 1 to 3, or more, as part of the renovation programme.
Depending on how bare the surface is following renovation, then the application rate for seeding will typically be from 17-50g/m².
Perennial ryegrass will either be sown as a 100% blend of two to four cultivars, or in some situations the inclusion of some other grass species might be considered, although Perennial ryegrass would typically be the choice for the majority of pitches: Smooth-stalked meadow grass, strong creeping red fescue, browntop bent or tufted hairgrass might also be considered within a mixture with Perennial ryegrass.
The wings of a pitch can often have good grass coverage at the end of a playing season, and it might be deemed prudent with limited budgets to just over seed the central third portion of a pitch at full rate and then selected areas or the remaining two-thirds of a pitch at a reduced rate. As a minimum an overseeding at 17g/m² in the central third would be needed. On a 6,000m² pitch then for 2,000m² (i.e. 1/3rd) of this would mean 34kg, so 2 x 20kg bags would be considered a minimum. A realistic maximum quantity of seed would be applying 35 g/m² over an entire pitch, so a 6,000m² pitch then this would mean 210kg, so 11 x 20kg bags would be considered a maximum. If a typical 20kg bag was £100, then the seed for renovation might range from £200 to £1,100, which is a considerable difference.
Make sure the grass seed is sown into a prepared area. This might be an area which has been spiked beforehand, or by the use of a seed-drill to help to deposit seed into shallow grooves. The use of a spinning disc spreader may also be considered, although it would be beneficial to ensure grooves had been created within the soil, for example, by prior use of a scarifier. The area would then be top-dressed, typically with a suitable sand or very sandy loam.
Once seed has germinated then regular light syringing of the seedlings will be needed to encourage continued development. The roots on juvenile plants are minimal and take time to develop into the soil, so a light and regular irrigation is required if the young plants are not to dry out and die from a lack of available water. This is a common cause of poor initial establishment of newly overseeded areas; it isn’t (in most cases) that the grass seed was sub-standard, it is the initial aftercare that is found lacking.
Following seed germination and initial establishment, the grass will reach a suitable height before being lightly topped to help encourage sward thickening. The height at which a first cut will take place will vary, but as a guide once it has reached 60mm then the useful of a rotary mower set to 50mm will help to start the sward thickening process. On an established sward the maximum amount of leaf that should be removed is about 1/3rd of the total leaf height, but as this is a newly developing sward it might be wise to remove about only half this amount to reduce stress on the juvenile turf. The use of a rotary mower is usually preferable to a cylinder mower because the roots are still gaining anchorage in the soil and there is greater chance that if a cylinder mower is used it will pull out some weakly bound grasses.