Custom Blending For The Buckeyes

Soon football season will be upon us and the Ohio State Buckeyes football team will get to work on their new outdoor practice fields at the Woody Hayes football practice facility.  The fields they will be using are being installed with an uncommon rootzone mixture that is currently being manufactured by SportZmix Solutions, Waupaca Sand & Solutions’ sister company.

In early June, SportZmix Solutions calibrated three custom blends for the OSU Woody Hayes facility’s fields.  USGA® sand, screened topsoil and composted Bio Solid Waste were blended at various ratios to meet a very specific agronomic specification for the natural turf fields.

Yep, you read this correctly.  Com-Til Plus is a composted mix of bio-solids from the City of Columbus Wastewater Treatment Plant with yard waste, wood chips and incinerator ash.  Agronomically, it is a pretty neat thing.  The added nutrient values in Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium are a real bonus.

Interestingly, the physical properties of the mix design meet all USGA® recommendations for greens construction.  And really, building a football field is sort of like one big golf green! 

Here in Badger country, we don’t often cheer for the Buckeyes, but we are “rooting” for their rootzone mix to be the best it can be.

Written by Ellen Davis Monday, June 21, 2010 07:47 AM