It was a busy College Football Bowl season at West Coast Turf!

We started off by grassing Chase Field in Phoenix, AZ, on December 19^th for the December 26^th Cheez-It Bowl, in which the TCU Frogs beat the Cal Bears in overtime.  

The San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl was played on West Coast Turf at the SDCCU Stadium (formerly Qualcomm Stadium) on December 31^st with the Northwestern Wildcats topping the Utah Utes. 

The Redbox Bowl was also played on New Years Eve at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA, with the Oregon Ducks defeating the Michigan State Spartans by a single point.

The “Granddaddy of Them All,” the Rose Bowl game, was played in Pasadena on New Years Day on what Rose Bowl groundskeeper, Will Schnell, said was “the best field I have ever had.” Schnell added that the day after the game the field looked as if it hadn’t even been played on.  Wow.

But the field absolutely was played on.  The Ohio State Buckeyes outperformed the University of Washington Huskies in Urban Meyers’ last appearance as head coach of Ohio State, and his first time at the Rose Bowl. The social media world described the turfgrass at the Rose Bowl as “a green cloud,” “the greatest patch of turf in America, capable of causing grown men weep at its green grass,” “…..there is no greener grass in America than the grass in the Rose Bowl--one of the most beautiful sights in sports,” “the Rose Bowl grass is the definition of perfect.”  Shall we go on?

But it doesn’t end there.

West Coast Turf was up to an unusual challenge up at Levi’s Stadium this year.  During the New Years Eve Redbox Bowl, West Coast Turf crews were hard at work harvesting a new field at their Livingston, CA, farm to be installed at the stadium for the College Football Playoff National Championship game to be played just a week later on January 7^th between the Alabama Crimson Tide, and Clemson Tigers.  But first, the Redbox Bowl game needed to be completed, and the field removed.  Our turf removal crew was on standby in Santa Clara and began the removal procedure about 5:30 pm, finishing the process at 1 am.  Crews worked through the night in shifts installing the new field (22 truckloads worth!) and completing the entire process in 24 hours.

The sod for the National Championship game is a specialty product that was grown on plastic out at the West Coast Turf farm.  It is thick-cut, and without time to root, it is heavy enough that the natural turfgrass will remain in place.  The Levi’s Stadium staff was very pleased with the process, and amazed it went so quickly and seamlessly! 

After the field was installed, the tailgate areas and some of the streets around Levi’s Stadium were sodded for fan enjoyment.

West Coast Turf is you leader in Arizona & California Sod.

In hot desert climates, many people look for ways to find water-saving methods with their lawns and sporting fields. One seemingly wise remedy that is by using artificial turf. On its face, this seems like a good solution. However, there are several major reasons why natural turf is still king. 

Chief among these reasons is the temperatures artificial turf can reach in hot weather. In warmer months, artificial turf can reach 200º - no, that’s not a typo. That temperature is so much higher than the 122º that’s considered safe for use by professional athletes, much less your family and pets. This temperature of turf is such that you couldn’t put your bare feet or hands on it for longer than a few seconds before it would burn you. This means that during summer months, artificial turf simply is not suitable for play during daytime hours. So one might ask, are its water-saving benefits worth the cost of installation if it is unusable during the daytime for several months out of the year. One way to cool down the artificial turf, users say, is to hose it down and it is suggested to do so every thirty minutes in order for it to stay cool enough to safely play on. However, this practice when used on turf installed specifically to conserve water, defeats its own purpose (while creating humidity in the attempt to cool the artificial turf down).

In addition, using artificial turf has other consequences, some unintended. One is a phenomenon called the urban heat island effect. This means that the artificial turf, similar to concrete and asphalt, actually radiates heat back into the night air, causing warmer nights for the areas that have it and causing nearby plants and grass to need extra water.

At West Coast Turf, we are experts in natural grass, specifically Arizona sod (and you Arizonans know better than anyone how hot the summer months can be!) and have provided the natural turf for many professional fields, including MLB, NFL, professional training fields, college football and baseball fields, racetracks, Major League Soccer, and more. Contact us to find out more about why we’re the best in our field and what we can do for you!

https://www.westcoastturf.com/

In the NFL, the football fields players practice and play on have either natural grass or artificial turf. More than half of the fields boast natural grass, but there has long been a debate over which surface is better. Many aspects factor into this: injuries, cost, and personal preference. 

On artificial turf, studies have shown that injuries are more prevalent than on natural grass. A 2012 study showed that more college football players suffered ACL injuries on turf than on grass. John Brenkus, creator of Sport Science videos, said that turf increases stress on the ACL joint by about 45% and talked about a study covering over 2,600 NFL games, saying players were 67% more likely to sprain their ACL on turf than on grass. As we all know, an ACL injury can mean the end of a player’s season.

Turf typically comes with a hefty price tag. Many explore the benefits of natural grass and its cost to maintain/replace worn areas throughout the year. Preserving the natural grass playing surface would results in cost saving. Many coaches and training staff prefer natural grass, whenever possible. Said Casey Carrick, the director of athletic grounds and turf management at the University of North Carolina, “Natural grass was the preferred surface by players, coaches, us, and trainers and it was the cheaper option. By the end of the season, we had only used half of the amount of sod we had budgeted for, a significant savings versus going synthetic.”

West Coast Turf are specialists in natural grass, particularly Arizona sod. With such clients as the former Candlestick Park, San Francisco, CA-Old Home of the San Francisco 49ers, Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara, CA-NEW Home of the San Francisco 49ers, and Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, CA-Home of the Oakland Raiders, the los Angeles Coliseum—current home of the LA Rams, and STUBHUB Center—current home to the Los Angeles Chargers, as well as 8 Super Bowl fields. We are the experts in natural grass fields for all of our sports clients, from college football to the NFL. 

Visit us online to learn more: https://www.westcoastturf.com/

We often see overseeding your warm season California or Arizona sod lawn as a process that should be done in a weekend. For some this may be the most convenient way to prep but for others its okay to take a week or two to complete the process. Trying to knock it all out in one weekend can result in some really long days out in the heat. My suggestion is to slowly start the process now so in a couple weeks when the overseed window opens you’re ready to go and won’t be wasting your entire Saturday on the lawn. Remember that the ideal window is when nighttime temperatures are in the 60’s. We’re currently sitting in the high 70’s so I would expect a couple more weeks. To follow overseed instructions scroll to bottom of this blog.

Prepping for overseed is often a large ordeal, but starting the process gradually can eliminate a lot of headaches. I want to reiterate something I have said for the past few years. The height of the grass is not associated with a quality overseed. In other words, scalping the grass down to the dirt does not guarantee good results, but opening up the turf canopy does. The shorter you mow your lawn the tighter the leaf blades become making it harder to get the ryegrass seed into the plant. If the seed is lying on the surface it will be slow to germinate and much of the seed will be lost. The seed needs a base to grow out of, and getting inside the grass plant allows for perfect moisture, heat, and a solid growing medium. This is why it’s so important to have a good warm season grass base. If you have a new lawn or a weak summer lawn it can have a direct impact on your overseed. The seed will establish much faster inside a healthy grass stand than it will on bare dirt.

I would like to start by congratulating everyone on making through another California and Arizona summer. I know we still have a couple months of triple digit temperatures, but the worst should be behind us at this point. As we move into September our morning temperatures will start to feel less painful, but remember your warm season grass is loving this weather--especially your California and Arizona sod. I have started to field questions regarding fall overseeding and I want to tell you to hit the brakes. Don’t just tap the brakes, slam on the brakes. You will see ryegrass hit the stores in the next week but walk away or buy it and sit on it until temperatures really drop. Today I want to discuss prep for the fall, and how to get your grass ready to overseed. This won’t be a tutorial on how to overseed, but instead some pointers of what to do before you overseed.