Written by: Dan Jennings
If you would like to dive into the process of understanding how these materials are heated, please read my blog “How to understand the heating process of Calcination vs. Vitrification heating practices”.
Each part of the United States has regional climates and inside those regional climates, we have microclimates and so on, please take this information and apply it to your situation. Vitrified and calcined products at the proper gradations make great playing surfaces.
Topdressing materials are important when managing baseball and softball fields clay soil surfaces. Topdressings give the clay surface a proper material to slide on, protects the surface grade-slope and helps manage moisture in the infield mix soil base material. These topdressing materials will not solve proper surface drainage issues, but they can be used as a Band-Aid to dry up puddles in low areas. Low wear areas in player positions areas or sliding pits of the infield. These low wear areas should always be re-leveled with infield mix soil properly. These materials also work great to manage the moisture level in your infield clay surface or can add color to the playing surface. I have never found the importance of adding color to the topdressing particle. I wanted to make sure I maximized my capabilities of manage my infield mix soil moisture levels effectively. As a groundskeeper I managed my infield mix soil with moisture meters or with soil probes. Moisture readings were taken three days prior to a homestand, once in the mornings and again prior to batting practice to ensure we had proper moisture level in our infield mix soil. This helped our team to ensure the infield mix soil had consistent moisture levels prior to each game. I correlated this same practice that has been done for years on putting greens to help with ball roll. By doing so, this allowed us to have consistent playability throughout the entire season. Using different types of topdressing allowed us to manage those moisture levels in our infield mix soil.
Vitrified clays and shales for topdressing materials on your sports field clay areas can be a great tool. I highly recommend using these materials as your base topdressing material and only applying calcined products as needed or prior to rain events. Base topdressing material are the material you will apply at an 1/8 of an inch to 1/4 of an inch, topdressing goes on top of your infield mix base material. I will explain in another blog about proper surface drainage on infield mix soils and why surface slope is so important. I am going to make a bold statement here but if you have 100% vitrified topdressing on your infield mix soil, and this playing surface has proper surface drainage. You will be able to dry that infield mix soil faster than any calcined infield mix soil surface. I and several other groundskeepers have found this statement to be correct, here is the science and thoughts behind it. As we talked about, vitrified materials do not absorb moisture as quickly, nor do they hold that moisture as tightly, this allows the moisture to get back to the clay surface and evaporate more efficiently. Calcined particles hold onto moisture very tightly, which is great for absorbing spills, or to quickly soak up a low-wet area on your clay surface. Due to its holding capacities, these calcined particles are not very efficient when trying to release the moisture out of the particle like you see with vitrified particles. Your welcome to try this process on your floor, with a sample of vitrified material and sample of calcine clay particles. Watch how the moisture is released differently in both particles. Click here to watch a time-lapse video of this process.
I am not saying that calcined products do not have a purpose on baseball infield mix soils, but I am giving you something to think about prior to putting materials out on your infield mix soil. Hopefully, your reason is not because “it’s what we’ve done for years.” Calcined clays are a great tool for managing moisture on the surface, especially during rain events or wanting to hold on to moisture tightly. Calcined clays are a great tool when you do not want the moisture to evaporate too quickly. Calcined particles do take longer to hydrate, which causes a longer hydrating process of your infield mix soil. Which leads to larger time on the end of the watering hose. Each particle has a tremendous capability and can be used to help make your moisture management practices easier.
If your new to these products, I always recommend using a 50/50 blend, once you understand how each particle works in your situation you can start adjusting your percentage of each material to master your clay soils. These products are great solutions to ensure your keeping your infield mix soil at the proper hydration level. At the end of the day, having proper hydration with a properly structured infield mix will continue to give a safe playing surface.
I recommend both products for increasing soil CEC (Cation exchange capacities), these will increase nutrient holding capacities in heavier sand content rootzones, but I am going to lean on the expanding clay process for my pick. My reason for this selection is due to after the vitrification of a raw clay these particles are usually neutral in their PH, which helps fight against fungus and mold’s that may grow. Therefore, you are seeing hydroponic growth being done with expanded clay materials that have been vitrified.
I really want to thank you for taking the time to read this blog, truly means a lot and I hope this makes your groundskeeping life easier. Feel free to email/text any questions if you would like further insight.
For now,
Dan Jennings
#inspiredbysoils