Keeping the grass healthy, clean and, most importantly, green is a constant battle with a heavy playing schedule at Chelsea FC. Assistant Head Groundsman, Kevin Fowler, uses supplementary foliar fertilizers to make sure they have the perfect playing surface on which to perform. The feed is applied at the relatively low water volume of 500 litres/ha. This retains as much of the product as possible on the leaf surface for rapid absorption. 

In previous seasons this was done with a tractor mounted sprayer. It is now put on with a Techneat SPPS 120 pedestrian self-propelled sprayer. Using marker pegs at the end of the pitch, the whole process takes less than two hours from start to finish – half the time taken with a tractor mounted sprayer. The further advantage of low water volume application is the ability to spray the whole pitch with just two fills of the SPPS120 sprayer’s 125-litre tank.

“The tractor mounted sprayer took too long to set up, wasn’t nearly so accurate or easy to use and, most importantly, left wheel marks that were clearly visible on match day TV cameras,” says Kevin.  "In contrast to the tractor-mounted sprayer, the SPPS is easy to set up and use and, most importantly, as it is lightweight and on wide tyres it leaves no wheel marks," he adds " the sprayer is perfect for us, it’s hassle free, does everything I expected it to do and gives us perfect results for the pitch."

For details of Techneat Engineering’s SPPS and other spraying solutions T: 01353 862044 E:info@techneat.co.uk  W:www.techneat.co.uk