Soil Scout Sensor 4

Soil Scout
Partnerships
For me it's been the game-changer, as far as how
we approach what we do and how we go about
it, it's led to our success is what I believe
Greg Elliott | SF Giants Head Groundskeeper, Director of Field Operations
are able to identify the key time frames and hit our
surface appropriately.
How are you utilising technology to help you
achieve your objectives?
GE: Technology plays a huge role in what we do
at the stadium, we are fully committed to acting
in a sustainable way for the future benefit of the
whole San Francisco bay area and we are using
technology to help us achieve this.
We are flying the GreenSight drone, receive
underground real-time data from Soil Scout
sensors and also have the SubAir Systems
submersible air flow system installed. All three
elements play a vital role in how we approach our
daily tasks, I liken it to a piece of pie, you take all
those inputs and divide them up and are left with
the information required to decide what the best
course of action is.
When the COVID pandemic hit and we were
sent home, part of my immediate concern was
losing staff members and putting them on leave.
Fortunately due to the remote technology that
GreenSight and Soil Scout offer we were able to
manage a lot of what we are doing at the stadium
from home. This still allowed for a smaller amount
of the team to come into work and prepare the
mounds and mow the grass.
Despite the difficulties we managed to prepare
for the unknown and later that year we ended up
hosting Spring training camp which was a huge
achievement for us considering the circumstances.
Is there anything that you were specifically
looking to learn about your pitch from the daily
drone flights?
GE: I wanted to see plant stress areas, I knew
where it would come from but I didn’t know how
severe it would be and how quickly it would come
back. I wanted to be able to track this because a lot
of what I do, I say something in a meeting and I’ll
mention hey this isn’t good. You can only say that
so many times before you see people’s eyes rollover.
So now I have the information I need to say,
look at what this has done, look at how we have
to manage this, we need to do this, this and this.
People used to tell us, ‘if it’s green it’s good’ but
we are trying to manage the soil as much as we
are trying to manage the plant on top. So for me it
was more about figuring out a way to incorporate
it into my daily routine and utilize it. That way I
will see the benefits of discovering areas that were
being over-watered.
I’m also beginning to see even larger benefits
like fertiliser release and disease pressure rise. But
by incorporating the data from the drone flights
and the Soil Scout sensors I can now identify
where to allocate my labour so it’s also helping
us manage our staff resources and activities a lot
better as well.
How often do you fly the GreenSight drone?
GE: We are flying the drone Monday to Friday
around 11.30am, five days a week. That might be
adjusted a bit if we have a baseball game to get
all the game information and sometimes we also
fly when we have major events on the pitch. I’m
trying not to force the GreenSight guys to work
365 days a year but we would very much like to
have the option to fly the drone seven days!
How many Soil Scout sensors do you have under
the playing surface?
GE: We have 12 Soil Scout sensors and have them
laid out a little differently than others because we
got into the sensor market due to our submersible
air-flow. We have them set up so that one is on
our gravel layer and the other is six inches below
the surface. I think moving forward I would like
them a little bit closer to the surface so I am going
to remove the lower sensors and redistribute at a
higher level, maybe even at a three inch level as
opposed to six inches. However, we are not going
to move them until the next time we do a field
renovation.
In the time that you have been using the
technology have you seen any significant
improvements?
GE: Yes, I believe our water consumption is now
significantly lower than most we have more
traffic through the stadium than most do and we
probably use less pesticides while still utilising
the surface more than anyone else so when you
combine all these factors together and your usage
26 soilscout.com | @Soil_Scout | #GainADeeperView
Soil Scout Story Issue 4 V1.indd 26 16/03/2022 23:08