. The photo to the right shows supply and return heading out towards home plate to heat Zone 4 in foul territory. On top of the heat tubes are the 10" of our rootzone mix, which is a 93% sand, 7% peat mixture. Once we reach around the 1st of March, we dial the heat up from its winter mode of 34* F to a setpoint of 40*F. We then wait about 5 days and take it to 46*; then to 52* by March 10th. By the middle of March we reach a setpoint range of 58-60*. In three years here, the highest range we have ever set it to is 60-62*. Once we are consistently above 58* in the spring, we begin to get growth and move the bluegrass out of dormancy. I am always very anxious to get to the point where I can turn the system off and move on to our next phase of the season. May is usually a pretty good month here in Minneapolis for growing turf. Odds of any frost here in the middle of the city are pretty low at this point. One other question I receive a lot in the spring is: can you melt the snow? We have found that having surface soil temps in the high 50's certainly does diminish any chance of snow building up on the turf. One instance was last year on April 20, 2011. The Twins were on the road, so we just put tarps on the infield dirt only and let the snow hit the turf. As you can see below in the distance, the snow stuck to the seats and infield dirt tarps, but the total of 1.5" of snow that morning never really stuck to the turf. At some point in the future we will be challenged by more April snow than that I am sure. It is nice to have options when the weather is bad here at Target Field.           -Larry