The Turf Zone Podcast

ARKANSAS TURFGRASS: Brad Jakubowski, Assistant Teaching Professor, Center for Turfgrass Science, Penn State University

Keeping an eye on the weather is something professional turfgrass managers have ingrained into our systems. Can I mow today? We check our phones for the most recent forecast. Should I spray today? We monitor dewpoints, humidity and temperatures. Will I pull the tarp prior to today’s game? We study the weather radar. There is a tremendous amount of weather information out there and nearly all of us have some form of a weather app on our phones, or a link to our favorite weather website, to help us make day-to-day management decisions. Let’s take a journey, to see what is out there and what information will help us make the best weather-based decisions possible.

Which app is the best?

Honestly, there is no one best app. It is important to find an app or a number of apps that provide you the most reliable and quickly available information. Basic Information that is important to have available with the least number of clicks would be: High and Low Temperatures (including overnight lows), Dewpoint, Relative Humidity, and Short-Term Weather forecasts. Intermediate information includes: Radar (Base and Composite Reflectivity), Satellite Imagery, and Severe Weather (especially lightning). Advanced information would be: Echo Tops, Vertically Integrated Liquid, Digital Storm Accumulation and Forecast Discussion.

Basic Information

When looking for basic information, it is best to have most or all important data on the first screen, or within one or two clicks from the first screen. That is often a good way to judge how well your app will benefit you over time. As an example, The National Weather Service includes much of the basic data (Figure 1). At a glance, you can get a good idea of what is happening now and what will happen in the immediate future. High and low temperatures provide a quick mental image of how the day (and night) may influence your maintenance plans. Winds, dewpoint and relative humidity provide a quick insight on irrigation requirements, disease potential, and infield skin management requirements.

It is beneficial to see both relative humidity and dewpoint together. Viewing only either limits your view of the big picture. For example, a relative humidity of 95% with dewpoints near 70 degrees indicate that less time may be spent scouting for wilt and instead used scouting for diseases. The same relative humidity with dewpoints under 30 may indicate a majority of the day may be dedicated for scouting wilt or watering an infield skin.

The Hourly Forecast – The Turf Manager’s Secret Weapon!

The Hourly Forecast on Weather.gov (Figure 2) is the turf manager’s secret weapon. In one image, a turf manager can make plans for multiple issues and tasks. For Example, The Heat Index: potential high heat indexes aids in planning for employee safety; Temperature and Dewpoint: Matched high overnight dewpoints and temperatures means extended leaf wetness and high disease potential. They also indicate heavy dew until at least 8am, which may require a syringe cycle to limit mower clumping, or to make sure greens are whipped post-cut; Wind Speed and Direction (Surface Wind): predicted light southerly winds meaning even higher probability for disease potential and dew, as well as for good spraying conditions in the early morning, but gusts in the teens starting around 11am; Relative Humidity: indicates conditions will be wet early, but dry quickly throughout the day; Sky Cover: indicates it will be partly cloudy throughout the day providing some relief, while Precipitation Potential indicate a 50% chance of rain throughout the day.

Intermediate Information

When making game-time decisions such as tarp pulls, or field evacuations, due to severe weather, radar becomes an important tool.

TENNESSEE TURFGRASS: Daniel O’Brien, Wendell Hutchens Ph.D., Mike Richardson Ph.D.

At the risk of stating the obvious, water matters. In an increasingly crowded world, with increasingly strained resources, this is true for all walks of life and turfgrass is no exception. Decisions about how we use, and just as importantly, how we conserve water are major issues for turfgrass professionals, which is why such decisions are also at the heart of our Turfgrass Research Program here at the University of Arkansas. Exploring new ways to maximize this most vital resource has been, and continues to be, a top priority in the work we do.

When it comes to managing water, one of the best resources available to turfgrass professionals are wetting agents, also known as soil surfactants. Yet, as powerful and versatile as these products are, the truth is that in many ways, turfgrass research is just scratching the surface in our understanding of them and how they work. While wetting agents are by no means a “silver bullet” for solving all the water issues facing the future of turfgrass, they do hold tremendous potential for a range of moisture related issues, such as: preventing localized dry spot, improving moisture uniformity, increasing water infiltration, prolonging rootzone moisture retention, reducing winter injury, and enhancing the efficacy of fertilizers and pesticides (Abagandura et al., 2021; DeBoer et al., 2020; Hutchens et al., 2020; Jacobs & Barden, 2018).

Building on that existing body of research, we are thrilled that a recent proposal of ours was selected by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) Foundation as a recipient of the 2023–2024 Dr. Michael Hurdzan Research Grant Endowment. The Hurdzan Endowment is dedicated to, “funding applied environmental research on golf courses, with the specific goal of reducing requirements for water, fertilizer, pesticides, or fossil fuels in golf course maintenance.” Above all, it is important to us that our research is both novel and practical, offering meaningful benefits to turfgrass professionals. In this case, those turfgrass professionals are golf course superintendents, and the potential benefits include savings, both in terms of water and money.

Overall Goals

Essentially, this research boils down to the simple question, How do you get the most out of a wetting agent application? At the University of Arkansas, we have been studying wetting agents for over 20 years, but we will be the first to tell you, there are still a lot of unknowns when it comes to these extremely important products. Because wetting agents are not subject to the same registration process or labeling requirements as pesticides, companies do not have to disclose precise active ingredients or extensive amounts of research data in order to begin selling a product. While all of that is beyond a superintendent’s control, what is very much within their control is: which wetting agent to use, how much product to put in the tank, and how often to apply. The overall goal of this research is to investigate wetting agents at the place where superintendents can exercise the most control over product performance. To do that, our original question can be broken down into comparisons on three distinct levels: 1) comparisons among wetting agents, 2) comparison among application rates/timings, and 3) comparisons among technology for evaluating wetting agent performance and longevity.

Research Design & Treatment Details

Starting with comparisons among wetting agent products, we opted to work with six different wetting agents, each from a different manufacturer (Table 1). Admittedly, there are many options available, but in research you seldom have space/time to test everything at once. Our criteria were based largely on conversations with superintendents about wetting agents they ...

VIRGINIA TURFGRASS JOURNAL: Xunzhong Zhang, Ph.D., Mike Goatley, Ph.D., Rose Harvey, and Ben Goddard – School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA

Wetting agents are a primary management strategy utilized by most golf courses in putting green water management. Adding wetting agents can reduce the surface tension of water and overall soil water repellency, thus allowing water to better infiltrate and percolate through potentially hydrophobic soils. However, due to the variation in soil and turf, especially thatch layers so commonly encountered on intensively managed putting green turf, soil moisture status may vary across different areas of the putting greens, resulting in dry spots and decline in turf quality and uniformity, especially during summer stress. The objective of this study was to evaluate effects of the wetting agent Fleet100 on turf quality, physiological fitness, and root growth in creeping bentgrass putting greens during summer stress.

We carried out this study at the Virginia Tech Turfgrass Research Center in Blacksburg, VA, during 2021–2022 on a creeping bentgrass putting green managed as a standard golf putting green turf with regard to mowing, fertility, and surface irrigation. There were two treatments: HydroMAX surfactant Fleet 100 (Harrell’s, Lakeland, FL) and an untreated control and each treatment was replicated four times in a randomized block design. Fleet100 was applied at 5 fl oz/1000 ft2 monthly and both treatments received identical fertilization at 0.15 lb N/1000 ft2 biweekly. Irrigation was provided in the range of 0.125″ and up to 0.25″ water following application. The trials lasted for 12 weeks from June 8 through August 31 and included a total of three treatment applications. The grass was exposed to two dry-down cycles during mid-June and mid-July by withholding supplemental irrigation. Turf quality rating and physiology-based phenotyping methods were used to evaluate turfgrass response to the wetting agent treatments every other week. At the end of this trial, root biomass and viability were measured.

We found monthly application of Fleet100 at 5 fl oz/1000 ft2 significantly improved turf quality, leaf color ratings, leaf proline content, and chlorophyll content when compared to the control in creeping bentgrass putting greens, especially during drought stress periods. In addition, the creeping bentgrass treated with Fleet100 had greater root biomass (Fig. 2) and viability relative to control. The Fleet100 treatment also improved soil moisture content at 6-inch depth during drought stress period. The results of this study suggest monthly application of the wetting agent Fleet100 could improve soil moisture status, physiological fitness and visual quality of creeping bentgrass putting greens in Virginia and other regions with similar climate.



NEW ENGLAND BLADE: Neal Glatt, CSP, ASM

Many leaders seek to hire people who fit their company culture, meaning they choose candidates who share their values, style, or goals. Their theory is that these teams will be more cohesive and aligned to enable performance of key business outcomes. Unfortunately for these leaders, the science shows exactly the opposite is true.

According to a 2015 McKinsey report, diverse management teams are 35% more likely to outperform non-diverse teams in terms of financial performance. One of the reasons for this is that teams which disagree challenge each other to perform at their best. The desire for cohesiveness can in fact limit a team’s ability to obtain performance.

For managers who want to hire the best people, cultural fit may be undermining the entire hiring process. In fact, personality, behavioral, or cultural tests predict on-the-job performance only 20% of the time while giving hiring managers a false sense of security.

One way to know that hiring methods aren’t working to look at the employee turnover rate of an organization. What percentage of employees departed your organization for any reason in the past 12 months? If the answer is 9.2% or higher (the average for all construction companies), then your hiring criteria must be revaluated to outperform the competition.

The best leaders don’t look for a cultural fit, they target candidates who contribute cultural adds. These people have an identity, viewpoint, or experience which is new and unique to a team and brings a new perspective to an organization. Striving for diversity, as opposed to fit, is the best way to build a high-performing team with lower turnover.

A good talent assessment won’t reveal work styles because the best in each role achieve their results in very different ways. Save the personality and behavioral assessments for building self- and others-awareness of new hires and development. In the hiring process, an assessment of the entrepreneurial talent is what’s needed to succeed.

Finally, managers need to revisit how they interview and move to structured formats where each candidate is given the same questions and answers are scored against an objective guide. These questions should also only be around exhibited behavior in previous experiences or hypothetical situations to determine how someone would perform in a given role. When combined, these strategies dramatically reduce hiring bias and increase team talent and diversity.

If you need more help revamping your hiring process to succeed, check out the courses on GrowTheBench.com or contact us for one-on-one coaching.

Neal Glatt is the Managing Partner of GrowTheBench, an online training platform for the green industry. Connect with Neal at www.NealGlatt.com.

MISSISSIPPI TURFGRASS

Dr. Marta Pudzianowska has been working in the warm-season turfgrass breeding program at University of California, Riverside since 2017. Her efforts as a breeder focus on developing new bermudagrass and kikuyugrass cultivars with improved winter color retention and drought tolerance. She was born and raised in Poland, where she earned her master’s and doctorate degrees in Horticulture at Warsaw University of Life Sciences.

Dr. Pudzianowska will begin her tenure at MSU in the Turfgrass Breeder position in October. “I’m looking forward to joining the MSU team, to having my own program in a new environment.” While she will continue current breeding projects at MSU (bermudagrass and carpetgrass), her work will also begin with setting strategic planning goals to determine new directions. “It is essential that I make sure I know the needs of the state/area. In breeding, I need to try to anticipate needs as they are emerging.” Dr. Pudzianowska plans to stay in touch with stakeholders in golf, sports, and LCOs to identify problems that are important in the industry in our region.

“I’m looking forward to collaborating and cooperating with other researchers and industry professionals. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that if I’m going to have success, I need to carefully look and listen to the people in the industry.”

In her life outside of work, she enjoys travel (being new to the US, she has a long list of destinations to visit) and active time outdoors, including hiking, kayaking, and soccer. Dr. Pudianowska is married and has two cats. Her other hobbies include graphic design and floral design.

MTA welcomes Dr. Pudzianowska!

ATA TURF TIMES

Plans for the 2023 Deep South Turf Expo are percolating! Once again, our education committee has provided a thoughtful incentive to attend the Expo in the form of a great speaker line-up. Wednesday, October 18th’s keynote speakers include Becky Bowling, Ph.D. University of Tennessee, David McCall, Ph.D., Virginia Tech, and Travis Gannon, Ph.D., North Carolina State University.

Information about the 2023 education line-up that serves as the centerpiece of the Expo is available on the website DeepSouthTurfExpo.org

Dr. Becky Grubbs Bowling is an Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture (UTIA) specializing in Turfgrass Science and Management. She completed her B.S. and M.S. in Horticulture at Texas Tech University in 2010 and 2013 respectively before completing her Ph.D. in Crop and Soil Sciences at the University of Georgia in 2017. In her role, Bowling works in partnership with other faculty/scientists, professional organizations, county extension agents, and others to conduct applied research and provide resources and programmatic support to the Tennessee turfgrass industry and beyond. Dr. Bowling’s program focuses on environmental turfgrass science with an emphasis on optimizing resource-use efficiency to promote environmentally and economically sustainable management practices for the turfgrass industry.

Dr. Grubbs presentation, “How has the Resist Poa project improved Poa annua control and management?” will focus on key project findings and implications from the “Resist Poa” project. In 2018, a team of 16 university scientists spanning 15 institutions embarked on a $5.6 million project (‘ResistPoa’) to limit the impact of annual bluegrass (Poa annua L.) in athletic, golf, lawn, and sod farm turf. The team’s multifaceted approach, funded by USDA-NIFA Specialty Crops Research Initiative (SCRI), had several objectives, including characterizing the nationwide distribution of herbicide-resistant P. annua populations. Potential weaknesses in the weed’s biology and growth characteristics are identified in order develop non-chemical control strategies. The study also identifies socio-economic constraints that may affect control strategies and stewardship of herbicide technologies and developing as well as delivering best management practices (BMPs).

David McCall, Ph.D. is an assistant professor at Virginia Tech in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences. His primary responsibilities as Turfgrass Pathologist are applied research (50%) and Extension (45%), with a 5% appointment in teaching. Dr. McCall’s research program currently focuses on the following:

a) remote sensing with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) to monitor disease epidemics and water inefficiencies across turfgrass systems,

b) field radiometry and thermal imagery for improving biological and environmental stress detection of turfgrass systems and specialty crops,

c) novel strategies to reduce pesticide inputs through targeted applications,

d) fungicide performance, efficacy, and ancillary benefits. Dr. McCall also has Extension responsibilities.

Dr. McCall says that his “applied research program is designed to aid my role in Extension, by providing practical disease management solutions to turfgrass professionals. I guest lecture for undergraduate and graduate courses in basic and advanced turfgrass management, plant pathology, and proper pesticide usage. Dr. McCall will speak on The Future of Drones and Precision Application Technology for Pest Management.

Travis Gannon, Ph.D., Professor, North Carolina State University, received his Ph.D. in Crop Science in 2011 from North Carolina State. He has worked at North Carolina State in several capacities since July 1999 and is currently a professor that institution. Dr.

NORTH CAROLINA TURFGRASS: Don Brown

I recently sat in on an industry association panel on coaching and mentoring. The audience was made up of students and early and mid-career healthcare practitioners. The subject of mentoring and coaching comes up a lot these days, and if my own coaching practice is any indicator, I believe the interest is so great because it’s so difficult to get “developed” on the job anymore. Too many leaders are simply too over-stressed, over-worked or under-skilled to make that difference for their team members. In response, workers look for a coach or a mentor to help… yet most use the two terms interchangeably. They are not the same.

Dr. Paul Hersey, one of my mentors and the father of Situational Leadership, used to tell me “Don, if there is lack of clarity as to a word’s meaning – create an operational definition.” I’d like to do that now – first – before we discuss coaching and mentoring any further.

Mentor / Mentoring: Wise and trusted counselor, influential sponsor/supporter, entrusted with our care and education, advisor, master, guide

Coach / Coaching: Large horse-drawn carriage, a person who trains/instructs, a private tutor, teacher, trainer, instructor

I love these distinctions, and I had this healthcare group discuss these differences; a counselor or sponsor versus one’s tutor, trainer and instructor, the longer-term view of mentoring versus a shorter-term coaching assignment, a broader mentoring focus versus the sharper, narrower concentration of coaching. Then I asked them, under these definitions – what were they looking for, a coach or a mentor? Perhaps it was their demographics, yet resoundingly the answer was “coach” – with one voice of dissent. “I get the difference, but why do we even need a coach?” asked one man up front. I waited a moment, and then asked the audience if anyone golfed. Lots of hands went up. I asked if any of them had ever sliced… every hand stayed up. I asked how long they’ve been slicing… some responded, “for a lifetime.” After a pause, my response was, “A good swing coach can cure a slice in under an hour.”

So we want a coach, a short-term teacher. We need a coach, we can’t wait a lifetime to get better. The conundrum remains, how do we get a coach? In answer, let me paraphrase the advice of Uwe Kruger, a man who is both mentor and coach to me, to get us doing something different (we can’t help but get better):

1. Pick your spot – sit next to the ‘smartest kid in class’ – and pay attention.

2. Ask nicely – find the one thing you think they can teach you, and then ask politely enough so that you can actually learn it.

3. Courage matters – work with someone better than you, and then don’t be afraid of it.

To find yourself a coach, get comfortable showing what you don’t know, get close to the best, ask politely, pay attention and let go of fear and ego.

www.donbrown.org

Don Brown dedicates his career to ‘helping people with people’ in leadership, sales and customer service. Bilingual and experienced at the executive and line-level alike, you see the results of his work across dozens of industries, including brewing, automotive, airline, banking and medical equipment.

MTC TURF NEWS: Jay McCurdy Ph.D., Associate Professor, Turfgrass Extension Specialist, Department of Plant & Soil Sciences, Mississippi State University

Lawns are not going away, but how we manage them is changing.

Recent, rapid urbanization has driven the development of urban green space in the United States and abroad. The world population has almost doubled since 1970, and more than 80% of U.S. citizens reside in urban areas. As a result, much traditionally rural, agricultural, and wild land has been converted to lawns, parks, sports surfaces, etc. for aesthetics, recreation, and ease of maintenance.

Simultaneously, cities and suburbs are filling with folks who are willing and able to change their habits to fit their belief systems—supporting wildlife conservation, reducing inputs like water and fertilizer, and decreasing fossil fuel use. Those trends will continue, so how can the turf industry meet the needs and demands of an increasingly ecologically and socially conscious society?

Turfgrass has a role to play

Lawns and other grasslands are important in built environments. They offer greater noise and heat abatement than pavement, hardscape, and synthetic landscaping. However, turf does not replicate the cooling and shading effects of tree canopy, nor does it fill the habitat void left after clearing and removing natural environments for communities.

Turf provides erosion control, nutrient infiltration, and a familiar, low-maintenance aesthetic. Historically, one of turf’s main benefits has been line-of-sight for protection and separation from other humans and the wild—think roadside visibility, fire abatement, pest control, and home defense. With time, those practicalities have developed into the quintessential “American lawn.” Urban citizens worldwide recognize grasslands maintained as turfgrass lawns or open green spaces, such as parks, for their recreational and social functions as well as their aesthetics.

Problems arise from reliance upon any one system. Turf often lacks species richness, and many modern management practices are ecologically insensitive. For instance, turfgrass’s role in carbon sequestration is often touted, but the positive effect of sequestration may be nullified by management practices such as the seed, sod, and transport to establish, mowing, pest management, irrigation, and fertilization. The literature suggests that even modestly maintained lawns may be net greenhouse gas emitters. Most importantly, lawn-age limits the peak sequestration—that is, once a lawn reaches a certain age (30 to 70 years old), the carbon released through decay equals that absorbed in growth (Gu et al., 2015; Tidåker et al., 2017). Regardless of the net balance, reducing fertilization and mowing frequency are essential to minimizing environmental harms (Law & Patton, 2017).

Repeated pesticide and fertilizer application, as well as mowing, favors monoculture rather than plant biodiversity, although biodiversity is generally a key indicator of healthy ecosystem function. The detriments of “industrial” monoculture lawns have been much-discussed, but few arguments have focused on suitable alternatives for the typical suburban homeowner. Our collaborations with others in the southeast (see RefugeLawn.com)

promise new plant materials and systems that incorporate forbs for pollinator habitat, but changing a societal norm like monoculture turfgrass is a slow process and will not be for everyone.

What does the future hold?

Lawns are not going away, but how we manage them is changing. New approaches to sustainable lawn and land care will incorporate the following principles:

1 ) Plant material selected for low inputs.

Preempting regulation requires good science, and there’s no better science than appropriate species and variety selection.

ARKANASAS TURFGRASS: Casey O’Neal, Graduate Research Assistant, Auburn University | Julie Wang, Graduate Research Assistant, University of Georgia | Nikolay Minaev, Graduate Research Assistant, Mississippi State University

Movements such as “Save the Bees”, “No Mow May”, and “Let it Bloom June” are recently trending critiques of monoculture lawns. They highlight the lack of plant and insect diversity in single grass species or cultivar lawns. In recent years, programs like Operation Pollinator have moved the golf industries toward stakeholder interests by supporting research and outreach efforts to improve the ecological function of turf on their facilities. Similarly, the turfgrass industry must prepare to do the same for lawns. While replacing grass lawns with flower gardens, white clover fields, or meadows may be beneficial for pollinators and people in some areas, it ignores the documented want and need for lawns in modern society.

Monoculture lawns, typically a green frame around residential and commercial buildings, accumulate pests and consume a significant sum of inputs. Monoculture lawn alternatives, such as diversified, pollinator friendly, or flower lawns have been discussed; however, a warm-season alternative lawn with known beneficial impact and best management practices (BMPs) has not solidified in science or common practice. Understanding BMPs, and the benefits of these lawns, are crucial goals for the future of the turfgrass industry. The United States Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) has funded the Refuge Lawn project to help highlight these goals.

The Refuge Lawn project consists of interdisciplinary researchers from Mississippi State University (MSU), Auburn University (AU), and the University of Georgia (UGA). The team set out to identify low-growing, flowering plants that would be easily established and managed in grass lawns, as well as provide the resources necessary to promote an abundant and diverse pollinator community. As some of the graduate students work on different aspects of the project, we would like to share some of our on-going research.

Picking the right plants

At Mississippi State University, Nikolay Minaev, working with Dr. Jay McCurdy, has been looking for flowering plants that could be easily established and propagated within turfgrasses commonly found in southeastern lawns. After evaluating various species based on their blooming properties and appearances in lawns, it was determined that spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) shows high potential for inclusion in warm-season lawns. Spring beauty is a perennial wildflower that is native to rich forests and low woodlands. It prefers moist, well-drained soil and light shade to part sun. It grows from a small corm or seeds. The growing season lasts from January through April in the temperate climate of the southeast, after which the plant senesces and lies dormant before emerging from corms the next year. The flowers are showy, pinkish white with deep pink veins, and open in clusters at the apex of the plant, adding a burst of color to the lawn during the early spring period. Additionally, it is a resource for pollinators such as the rare spring beauty bee, a small mining bee native to eastern North America.

The current understanding of spring beauty propagation is limited, hence we aim to address this knowledge gap by conducting a comprehensive study. The primary objective is to phenotype different populations of spring beauty and identify those with the most abundant and long-lasting bloom period, accompanied by high seed production and germination rates. This will allow for the selection of the most promising population for inclusion in lawns. In addition to identifying the optimal population, we are also exploring the most convenient method of propagation,

TENNESSEE TURFGRASS: Bryan Tolar, Tolar Capitol Partners

Symbolism is great, but integrity is what matters. It’s a universal truth that confidence in a person or product sustains brand value, whether for automobiles, electronics, whiskey – you name it. With stiff competition in the marketplace and ne’er-do-wells pitching knockoffs, the integrity of a product and faith in the people behind it cannot be faked, undercut or understated.

So it is with turfgrass. A certified cultivar is more than just grass – it’s turfgrass with integrity.

Consider Tiffany & Co. For nearly 200 years, Tiffany’s little blue box has been its statement of quality, even before the fine jewelry inside is visible. The distinctive, trademarked “Tiffany Blue” creates breathtaking anticipation because of the integrity of its brand: sought-after elegance, renowned craftmanship and international prestige.

Tiffany’s marketing slogan? “Who said red is the color of love?”

Such stature is earned.

Tiffany’s fine jewelry is usually reserved for special occasions then carefully stored away until the next wear. Consider the expectations, then, for a product undergoing regular use. One visible for all to appreciate on a daily basis. Should your expectations for turfgrass be anything less?

Choosing a top turfgrass cultivar and utilizing a robust, respected certification program solidifies the integrity of the cultivar and the brand of the farm that produced it. Such trustworthiness is at the core of integrity. It takes years to earn it but can easily be lost.

Validation of your trustworthiness must be constant. Doing so will increase the value of your products and your business – it means everything. It is your “blue box” of consumer anticipation.

“You’re either elite or you’re not,” says University of Georgia Head Football Coach Kirby Smart. A certified winner himself, Coach Smart should know.

What’s the value of certification for turfgrass? According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a certification mark shows consumers “that particular goods and/or services, or their providers, have met certain standards.” In short, certification by the state crop improvement association provides a process attesting to a level of achievement.

So it stands that obtaining and protecting the integrity provided by turfgrass certification can make a sod grower elite. The process adds value and elevates the product to a higher level. Not only that, but turfgrass certification validates being invested in industry oversight that solidifies your integrity as a producer.

Not all turfgrass cultivars can be certified by the state crop improvement association because the rigorous comparative evaluation standards and scientific peer review can’t be met, but those that can, should.

The ultimate responsibility for protecting the purity of a turfgrass cultivar lies with the grower, through farming practices. Turfgrass certification is not just for the grower, however. It is also a commitment to grow the best, backed by rigorous third-party oversight, to assure the earned integrity customers are seeking. State authorities, as appropriate, and licensees of the cultivars also play a critical role in this process of achieving and maintaining integrity. There is no substitute, and presenting such certification to buyers and end-users demonstrates these products are the best the market has to offer; that you stand behind your product. Remember, you’re either elite or you’re not.

Each state operates a Crop Improvement Association Certification (CIAC) program. The blue tag of these crop improvement associations is the ultimate quality control marker for warm season, vegetatively produced turfgrass cultivars. Blue tag validation shows landscapers, contractors, and consumers that the sod meets all state CIAC rules and regulations.