The Turf Zone Podcast

North Carolina Turfgrass – Julie Holt, Content Director, TheTurfZone.com

TheTurfZone: Welcome to TheTurfZone. This episode continues our series on the USDA-funded ResistPoa Project. In this episode, we’re talking to John Kaminski, Ph.D., Professor at Penn State. Welcome John, thanks for joining me.

John Kaminski: Thanks for having me.

TTZ: So let’s jump right in to the ResistPoa Project. We know that controlling annual bluegrass can be a challenge for turfgrass managers, and this project is combining efforts of many researchers and participants. So for your part of the project, I understand that there are many objectives. Let’s start off with talking about what objectives you are working on specifically.

JK: Well, we’re involved in, I don’t know how many, it’s a lot, but several aspects of the project. We’re the lead on two of them. The two that we’re the lead on are first seedling emergence patterns, so there’s several of us around the country that are basically monitoring seedling emergence throughout the entire year. So we’re trying to be able to model seedling emergence based on temperature, soil moisture throughout the various zones in the United States in hopes that we can time some of our pre-emergence or post-emergence herbicides can be applied at those specific timings.

So that’s one that we’re taking the lead on. The other one that we’re taking the lead on, and I don’t know how I got put on this to be honest with you, but there’s an education component. So there’s an outreach and extension component, which is sharing the information with those in the industry and then there’s an education component that I’m taking the lead on that’s going to be more about teaching future scientists and students, developing and pulling together the materials that can be used in classrooms and those types of things. So those are the two that I’m taking the lead on. I have a graduate student Kaiyuan Tang, who is really kind of spearheading the research end of the project. Also there’s a resistance section where we’re monitoring, collecting samples from across Pennsylvania, at least for us, and different zones in the United States and we are screening them for resistance to various herbicides. Apparently this has been a huge problem in the south and with the southern golf courses and home lawns in those areas. But in the north, we’ve been screening for a year, we slowed down a little because of COVID, we can’t really travel that much, but we haven’t found any resistance so far to the commonly used herbicides up here. So I think that we’re gonna definitely see it be a geographic thing. Herbicides are more of an issue down in the south and diseases and fungicide seem to be a bigger issue for us, so we’ll have to just keep plugging away and see what else we find.

We’re also on a, we’re trying to look for alternative controls for poa, so instead of thinking about the traditional herbicides, we’re looking at some of these non-traditional, or non-chemical controls. Pelargonic acid and some of these other products that would be considered more safe to burn down the poa annua. I don’t know how successful that’s going to be. We put trials out last week and it seemed to burn all the turf, including the desired turf, so I think a lot of it is going to depend on timing and there’s a lot of work to still be done.

TTZ: So you’ve definitely got a full slate with your portions of this project–

JK: We’ve definitely got enough to keep us busy.

MTC Turf News – Mike Goatley, Jr., Ph.D., Professor & Extension Turfgrass Specialist, David McCall, Ph.D., Assistant Professor & Extension Turfgrass Pathologist and Shawn Askew, Ph.D., Professor & Extension Turfgrass Weed Scientist

We’re not forecasting catastrophic weather events (although given the way 2020 has gone, what might happen?) Instead, this article is intended to help you avoid disaster as it relates to the pending storm of what is about to play out on your sports fields. Sports field managers are realizing what is on the horizon regarding the demands for use of their sports fields in 2021 with many fall sports now delayed until the spring. The sports field manager will once again face the reality that every sport is the most important in that particular coach’s, player’s, or parent’s mind and the perception (hopefully not expectation) that field access is unlimited. It was fascinating watching the progression of the ‘MLS is Back’ tournament at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex where they hosted 51 matches on 3 fields over 35 days – and the natural grass fields performed marvelously well thanks to an excellent team of sports field managers and consultants. Most of you are facing budget and labor cuts etc. and are quite limited in physical acreage that can be utilized for a greatly expanded spring sports schedule. While there is no guarantee for success, planning and managing for the onslaught of field use in 2021 begins NOW! There are no quick and easy fixes to limitations in soil, a properly crowned field, and an effective irrigation system. So, if those limitations describe your facility, accept that you are somewhat handicapped from the start. However, there are basic cultural, chemical, and communication management concepts that you can employ to help you provide the safest, best playing surfaces under extreme traffic conditions in 2021.

 

Grow as much as grass as possible until cold weather arrives. 

It doesn’t matter if it’s warm-season or cool-season, now is the time to grow the thickest, densest, healthiest turfgrass possible. Many have had to reduce inputs on fields that were not in use; that was appropriate and even necessary for budgets. But given what is coming, you now need to do everything you can to optimize turf density and health prior to winter because the growth rates of both bermudagrass (4-5 months dormancy) and cool-season grasses (2-3 months of no or restricted growth potential) will decline in a few months.

-Soil pH and nutrient management: The makings of a healthy turf begin with a properly balanced soil in terms of pH and nutrients. A soil test is the only way to really know what the soil needs and there is no cheaper piece of insurance in making informed decisions than to soil test (Figure 1). Both warm and cool-season grasses will benefit from the utilization of a soil test in late summer through mid-fall. There is still time to benefit from nitrogen on bermudagrass fields, but keep the nutrient management standards of up to 1 lb N/1000 sq ft per active growing month in mind, and if possible, go to a light and frequent fertility program as the days get shorter. The strategy for a heavily trafficked sports field in the fall (that carries over to the spring) is to keep the bermudagrass actively growing as long as possible, but not extremely succulent heading into that period when frost/freeze events are expected to occur. One point of caution regarding fertilization on bermudagrass next spring in the midst of all the traffic: the tendency is to want to begin fertilizing as soon as it starts to green in an effort to get as much regrowth as possible. That’s a risky strategy that might pay dividends if Mother Nature cooperates (i.e. no more frost events), but for most locations the threat of late season frosts that can decimate all of that early season growth are enough reason to delay spring fertilization until the possibility of frost h...

ATA Turf Times – Julie Holt, Content Director, TheTurfZone.com

The Turf Zone: Welcome to The Turf Zone. This episode continues our series on the USDA-funded ResistPoa Project. In this episode we’re talking to Jim Brosnan, Professor at the University of Tennessee and Director of the UT Weed Diagnostic Center. Jim, thanks for joining us. 

JB: Thanks for having me on.

 

TTZ: Let’s dive into this project that you are a participant with many other researchers. Most turfgrass scientists have had, for lack of better words, a professional relationship with annual bluegrass for their entire career. What’s your poa story? 

JB: My poa story… Wow, I’ve never been asked that before. You know, it’s funny, I’ll contend it’s the most amazing plant out there, at least that affects the turf world. It’s a weed in certain situations and it’s a desirable in other situations, and the adaptability piece of it is off the charts high. I mean, we have poa documented on every continent, including Antarctica. Which when you wrap your mind around that, it’s kinda nuts. For me as a weed scientist, as resistance issues have worsened, I think my first resistance interaction with poa came in the late 2000s, early 2010-ish. I was on an extension visit in West Tennessee about a drainage issue and putting greens and we were looking at putting greens and taking root zone profiles and talking about layering within the root zone and surface drainage versus internal drainage and building a plan for how to combat that at this golf course. And as we were going back to my truck in the parking lot, the superintendent told me, “Have you ever seen Roundup not kill annual bluegrass?” I said, “Well, I’ve never seen it, I’ve heard about it in row crop situations, but I’ve never seen it in turf.” He said, “Well, I’ve got fairways of it. Why don’t you hop in the cart and we’ll go have a look?” And that’s kind of where it all started for me, and then it became one of those scenarios where the more that I would give presentations and talk about this, the more individuals in the audience would come up to me afterwards and say, “Hey, I think I’ve got an issue, can you come visit me and have a look?” And it kind of grew from there to be the number one weed that my program here at the University of Tennessee works on. The students and staff that work for me joke that it’s poa 365 around here. 365 days a year it’s part of the conversation.

 

TTZ: Sounds like a pretty serious origin story of your relationship. So how does annual bluegrass rank in the list of weeds in Tennessee? 

JB: That’s a hard question to answer because it all depends on what those rankings are based on. Are the rankings based on what’s the hardest to control, are the rankings based on what’s the most prevalent? Is the ranking based on what’s most widespread? I think regardless of how you define the parameters, poa would be on the list. We’re in a climate in Tennessee where it’s almost kind of a perfect storm in the transition zone, where warm season grasses are going to go dormant for extended periods and really offer no competition against poa invasion. We also have climatic conditions that can favor poa growth for extended periods. Not only in the winter, but sometimes even into the late spring. As we’re recording this now, in June, there are areas on golf courses where you can find healthy, mature poa plants. That’s one of the things I think we need to do more research on is to understand the environments that maybe facilitate that survival because that complicated management. The paradigm is that this is a true annual,

Virginia Turfgrass Journal – Mike Goatley, Jr., Ph.D., Professor & Extension Turfgrass Specialist, David McCall, Ph.D., Assistant Professor & Extension Turfgrass Pathologist and Shawn Askew, Ph.D., Professor & Extension Turfgrass Weed Scientist

We’re not forecasting catastrophic weather events (although given the way 2020 has gone, what might happen?) Instead, this article is intended to help you avoid disaster as it relates to the pending storm of what is about to play out on your sports fields. Sports field managers are realizing what is on the horizon regarding the demands for use of their sports fields in 2021 with many fall sports now delayed until the spring. The sports field manager will once again face the reality that every sport is the most important in that particular coach’s, player’s, or parent’s mind and the perception (hopefully not expectation) that field access is unlimited. It was fascinating watching the progression of the ‘MLS is Back’ tournament at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex where they hosted 51 matches on 3 fields over 35 days – and the natural grass fields performed marvelously well thanks to an excellent team of sports field managers and consultants. Most of you are facing budget and labor cuts etc. and are quite limited in physical acreage that can be utilized for a greatly expanded spring sports schedule. While there is no guarantee for success, planning and managing for the onslaught of field use in 2021 begins NOW! There are no quick and easy fixes to limitations in soil, a properly crowned field, and an effective irrigation system. So, if those limitations describe your facility, accept that you are somewhat handicapped from the start. However, there are basic cultural, chemical, and communication management concepts that you can employ to help you provide the safest, best playing surfaces under extreme traffic conditions in 2021.

 

Grow as much as grass as possible until cold weather arrives. 

It doesn’t matter if it’s warm-season or cool-season, now is the time to grow the thickest, densest, healthiest turfgrass possible. Many have had to reduce inputs on fields that were not in use; that was appropriate and even necessary for budgets. But given what is coming, you now need to do everything you can to optimize turf density and health prior to winter because the growth rates of both bermudagrass (4-5 months dormancy) and cool-season grasses (2-3 months of no or restricted growth potential) will decline in a few months.

-Soil pH and nutrient management: The makings of a healthy turf begin with a properly balanced soil in terms of pH and nutrients. A soil test is the only way to really know what the soil needs and there is no cheaper piece of insurance in making informed decisions than to soil test (Figure 1). Both warm and cool-season grasses will benefit from the utilization of a soil test in late summer through mid-fall. There is still time to benefit from nitrogen on bermudagrass fields, but keep the nutrient management standards of up to 1 lb N/1000 sq ft per active growing month in mind, and if possible, go to a light and frequent fertility program as the days get shorter. The strategy for a heavily trafficked sports field in the fall (that carries over to the spring) is to keep the bermudagrass actively growing as long as possible, but not extremely succulent heading into that period when frost/freeze events are expected to occur. One point of caution regarding fertilization on bermudagrass next spring in the midst of all the traffic: the tendency is to want to begin fertilizing as soon as it starts to green in an effort to get as much regrowth as possible. That’s a risky strategy that might pay dividends if Mother Nature cooperates (i.e. no more frost events), but for most locations the threat of late season frosts that can decimate all of that early season growth are enough reason to delay spring fertilization until the possibili...

Mississippi Turfgrass – Mike Goatley, Jr., Ph.D., Professor & Extension Turfgrass Specialist, David McCall, Ph.D., Assistant Professor & Extension Turfgrass Pathologist and Shawn Askew, Ph.D., Professor & Extension Turfgrass Weed Scientist

We’re not forecasting catastrophic weather events (although given the way 2020 has gone, what might happen?) Instead, this article is intended to help you avoid disaster as it relates to the pending storm of what is about to play out on your sports fields. Sports field managers are realizing what is on the horizon regarding the demands for use of their sports fields in 2021 with many fall sports now delayed until the spring. The sports field manager will once again face the reality that every sport is the most important in that particular coach’s, player’s, or parent’s mind and the perception (hopefully not expectation) that field access is unlimited. It was fascinating watching the progression of the ‘MLS is Back’ tournament at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex where they hosted 51 matches on 3 fields over 35 days – and the natural grass fields performed marvelously well thanks to an excellent team of sports field managers and consultants. Most of you are facing budget and labor cuts etc. and are quite limited in physical acreage that can be utilized for a greatly expanded spring sports schedule. While there is no guarantee for success, planning and managing for the onslaught of field use in 2021 begins NOW! There are no quick and easy fixes to limitations in soil, a properly crowned field, and an effective irrigation system. So, if those limitations describe your facility, accept that you are somewhat handicapped from the start. However, there are basic cultural, chemical, and communication management concepts that you can employ to help you provide the safest, best playing surfaces under extreme traffic conditions in 2021.

 

Grow as much as grass as possible until cold weather arrives.

It doesn’t matter if it’s warm-season or cool-season, now is the time to grow the thickest, densest, healthiest turfgrass possible. Many have had to reduce inputs on fields that were not in use; that was appropriate and even necessary for budgets. But given what is coming, you now need to do everything you can to optimize turf density and health prior to winter because the growth rates of both bermudagrass (4-5 months dormancy) and cool-season grasses (2-3 months of no or restricted growth potential) will decline in a few months.

-Soil pH and nutrient management: The makings of a healthy turf begin with a properly balanced soil in terms of pH and nutrients. A soil test is the only way to really know what the soil needs and there is no cheaper piece of insurance in making informed decisions than to soil test (Figure 1). Both warm and cool-season grasses will benefit from the utilization of a soil test in late summer through mid-fall. There is still time to benefit from nitrogen on bermudagrass fields, but keep the nutrient management standards of up to 1 lb N/1000 sq ft per active growing month in mind, and if possible, go to a light and frequent fertility program as the days get shorter. The strategy for a heavily trafficked sports field in the fall (that carries over to the spring) is to keep the bermudagrass actively growing as long as possible, but not extremely succulent heading into that period when frost/freeze events are expected to occur. One point of caution regarding fertilization on bermudagrass next spring in the midst of all the traffic: the tendency is to want to begin fertilizing as soon as it starts to green in an effort to get as much regrowth as possible. That’s a risky strategy that might pay dividends if Mother Nature cooperates (i.e. no more frost events), but for most locations the threat of late season frosts that can decimate all of that early season growth are enough reason to delay spring fertilization until the possibilit...

Arkansas Turfgrass – Mike Goatley, Jr., Ph.D., Professor & Extension Turfgrass Specialist, David McCall, Ph.D., Assistant Professor & Extension Turfgrass Pathologist and Shawn Askew, Ph.D., Professor & Extension Turfgrass Weed Scientist

We’re not forecasting catastrophic weather events (although given the way 2020 has gone, what might happen?) Instead, this article is intended to help you avoid disaster as it relates to the pending storm of what is about to play out on your sports fields. Sports field managers are realizing what is on the horizon regarding the demands for use of their sports fields in 2021 with many fall sports now delayed until the spring. The sports field manager will once again face the reality that every sport is the most important in that particular coach’s, player’s, or parent’s mind and the perception (hopefully not expectation) that field access is unlimited. It was fascinating watching the progression of the ‘MLS is Back’ tournament at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex where they hosted 51 matches on 3 fields over 35 days – and the natural grass fields performed marvelously well thanks to an excellent team of sports field managers and consultants. Most of you are facing budget and labor cuts etc. and are quite limited in physical acreage that can be utilized for a greatly expanded spring sports schedule. While there is no guarantee for success, planning and managing for the onslaught of field use in 2021 begins NOW! There are no quick and easy fixes to limitations in soil, a properly crowned field, and an effective irrigation system. So, if those limitations describe your facility, accept that you are somewhat handicapped from the start. However, there are basic cultural, chemical, and communication management concepts that you can employ to help you provide the safest, best playing surfaces under extreme traffic conditions in 2021.

 

Grow as much as grass as possible until cold weather arrives.

It doesn’t matter if it’s warm-season or cool-season, now is the time to grow the thickest, densest, healthiest turfgrass possible. Many have had to reduce inputs on fields that were not in use; that was appropriate and even necessary for budgets. But given what is coming, you now need to do everything you can to optimize turf density and health prior to winter because the growth rates of both bermudagrass (4-5 months dormancy) and cool-season grasses (2-3 months of no or restricted growth potential) will decline in a few months.

-Soil pH and nutrient management: The makings of a healthy turf begin with a properly balanced soil in terms of pH and nutrients. A soil test is the only way to really know what the soil needs and there is no cheaper piece of insurance in making informed decisions than to soil test (Figure 1). Both warm and cool-season grasses will benefit from the utilization of a soil test in late summer through mid-fall. There is still time to benefit from nitrogen on bermudagrass fields, but keep the nutrient management standards of up to 1 lb N/1000 sq ft per active growing month in mind, and if possible, go to a light and frequent fertility program as the days get shorter. The strategy for a heavily trafficked sports field in the fall (that carries over to the spring) is to keep the bermudagrass actively growing as long as possible, but not extremely succulent heading into that period when frost/freeze events are expected to occur. One point of caution regarding fertilization on bermudagrass next spring in the midst of all the traffic: the tendency is to want to begin fertilizing as soon as it starts to green in an effort to get as much regrowth as possible. That’s a risky strategy that might pay dividends if Mother Nature cooperates (i.e. no more frost events), but for most locations the threat of late season frosts that can decimate all of that early season growth are enough reason to delay spring fertilization until the possibility o...

Tennessee Turfgrass – Julie Holt, Content Director, TheTurfZone.com

TheTurfZone: Welcome to TheTurfZone. In this episode, we continue our series on the USDA-funded ResistPoa Project. In this episode we’re talking Shawn Askew, Professor at Virginia Tech, and Clebson Goncalves, post-doctoral associate at Virginia Tech. Welcome, Shawn and Clebson. 

Shawn Askew: Thanks for having us.

 

TTZ: Thanks for joining us. So let’s get right into the ResistPoa Project and your part of it. Most turfgrass scientists have had, for lack of a better word, a professional relationship with annual bluegrass for their entire career, what’s your background and history with poa?

SA: Like you said, as with most turf specialists that do work on weeds, within the first week on the job, I was handling questions related to poa annua, and it’s just so pervasive in the industry. It’s just one of those things and not just if you look at it across the country or regions, whatever. It’s everywhere – it’s global, but temporally, looking back in time. Poa has been a problem in the United States for as long as we have managed turf. I’ve found publications back in the 1920s where poa was a routine, it was as common then as it is today as a weed of turfgrass. If you thing about the characteristics that we would apply to it today, the exact same characteristics were applied back then. They called it “poa” in short. So it was already so old of a problem that they had a shortened name based on the genus in 1921. They observed the seasonal fluctuation in population levels, the seed production, the aesthetics, how it decreses aesthetics, was all commonplace. So this beast has been with us for quite some time and it’s probably not going to soon go away.

 

TTZ: With that long history and knowing that it has been a challenge and has been present for so long, what is the hope with the ResistPoa Project, what new knowledge or what new management techniques are we hoping to gain from this project?

SA: When you look back at what has been done, prior to the ResistPoa Project, it’s mostly chemical herbicides, predominantly synthetic chemical herbicides and those are the strategies that have been evaluated for so many years and that largely have failed for so many years. We have some solutions on the market, but for poa annua, they are often difficult to implement, complicated requirements, need a temperature zone that you have to be in or you get too much turf injury, so for the longest time it’s been difficult to find a true selective herbicide for this weed. Now that may be changing, this is off topic, that may be changing with this new herbicide, methiozolin, PoaCure, which actually is not part of the ResistPoa Project, but ResistPoa was born out of the challenges that we have experienced with conventional herbicides. So what it’s going to do is expand our knowledge a little bit better on those aspects of poa annua control that are now solely dependent on which synthetic herbicide to spray today or tomorrow or next week. We’re looking more at the biology of the weed and trying to exploit its weaknesses. We’re looking at how different types of turf would be more or less competitive with annual bluegrass and we’re also, to speak to the synthetic herbicide issues that we often see, we’re looking at the widespread resistance of poa annua to the various herbicides that we do have. So we have limited options in turf for annual bluegrass control ...

North Carolina Turfgrass – Julie Holt, Content Director, TheTurfZone.com

TheTurfZone: Welcome to TheTurfZone. In this episode, we continue our series on the USDA-funded ResistPoa Project. In this episode we’re talking Shawn Askew, Professor at Virginia Tech, and Clebson Goncalves, post-doctoral associate at Virginia Tech. Welcome, Shawn and Clebson.

Shawn Askew: Thanks for having us.

 

TTZ: Thanks for joining us. So let’s get right into the ResistPoa Project and your part of it. Most turfgrass scientists have had, for lack of a better word, a professional relationship with annual bluegrass for their entire career, what’s your background and history with poa? 

SA: Like you said, as with most turf specialists that do work on weeds, within the first week on the job, I was handling questions related to poa annua, and it’s just so pervasive in the industry. It’s just one of those things and not just if you look at it across the country or regions, whatever. It’s everywhere – it’s global, but temporally, looking back in time. Poa has been a problem in the United States for as long as we have managed turf. I’ve found publications back in the 1920s where poa was a routine, it was as common then as it is today as a weed of turfgrass. If you thing about the characteristics that we would apply to it today, the exact same characteristics were applied back then. They called it “poa” in short. So it was already so old of a problem that they had a shortened name based on the genus in 1921. They observed the seasonal fluctuation in population levels, the seed production, the aesthetics, how it decreses aesthetics, was all commonplace. So this beast has been with us for quite some time and it’s probably not going to soon go away.

 

TTZ: With that long history and knowing that it has been a challenge and has been present for so long, what is the hope with the ResistPoa Project, what new knowledge or what new management techniques are we hoping to gain from this project?

SA: When you look back at what has been done, prior to the ResistPoa Project, it’s mostly chemical herbicides, predominantly synthetic chemical herbicides and those are the strategies that have been evaluated for so many years and that largely have failed for so many years. We have some solutions on the market, but for poa annua, they are often difficult to implement, complicated requirements, need a temperature zone that you have to be in or you get too much turf injury, so for the longest time it’s been difficult to find a true selective herbicide for this weed. Now that may be changing, this is off topic, that may be changing with this new herbicide, methiozolin, PoaCure, which actually is not part of the ResistPoa Project, but ResistPoa was born out of the challenges that we have experienced with conventional herbicides. So what it’s going to do is expand our knowledge a little bit better on those aspects of poa annua control that are now solely dependent on which synthetic herbicide to spray today or tomorrow or next week. We’re looking more at the biology of the weed and trying to exploit its weaknesses. We’re looking at how different types of turf would be more or less competitive with annual bluegrass and we’re also, to speak to the synthetic herbicide issues that we often see, we’re looking at the widespread resistance of poa annua to the various herbicides that we do have. So we have limited options in turf for annual bluegrass c...

MTC Turf News – Julie Holt, Content Director, TheTurfZone.com

TheTurfZone: Welcome to TheTurfZone. This episode continues our series on the USDA-funded ResistPoa Project. In this episode, we’re talking to John Kaminski, Ph.D., Professor at Penn State. Welcome John, thanks for joining me.

John Kaminski: Thanks for having me.

TTZ: So let’s jump right in to the ResistPoa Project. We know that controlling annual bluegrass can be a challenge for turfgrass managers, and this project is combining efforts of many researchers and participants. So for your part of the project, I understand that there are many objectives. Let’s start off with talking about what objectives you are working on specifically.

JK: Well, we’re involved in, I don’t know how many, it’s a lot, but several aspects of the project. We’re the lead on two of them. The two that we’re the lead on are first seedling emergence patterns, so there’s several of us around the country that are basically monitoring seedling emergence throughout the entire year. So we’re trying to be able to model seedling emergence based on temperature, soil moisture throughout the various zones in the United States in hopes that we can time some of our pre-emergence or post-emergence herbicides can be applied at those specific timings.

So that’s one that we’re taking the lead on. The other one that we’re taking the lead on, and I don’t know how I got put on this to be honest with you, but there’s an education component. So there’s an outreach and extension component, which is sharing the information with those in the industry and then there’s an education component that I’m taking the lead on that’s going to be more about teaching future scientists and students, developing and pulling together the materials that can be used in classrooms and those types of things. So those are the two that I’m taking the lead on. I have a graduate student Kaiyuan Tang, who is really kind of spearheading the research end of the project. Also there’s a resistance section where we’re monitoring, collecting samples from across Pennsylvania, at least for us, and different zones in the United States and we are screening them for resistance to various herbicides. Apparently this has been a huge problem in the south and with the southern golf courses and home lawns in those areas. But in the north, we’ve been screening for a year, we slowed down a little because of COVID, we can’t really travel that much, but we haven’t found any resistance so far to the commonly used herbicides up here. So I think that we’re gonna definitely see it be a geographic thing. Herbicides are more of an issue down in the south and diseases and fungicide seem to be a bigger issue for us, so we’ll have to just keep plugging away and see what else we find.

We’re also on a, we’re trying to look for alternative controls for poa, so instead of thinking about the traditional herbicides, we’re looking at some of these non-traditional, or non-chemical controls. Pelargonic acid and some of these other products that would be considered more safe to burn down the poa annua. I don’t know how successful that’s going to be. We put trials out last week and it seemed to burn all the turf, including the desired turf, so I think a lot of it is going to depend on timing and there’s a lot of work to still be done.

TTZ: So you’ve definitely got a full slate with your portions of this project–

JK: We’ve definitely got enough to keep us busy.

TTZ: How does this work with – does this complement some other work you’re doing outside o...

Virginia Turfgrass Council – Julie Holt, Content Director, TheTurfZone.com

TheTurfZone: Welcome to TheTurfZone. This episode continues our series on the USDA-funded ResistPoa Project. In this episode, we’re talking to John Kaminski, Ph.D., Professor at Penn State. Welcome John, thanks for joining me.

John Kaminski: Thanks for having me.

TTZ: So let’s jump right in to the ResistPoa Project. We know that controlling annual bluegrass can be a challenge for turfgrass managers, and this project is combining efforts of many researchers and participants. So for your part of the project, I understand that there are many objectives. Let’s start off with talking about what objectives you are working on specifically.

JK: Well, we’re involved in, I don’t know how many, it’s a lot, but several aspects of the project. We’re the lead on two of them. The two that we’re the lead on are first seedling emergence patterns, so there’s several of us around the country that are basically monitoring seedling emergence throughout the entire year. So we’re trying to be able to model seedling emergence based on temperature, soil moisture throughout the various zones in the United States in hopes that we can time some of our pre-emergence or post-emergence herbicides can be applied at those specific timings.

So that’s one that we’re taking the lead on. The other one that we’re taking the lead on, and I don’t know how I got put on this to be honest with you, but there’s an education component. So there’s an outreach and extension component, which is sharing the information with those in the industry and then there’s an education component that I’m taking the lead on that’s going to be more about teaching future scientists and students, developing and pulling together the materials that can be used in classrooms and those types of things. So those are the two that I’m taking the lead on. I have a graduate student Kaiyuan Tang, who is really kind of spearheading the research end of the project. Also there’s a resistance section where we’re monitoring, collecting samples from across Pennsylvania, at least for us, and different zones in the United States and we are screening them for resistance to various herbicides. Apparently this has been a huge problem in the south and with the southern golf courses and home lawns in those areas. But in the north, we’ve been screening for a year, we slowed down a little because of COVID, we can’t really travel that much, but we haven’t found any resistance so far to the commonly used herbicides up here. So I think that we’re gonna definitely see it be a geographic thing. Herbicides are more of an issue down in the south and diseases and fungicide seem to be a bigger issue for us, so we’ll have to just keep plugging away and see what else we find.

We’re also on a, we’re trying to look for alternative controls for poa, so instead of thinking about the traditional herbicides, we’re looking at some of these non-traditional, or non-chemical controls. Pelargonic acid and some of these other products that would be considered more safe to burn down the poa annua. I don’t know how successful that’s going to be. We put trials out last week and it seemed to burn all the turf, including the desired turf, so I think a lot of it is going to depend on timing and there’s a lot of work to still be done.

TTZ: So you’ve definitely got a full slate with your portions of this project–

JK: We’ve definitely got enough to keep us busy.

TTZ: How does this work with – does this complement some other work you’re doing outside of the project, specifically focused on annual bluegrass?

JK: It does, actually. My lab has been working on poa going back to the late 90s when I was a grad student ...