The Turf Zone Podcast

The Swamp. Just the name evokes a visceral reaction from every college football fan in the south. Florida Gators beam with pride at the mention of their legendary stadium. Other SEC teams’ fans may respond with less enthusiasm, but no one can question the fact that Steve Spurrier-Florida Field is an iconic place to play college football.

Annual bluegrass weevil (ABW) (Listronotus maculicollis) is the most damaging insect pest of golf course turfgrass in the northeastern United States (McGraw and Koppenhöfer 2007). The pest was discovered in New England in 1931, but until recent years, was largely confined to the northeastern states and not considered to be an issue in Virginia. That situation has changed drastically.

The Swamp. Just the name evokes a visceral reaction from every college football fan in the south. Florida Gators beam with pride at the mention of their legendary stadium. Other SEC teams’ fans may respond with less enthusiasm, but no one can question the fact that Steve Spurrier-Florida Field is an iconic place to play college football.

Virginia Turfgrass Journal – Mike Goatley, Jr., Ph.D., Professor and Extension Turfgrass Specialist, Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences

Virginia Tech Turfgrass Research team is excited to partner with the Turfgrass Water Conservation Alliance (TWCA) in conducting turfgrass variety research under controlled drying conditions in order to evaluate superior drought tolerance. In previous trials at other locations, varietal differences of up to 26 day delays in the onset of drought stress have been observed in bluegrasses and fescues, a variable of extreme importance at a time when turfgrass scientists and breeders are exploring ways to both reduce and better utilize water resources. In the mid-Atlantic, adequate supplies of water are often not a major concern in the production of a healthy turfgrass, but drought seasons such as the summer of 2019 remind the green industry that water is our most precious resource that not only requires protecting, it requires conserving as much as possible. TWCA partners with several universities around the country in sponsoring controlled-environment studies in the field that identify drought tolerant standard varieties currently available to the industry, as well as yet to be named experimental varieties that might warrant eventual release as named cultivars.

TWCA provides all cooperators a rainout shelter (ROS), a light box and associated powerpacks, and a camera for digital image collection. The lightbox and camera provide consistent light conditions for capturing images of turfgrasses as they experience dry down and turf recovery conditions. The digital analysis of these images provides objective rather than subjective data that can readily be compared within and across research locations. Another great benefit of the cooperative research program is that TWCA donates the ROS to the cooperating site in support of future water conservation research activities.

A key to TWCA trials is to conduct them under as controlled of an environment as possible but in a field setting so that light, soil, regular maintenance practices, etc. are similar to a standard turfgrass management program. The factor being controlled is soil moisture and this is managed by restricting any effects of rainfall and only providing supplemental irrigation at a rate and timing dictated by the research protocol. The ROS is covered in a thick translucent plastic that blocks rainfall but still allows adequate sunlight to pass to drive photosynthesis; the ends and and bottom sides of the shelter remain uncovered to provide air circulation so as to not promote disease. At Virginia Tech, 59 Kentucky bluegrasses were seeded in the field at the Turfgrass Research Center in replicated 3 ft by 3 ft plots in September 2018. The trial includes a number of grasses deemed drought tolerant or drought susceptible in previous research so that these varieties can be used for comparative evaluations of drought tolerance. The site used for the trial was carefully selected prior to the construction of the ROS in summer 2019, utilizing a relatively flat site with still enough slope for surface drainage, and an orientation for the structure that minimized the likelihood of wind damage from storms. VT Turfgrass Research Center manager Jon Dickerson was invaluable in organizing and leading the construction and final installation of the structure in the summer of 2019 (Figure 1).

Prior to initiating the drought stress the research block was soaked with 2 inches of irrigation water applied over 2 days to bring the area to uniform soil moisture (field capacity). Then the dry-down phase of the trial began and continued until all plots fell below 25% green turf cover (approximately 5 weeks for our site, Figure 2) when the entire experimental area was once again irrigated with 2 inches of irrigation to initiate drought recovery. Thereafter the experiment received supplemental irrigation in order to rep...

Over the past 25 years, the Keystone Athletic Field Managers Organization has become a legendary support organization in the turfgrass community. Its beginnings and subsequent development into a premier professional organization owe much to the vision and efforts of founder Don Fowler. The annual KAFMO Fowler Founder’s Award, a bronze-cast replica of one of Fowler’s worn-out work boots, stands for the hard work demonstrated by the field managers being honored and by Fowler himself. We asked Don to look back and tell us about KAFMO’s beginnings.

The STMA Environmental Facility Certification program was launched in 2016. It took a committee of dedicated sports turf managers and university specialists four years to create the program. Version 2.0 is now the current document. Within two months of the program’s launch, there were eight facilities in the program. Today, there are 39 certified facilities including NESTMA member Green Farms Academy in Westport, CT.

The Southern Seed Certification Association, Inc. (hereafter called the Association or SSCA) is a non-profit organization incorporated under laws of the State of Alabama. It is designated as the official seed certifying agency for Alabama and Florida pursuant to laws of both States and is a member of the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies (AOSCA). SSCA's seed certifying activities work under AOSCA's standards and procedures which are specified in part 210.68 through 201.78 of the Federal Seed Act (7 U.S.C. 1561 (a) (24). SSCA is not a marketing agency but does issue certification labels and certificates based upon a presumption of accuracy of information provided to the agency and on conclusions reached by competent SSCA personnel employing accepted procedures of field and handling equipment inspections. Certification is limited to propagating material of officially recognized varieties that are grown and inspected so as to maintain varietal identity and genetic purity.

The Penn State Turfgrass Program thanks recent turf alum Ryan Hillert, who recently established the Hillert Family Turfgrass Scholarship at Penn State.

The Governor’s Academy was my first job in this field. I began working as a caretaker of all the grounds of the 500-acre campus. Prior to that, I worked for 18 years in site construction, with an emphasis on land development.

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

The Swamp.

Just the name evokes a visceral reaction from every college football fan in the south. Florida Gators beam with pride at the mention of their legendary stadium. Other SEC teams’ fans may respond with less enthusiasm, but no one can question the fact that Steve Spurrier-Florida Field is an iconic place to play college football.

The statistics don’t lie – three national titles, eight conference titles, three Heisman trophies and many winning seasons attest to the Florida Gators’ dominant football program. And for every football team that plays on such a big stage, there’s always an unsung hero, a hero that endures the elements and injury, is pushed to its limits, yet expected to perform week after week, year after year – the turf.

Most fans never give it a second thought. Even players and coaches seldom notice this integral part of the game unless it isn’t performing. But turfgrass managers recognize the field as the very foundation of a top-tier NCAA football program. It is this recognition of the importance of playing surface that drives sports turf managers across the country and beyond to seek the most functional and attractive turfgrass available for their sports fields.

A Surprising Find

In November of 2018, when Jason Smith, Director of Sports Turf at University of Florida, saw the events calendar for Spring of 2019 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (aka The Swamp), he knew it was time to start planning a field renovation. To accommodate a concert and graduation, flooring would be covering the turf for nearly a month beginning in April. With field renovation on such a large scale looming, he began his research.

After researching and narrowing the field to three varieties that might uphold the standard expected of a high-level SEC stadium, Smith made a visit to the university turfgrass program’s research site. Dr. Jason Kruse, University of Florida Assistant Professor and Turfgrass Specialist, showed Smith research plots. Nematodes are a major challenge for turfgrass managers in Florida, so when Smith saw that TifTuf had such a low incidence of nematode growth, his interest was piqued.

“The one that really caught my eye was the nematode resistance plot that I saw. It looked like nematodes hadn’t even touched it,” said Smith. “It looked like a control plot. That’s what really caught my attention.”

Upon learning of other features of TifTuf –staying green later in the season than other Bermuda grasses, excellent wear tolerance, increased drought tolerance – Smith was certain he’d found the right fit.

The Road to Excellence

It is easy to recognize what makes a turfgrass variety a great choice for certain uses, but we rarely get a peek into how that specific variety came to be. As new cultivars are introduced with increasing regularity, it is important to understand what goes into the making of that brand, especially when the stakes are this high.

TifTuf’s recent explosion onto the warm-season turfgrass scene is unprecedented, and while it may seem like an overnight sensation, many years of evaluation and development went into establishing this variety as a top performer.

Developed by the experts in Tifton, Georgia, TifTuf was 20-plus years in the making. “It’s important that we studied this in Georgia, but we had bigger plans for TifTuf,” says Dr. Brian Schwartz, associate professor at the University of Georgia and TifTuf breeder (alongside Dr. Wayne Hanna). “It’s very important to do a lot of testing to make sure you don’t release a product that gets out to the public and fails.”

After a painstaking breeding and development process, it was clear that this turf would be a great success if it was brought to market properly. Enter The Turfgrass Group, a licensing and marketing company made up of turf professionals.