The Turf Zone Podcast

Turf Zone: Welcome to the New England Sports Turf Managers Association’s February Turf Zone podcast. In this episode, we welcome back NESTMA President Ben Polimer. Ben will share with us some practical Irrigation tips, as presented at STMA’s national conference in Phoenix. Ben Polimer: Thank you for having me again, and thank you all for tuning into our second podcast of 2019. This is a snippet of the presentation we did at STMA a couple weeks ago in January. I want to talk to everyone about the project that we did here in Weston in the summer of 2017. When I started here in Weston about three years ago, we had lots of irrigation controllers around town and really no way to control them beyond walking to each site, opening up the cabinet and changing the time – whether it’s longer or shorter, or it going to rain. One of my projects that I did every Friday, before the weekend, was go to 12 or 13 controllers throughout town and change them based on the forecast for the weekend. So that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to us.

Where Are They Now? Catching Up with Waddington/Harper Turfgrass Scholarship Winners Kyle Patterson still recalls his feeling upon winning the Waddington/Harper Turfgrass Scholarship in 2014: “To see that somebody else thought I had a chance to be successful meant more to me than any sort of monetary contribution!” Since 2001, KAFMO has been recognizing outstanding students of sports turf management with a scholarship named in honor of Dr. Donald Waddington and in memory of Dr. John Harper, two pillars of the Penn State turf program. The scholarships are awarded to advance students’ educational potential in the science of turfgrass management. We caught up with Kyle and three other Waddington/Harper Scholarship recipients to find out where their careers have taken them since graduation, and what impact the scholarship had.

Zoysiagrass, one of the earliest grass species to be used as turf, is native to Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and the Philippines where the weather varies greatly depending on season. This relatively slow-growing, sod-forming and warm-season species forms a durable, uniform turf in full sun and light, open shade. Many zoysiagrass varieties produce no viable seeds and must be established from sod, plugs or sprigs. Depending on the planting date, sprigging rate, and plug diameter and spacing, the vegetatively propagated varieties often require more than a year to totally cover the soil surface. Leaves and stems developing from nodes on stolons and rhizomes usually grow upright at an angle of about 90 degrees, a trait contributing to very good to excellent stand density. Zoysiagrass leaves are often stiff and stems are very tough due to high levels of lignin and hemicellulose. These attributes result in excellent wear tolerance.

Turf Zone: Welcome to Tennessee Turfgrass Association’s February episode of the Turf Zone podcast. Today we’re talking to Mr. Bill Blackburn, General Manager of Tennessee Business at Smith Turf & Irrigation and recipient of the 2018 Tom Samples Professional of the Year Award. Thanks for joining us, Mr. Blackburn. Bill Blackburn: Thanks, Julie. Thanks for having me.

Today’s turfgrass managers have seen unbelievable change in equipment, tools and technology during their careers. New innovations have allowed turfgrass managers to become more efficient with manpower and budgets. The best turfgrass managers have been trained to look for the latest innovations, however small or large, that will give them an edge in performing their jobs. We’ve all seen those new inventions that made huge, positive impacts in our daily tasks. Some seemed so simple that we wished we had thought of it first. Others we didn’t even see on the horizon, and the next one is no exception. In fact, you will have to look skyward to see it coming.

Turf Zone: Hello, and welcome to the Arkansas Turfgrass Association’s January Turf Zone podcast. Today, we’re talking to Kyle Sanders, ATA President and Co-owner and Operations Manager at Sanders Ground Essentials. Welcome, Kyle. KS: Thanks, Julie. Thanks for having me.

Turf Zone: Hello, and welcome to the New England Sports Turf Managers Association’s January Turf Zone podcast. Today, we’re talking to Ben Polimer, NESTMA president and Fields and Grounds Coordinator for the Town of Weston, Massachusetts. Welcome, Ben.

Contrary to popular belief, there are things that can be done proactively, and from hence forth, to reduce potential problems with winter kill. “Winter Kill” is a common phrase used to describe the effects of harsh winter conditions upon warm- and cool-season turfgrasses alike. Warm-season species in Mississippi and the rest of the southeast include bermuda, zoysia, St. Augustine, centipede, bahia, and carpet grasses. All are susceptible to freeze damage. But damage is not solely linked to cold weather. For instance, not all properties are equally affected. It is not atypical to see a dead lawn adjacent to a lawn that greens up well in the spring. Similarly, certain species seem to suffer more at different latitudes and due to sometimes small differences in growing conditions. There’s not much that can be done to stop the effects of cold weather, but there are some proactive strategies that help decrease the chances of winter damage.

Turf-type tall fescue has become the predominant species recommended and used for lawns in Maryland. It is also commonly used on athletic fields, institutional grounds, roadsides, and golf course roughs.

The VT Turf Team prides itself on finding and providing answers or at least a novel approach to try when it comes to the challenges that Virginia’s turfgrass managers face year in and year out in the transition zone. Unfortunately, this year we had to face the facts -- the challenges were too many in 2018 regardless of location throughout the state or what grass was being managed. The weather since late-December 2017 has been as difficult and frustrating for our industry as any in recent memory.