LSU AgCenter soil scientist J Stevens, left, and Alabama Cooperative Extension turfgrass specialist David Han discuss turfgrass management during a break at the Louisiana Turfgrass Association Conference on Jan. 9 in Baton Rouge. (Photo by Randy LaBauve)

News Release Distributed 01/14/15

BATON ROUGE, La. – For more than 50 years, the Louisiana Turfgrass Association has organized annual events for professionals in turf-based industries. Nearly 200 people ranging from landscapers to golf course and football field managers attended the 2015 conference held Jan. 9 at Tiger Stadium.

“It’s designed to bring in turfgrass professionals to look for ways to improve the industry through research and extension,” said Ron Strahan, LSU AgCenter turf specialist and a coordinator of the event. “Knowledgeable speakers share valuable information about things like development in turfgrass cultivars, agronomic practices and the latest information on pesticides.”

“We’ve tried to reach out to the entire turfgrass industry. We have sod farmers here. It’s not just a golf course event; it’s more of a turfgrass industry-type event now,” Strahan said. “They tell other people in the industry about it.”

The event featured expert speakers and offered attendees credit toward pesticide recertification with the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, as well as an opportunity for continuing education units with the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.

David Han, Alabama Cooperative Extension turfgrass specialist and associate professor at Auburn University, offered tips for minimizing winter damage on warm-season turfgrasses. He emphasized selecting proper varieties and using appropriate fertilization practices and proper water management strategies.

A majority of attendees at the conference indicated they work with golf courses where heavy use or traffic can present problems with compaction.

“The same thing would go with city-owned parks with a bunch of athletic fields and a sports complex where you have to balance the maintenance with all the play and the wear and tear that it puts on the fields,” Han said.

“Soil pH can really sneak up on you if you’re not aware, and it’s really a simple thing to handle if you can take a soil sample before you plant,” Han said. “A lot of people still don’t do that, but it would help solve a lot of their problems.”

LSU AgCenter pesticide safety coordinator Kim Pope discussed using proper tools for measuring pesticides and the importance of carefully following proper protocol for every application.

“It’s so vitally important because we’re talking about higher cost in product, more environmental impact, and we just need to make sure we’re doing it correctly and safely,” she said.

Issues with continuing declines in bee populations have led to national and local pollinator protection efforts prompted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Pope offered proactive tips such as reading labels more carefully, identifying special pollinator protection labels with bee icons and communicating with beekeepers before applying pesticides to turfgrass.

“We need to take extra precautions,” Pope said. “Applying when stuff is not in full bloom and applying later in the evenings or earlier in the mornings before bees start foraging are just simple things we can do to help protect our pollinators because they are such a vital part of our environment.”

AgCenter soil scientist J Stevens emphasized the importance of maintaining good potash levels, and AgCenter irrigation specialist Stacia Davis described some new smart irrigation technologies that may have potential for turfgrass care – technologies like weather-based irrigation controllers and soil-moisture sensor systems.

“Both technologies determine if irrigation is necessary, and some of them can select when to start irrigating and how long it should run,” Davis said.

Weather-based controllers use estimates of rainfall and evapotranspiration, which uses a combination of evaporation from soil surface and plant respiration to determine when rainfall is insufficient.

“The soil-moisture system uses in-ground sensors to estimate soil moisture,” she said. “These devices also require a functional irrigation timer.”

Research from the University of Florida indicated up to 92 percent water savings with the soil moisture sensing system during wet seasons, and weather-based controllers resulted in an average annual water savings of 43 percent, Davis said.

Troy Romero spent 13 years on his farm in Iowa, Louisiana, growing and supplying sod. After football coaches started asking him to do specialized work on their fields, he expanded to create Sports Turf Specialists, which now constructs turf fields across the country. Romero’s company regularly works to renovate fields at such venues as Tiger Stadium.

The Louisiana Turfgrass Association “was a big part of it because this is where you network. You know this is where those guys are,” Romero said.

“It’s the information you get here. It’s meeting with coaches or rec directors or golf course people here that have some of the same problems,” he said.

Justin Murray, who manages a private 18-hole golf course at Tchefuncta Country Club in Covington, has attended this event regularly.

“Hearing some of the sports turf issues that they have relates over to golf course management. It was some good information,” Murray said.

Randy LaBauve