Turfgrass research at Virginia Tech University

This blog post is the final installment of a mini-series highlighting university turfgrass research around the Mid-Atlantic region. For this entry, we turn our focus to Virginia Tech University, a key contributor of turfgrass research for the golf industry and a valuable resource for superintendents. Like all university conducted research, many look here for unbiased information regarding new products and practices.

On August 26, nearly 100 individuals gathered to learn more about current research being conducted at the Blacksburg,Virginia-based university. The field day got started at 8:00 AM and was split in to two separate tours: one for the "golf" contingent, and another for "lawn care, sod, and athletics" folks. Among those two tours, a total of 19 stations were displayed and described by the researching faculty member and/or their graduate students. Throughout the tour, attendees listened to presentations about NTEP trials, fungicide evaluations, herbicide assessments and more.

One of the early presentations by David McCall talked about how drones will and will not change our management strategies. Interestingly, Mr. McCall believes that drones will be able to disseminate great information for turgrass managers, but there is a long way to go before we can maximize the potential of this technology. Ideally, one day we would be able to learn what areas of the golf course need special treatment, simply by looking at data collected by drones.

Another study, which measured the impact of annual bluegrass on golf putt trajectories, used a pretty interesting tool (pictured below) called "PendulumPerfect." The tool essentially mimics a perfect putt, with the most consistent ball-striking possible. In any research project, repeatable experimentation is a key component.

Plant hormones highlighted a study by Dr. Zhang that evaluates the effect of adding auxin to trinexapac-ethyl for increased rooting in creeping bentgrass. Can you imagine the possibilities here!? Pretty cool stuff. Similarly, evaluations of plant activators and pigments are looking at these products for increasing shade tolerance.

Other displays throughout the day included discussions on green kyllinga, seedhead suppression programs, moss control programs, and dollar spot reduction with iron sulfate. For more information on any of these studies, please visit Vaturf.org for a full VA Tech research publication.