Turf and irrigation go hand in hand. So you can imagine my
excitement last summer when I heard that a two day Turf School was being organized
in South Florida by top UF/IFAS Turf Specialists. I was not able to attend, but
I mentioned it to every extension agent I encountered working in water or horticulture.
For 2017 there are two Turf Schools on the docket: one next week and one in
April. Assistant Professor and Turf School organizer Dr. Travis Shaddox was
kind enough to speak with IrriGator about turf and the upcoming schools.
 |
| Dr. Travis Shaddox |
How did the turf school begin and what inspired it?
The very first ever turf school was August 24/25 of 2016. We
modeled it after the palm school which is held around the state - the two
faculty, Drs. Monica Elliot and Timothy Broschat are stationed here with me in Fort Lauderdale. They’ve had quite a bit of success over the years with that format.
When I came in from the industry (I worked in the industry for 10 years) I had
a different perspective from some folks and I saw this as a great need for the
industry. So when I came in Drs. Elliot and Broschat already had a system set
up for their palm school so I copied that over with the assistance of Drs. Jason Kruse and Bryan Unruh. We put a date on the calendar and said let’s get it
going. I think all three of us have seen a great need from the industry to get
timely and current research information to them directly from the researchers
doing the work.
What can an attendee expect at the turf school?Great turn out today @UF_IFAS Turf School in Ft. Lauderdale! @jkkruse @jbunruh pic.twitter.com/Rf85RFiG1h - @TravisShaddox— UF IFAS Turfgrass (@UFTurfTeam) August 24, 2016
The entire content is turf. Whether it’s a fertilizer distributor,
or sod farmer, or golf course superintendent, or a homeowner, or a lawn care
operator, or UF faculty - whoever is interested in learning an evidence-based
approach to turf management, this is what the class does. This is how we differ
from a lot of the current opportunities for education that exist through
various other venues. On each slide we cite a refereed publication source for
the information we’re providing. This is not anecdotal information. This is not
observational information that we’re giving the audience. This is evidence that
exists in the scientific literature. This is how we’ve set it up and it provides,
in my opinion, a very clear, concise, unbiased approach to disseminating this
information to the industry.
 |
| Register today for the September 2017 Pest Management Turf School |
 |
| Dr. Jason Kruse instructs on soil/water dynamics during the previous Turf School (via turfnet) |
During the Water, Temperature, Light and Nutrition turf
school (2016) we did an exercise in the laboratory. And they just couldn’t figure it
out. It was step one, step two, step three. And they just followed the
instructions – dealing with water movement in soils. And one of the attendees
looked at me and said “Dr. Shaddox, this just doesn’t make any sense. How is
this happening?” And I said well, you know, this is what’s happening. And he
goes “so what you’re saying is…” I said no, no. I’m not saying that. You’re
saying that. You’re the one doing it. And because he was the one doing it, it
was just baffling to him. Because he was the one doing it, I think it really
drove the message home to make the point of what we were saying in the lecture
portion regarding water. It’s really gratifying to see those attendees, they
were just blown away.
 |
| Register today for the Water, Temperature, Light and Nutrition Turf School |
One way of staying a step ahead of anything on turf is to be
aware of the environment. Turf managers are not just managing turf. Their responsibilities
are vast. They’re primarily dealing with people. They can often times lose
track of what’s going on environmentally. The seasons generally are the same
year to year and the activity of pests is generally the same every year, at
least correlated to the seasons. For example, if a superintendent or turf
manager loses track of what season it is they may not recognize how early in
the season weeds would germinate. Weed germination occurs, now you’re dealing
with a post-emergent herbicide application rather than a pre-emergent herbicide
application because pre-emergent is no longer valuable after weeds have
germinated.
To stay a step ahead a turf manager would lay out an annual
calendar of when certain things generally occur and back up the date
accordingly to allow for purchasing a certain product, or timely application of
cultural practices and so forth, so that when those pest populations begin to
influence the turf you’re already one step ahead. Responding to the problem
after you’ve seen it is often times more costly than preparing prior to that.
Be aware of the environment and be aware of how pests tend to elevate
populations in correlation to the environmental factors.
#UFTurfTeam encouraging group discovery of evidence. Topic: Influence of surfactants on hydrophobic soils. pic.twitter.com/cqaR58Ygnf— Bryan Unruh (@jbunruh) August 24, 2016
Despite turf being considered Florida-Friendly, in some
circles there is criticism about the resource inputs required to maintain it.
Any thoughts?
I think labeling or identifying any plant by a specialist
who is not a specialist in that plant is naïve. If statements are being made
about any landscape plant I would hope that it’s being made by a specialist on
that plant. If it’s not then I would discount that information. At the end of
the day whatever information is provided by IFAS must be reinforced with evidence
not observation. Observations are the beginnings of the scientific process.
Evidence is the result of the scientific process. Those are two different
things.
What is the capacity for turf school registration?
40 seats are available for a fee and 5 are available for
state and county extension agents. State and county extension agents are not
charged the registration fee. There are still a number of spots available for the
January event but we expect those to be filled soon.
 |
| Photosynthesis demonstration during the previous Turf School (via Dr. Unruh) |
Everybody that left the first event, they were all extremely
content. They didn’t have any concerns at all. This event is not sit down and
listen to someone lecture. It’s conversational and interactive. It’s
cross-discipline in terms of turf industry – you have sod producers and golf
course superintendents. You have people asking questions that other people in
other industries might not have ever thought of. Through that interaction in
the group a lot of attendees end up getting information that they never dreamed
they would get from sitting there listening to a lecture because somebody in
the audience asked a question that they never even considered.
