UAC Magazine - Summer 2019

INDUSTRY

73rd Annual Southeast Turfgrass Conference Pike Creek Turf hosts tour and dinner

“In the past, the prettiest turf with the most input was fine, but now people are really leaning towards an acceptable turf with little to no input,” he said. “A grass doesn’t need to be the most beautiful thing if people don’t have to do much to it.” Schwartz spoke about UGA’s efforts to develop the right hybrids for homeowners, golf course superintendents and sports field managers. He will also discuss the progress on creating a more resilient zoysia grass.

Participants visited a variety of turfgrass fields on Pike Creek Turf's 1800-acre farm, which is described as the largest producer of fumigated, Georgia Certified Turfgrasses in the southeastern United States.

UAC MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2019

Conference attendees for the 73rd annual Southeast Turfgrass Conference were

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invited to arrive a day early for a tour of Pike Creek Turf in Adel, Georgia on Wednesday, April 24. The tour was led by Jaimie Allen, owner of Pike Creek Turf. Participants visited a variety of turfgrass fields on the 1800-acre farm, which is described as the largest producer of fumigated, Georgia Certified Turfgrasses in the southeastern United States. Allen showed off Pike Creek’s state of the art International Sprig Washing facility, which enables them to rapidly grow their international sales. The tour closed with a barbeque dinner at their beautiful “barn,” hosted by the Allen family and Pike Creek Turf.

The conference was held on Thursday, April 25, at the University of Georgia Tifton campus Information presented during the conference highlighted the latest trends in turfgrass breeding, according to Brian Schwartz, turfgrass breeder at UGA-Tifton. A key issue right now is cost efficiency, he added.

“Often zoysia grass doesn’t recover after wear from sports or dogs, or infection from diseases,” he said. “My focus is making it more disease tolerant, and hopefully, more injury resilient.” David Jespersen, a turfgrass physiologist based on the UGA Griffin campus, discussed the importance of understanding plant physiology in order to improve turfgrass performance, and Jing Zhang, a turfgrass research scientist at UGA-Tifton, discussed the use of drones and cameras in turfgrass research and how they could help turfgrass breeders produce droughtresistant varieties in the Southeast. Paul Raymer, a turfgrass breeder based at UGAGriffin, spoke about a non-GMO herbicideresistance system for seashore paspalum. The method improves the management of Bermuda grass and other grassy weeds. Raymer’s team is currently evaluating their advanced lines to determine which will be released as new varieties. UGA scientists were joined by researchers from North Carolina State University and University of Florida. New to the 2019 conference were presentations at the morning session by technical reps from industry providing science-based talks about products from their companies. Schwartz’s goal for the conference is that attendees will leave having learned something new. “It’s a continuation of work that’s been going on here for more than 73 years,” he said.