Texas Turfgrass Association 1st Quarter Newsletter 2023

1st Quarter 2023

TEXAS TURFGRASS ASSOCIATION

President’s Message Dear TTA Members,

I want to start by saying thank you to our membership for allowing me the honor of being president of this great organization. We have been on an upward trajectory of attendees at our conferences for both summer and winter. This means that you know the power of networking and education provided by TTA. We had a great conference in Denton this past December with over 500 total attendees and vendors. Our vendors continue to bring great products to help everyone with their turf needs from municipalities to private golf courses and landscapers to sports fields. With a growing membership and more attendees to the conferences, more vendors want to be a part of this great organization.

It seems like every year, we have more snow and ice that can lead to turf renovation needs. Through board discussions, we have learned that our Board Advisors are working with Sod Producers soon on test plots and the knowledge gained will benefit our industry. Our advisors are also educational speakers at conferences that bring back the information to help all of us learn current ideas of what is changing with our turfgrasses. We truly have a great group of vendors and advisors that help each other to make everything better for all of us in this great organization.

As the temperatures warm up, we are all looking forward to the summer conference. Our great Executive Director, Katie, and the board have everything lined up for our summer conference July 16-18 at The Woodlands.

Our summer conference is going to be a lot of fun for families as well as great networking and educational seminars for our members. I look forward to seeing everyone in July as we “Keep Texas Green.”

Thank you, Houston Fullerton, MCPTM President - Hoot’s Lawn Care LLC

Keeping Texas Green SINCE 1947

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Table of Contents

President’s Message

Houston Fullerton MCPTM

Cover

Special Thanks

To Our 2023 Sponsors

3

2023 Board of Directors

University Advisors

4

Executive Director Message

Katie Flowers

5

2022 Conference Wrap Up

A Great Event in Denton!

2023 Summer Conference

Registration Links

7

Save The Date

2023 Winter Conference

14

TTREEE

Scholarship Fund Report 2022 Final Report

15 18 - 20

2022 CPTM

Newest Class Honored

16 - 17

Aggie Turf Club Fundraiser

Registration and Sponsorship

19

THANK YOU ADVERTISERS!

2023 Sponsor Page

3

Prime Sod

8

Larson Golf Services

11

Turf & Soil Diagnostics

9

King Ranch Turfgrass

13

All Seasons Turfgrass

10

Thomas Turfgrass

17

Bowlin Consulting

11

6 - 14

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Executive Director Message

Howdy and Welcome to 2023, Thank you to everyone who made this past Winter Conference in Denton such a success! We had record-breaking attendance since 2018 and the involvement, networking, and education was top- notch! Finding the right venue to accommodate our group is always a challenge and very important; Denton was a pleasant surprise, and we want to keep that momentum. If you have a City and Venue that you would like to see is for Summer or Winter, please let me know.

In addition to the conference, our amazing board advisors put on a two-day lecture for our CPTM program. Congratulations to our newest Certified Professional Turfgrass Managers who you will see highlighted in this newsletter. Two days of lecture paid off for these members and all of those who have tested understand the importance!

We are striving to grow and keep our education and association a vital part of this industry, in lieu of challenges we have faced. Throughout the past couple of years, I am sure we all in the industry have felt the growing and financial strain within our personal lives or our career. TTA hopes to keep this Association growing and thriving for education in turf but also for networking for all industry professionals. Thank you again to all exhibitors, members, and Sponsors for your help!

Lastly, I encourage you all to consider our Awards program. If you have a field, park, commercial area, golf course, or any project that your company or crew deserves recognition, start planning NOW to submit for to our Awards Committee, as submissions are due by October 1, 2023 Thank you again for 2022 and I hope to see and meet so many more of you this year in 2023!

God Bless! Warmest Regards,

Your Executive Director, Katie Flowers

TTREEE Scholarship Fund Report 2022

As of December 31, 2022, there is $10,000 in the TTREEE account at the Texas A&M Foundation - account # 57329 – of which $4,000 is committed for the spring semester 2023. An additional $12,000 is committed to Cabot Ellis over the next three years. Cabot is an out-of-state student, who was awarded a four-year scholarship of $4,000 per year to allow the waiver of out-of-state tuition.

For April 2023 – March 2024, we are requesting the standard $8,000 to allow the recruitment of another quality undergraduate student while meeting our current commitment.

2022 TTREEE Final Report The effect of plant growth regulator application strategies and cultivation practices on trafficked sports field playability Chase Straw, Ph.D., Weston Floyd, CSFM, and Emmanuel Alabi Texas A&M University, Soil and Crop Sciences, College Station, TX PROBLEM: Trinexapac-ethyl (TE) is one of the most widely applied plant growth regulators in turfgrass. It is a foliar absorbed, Type II plant growth regulator that disrupts gibberellin biosynthesis resulting in reduced cell elongation. TE has been found to reduce turfgrass mowing requirements, enhance green color, and improve heat, cold, drought, and shade stress tolerance (Schiavon et al., 2014). Additionally, TE causes increased specific leaf weight, tillering, and total root length (Beasley et al., 2005), leading many to hypothesize that TE may increase turfgrass wear tolerance and recover on sports fields (Brosnan et al., 2005). However, minimal research has been conducted investigating benefits of TE on newer hybrid bermudagrass cultivars under simulated wear. These cultivars have more aggressive growth habits and typically require routine cultivation practices (e.g., verticutting, raking) for density management (e.g., tight canopies influencing cleat-surface interactions), which is may also be impacted by TE applications.

Furthermore, there is confusion amongst sports field managers concerning the reapplication intervals and rates of TE to fully maximize its potential. A preliminary survey conducted by PI Straw and Co-PI Floyd with sports field managers who maintain bermudagrass fields in the southeast United States found that 87% of responders applied TE, but 33% reapplied based on label recommendation (i.e., every 4 weeks) and 47% reapplied based on turfgrass growth response (e.g., growing degree day calculator or visual clipping yield; the remaining 20% did not answer the question). Due to concerns about turfgrass recovery when TE is applied, 40% of responders decreased their TE rate based on anticipated traffic. Nevertheless, 40% of responders did not adjust their rate based on anticipated traffic, and the remaining either increased the TE rate or did not answer the question. Cultivation practices ranged from once per year to twice per month.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this research was to determine the effect of TE rate, reapplication interval, and stoppage, as well as cultivation practices, on trafficked hybrid bermudagrass American football field playability. Two separate scenarios were investigated: 1) a collegiate/professional field and 2) a park and recreation/K-12 field.

METHODS: Research was conducted in 2021 and 2022 at the Turfgrass Field Laboratory in College Station, TX; however, only results from 2021 will be presented in this report. The collegiate/professional field scenario study was conducted on ‘Latitude 36’ hybrid bermudagrass mowed at 0.5” and grown on a sand cap.

The park and recreation/K-12 field scenario was conducted on ‘TifTuf’ hybrid bermudagrass mowed at 0.75” and grown on a native soil (sandy loam). The study design and all treatments were similar for each field scenario.

Figure 1. The collegiate/professional field scenario study was conducted on ‘Latitude 36’ hybrid bermudagrass mowed at 0.5” and grown on a sand cap. The park and recreation/K-12 field scenario was conducted on ‘TifTuf’ hybrid bermudagrass mowed at 0.75” and grown on a native soil (sandy loam).

The design was a randomized complete block with three replications arranged as a 4x7 split plot (Figure 1). The whole plots received one of four cultivation treatments: 1) no verticut or rake (untreated control), 2) bi-monthly verticut, 3) bi-weekly rake, or 4) bi-monthly verticut and bi-weekly rake. The subplots received one of seven TE (trade name Primo Maxx) application treatments: 1) no TE (untreated control), 2) bi-weekly app at full label rate, and then stop at start of playing season, 3) bi-weekly app at full label rate, and then bi-weekly app at half label rate at start of playing season, 4) bi-weekly app at full label rate for entire study duration, 5) monthly app at full label rate, and then stop at start of playing season, 6) monthly at full label rate, and then monthly app at half label rate at start of playing season, or 7) monthly app at full label rate for entire study duration. Cultivation and TE application treatments began early June 2021 approximately two months prior to trafficking plots.

Foot traffic was simulated on the research plots using a modified Baldree traffic simulator (Figure 2). Traffic applications began August 2022, and the duration of traffic applied was made according to Texas A&M University’s football schedule for the collegiate/professional field scenario (12 weeks of traffic; 4 passes the week of home games and 2 passes the week of away games) and College Station High School’s football schedule for the park and recreation/K-12 field scenario (10 weeks of traffic; 8 passes the week of home games and 4 passes the week of away games).

Data collection to determine field playability characteristics between treatments was bi-weekly and began at the initiation of each playing season. It consisted of visual turfgrass quality and cover (0-100%), surface hardness (in Gmax with Clegg Impact Hammer), rotational shear strength (in Nm with Raw Traction Tester), force reduction (in % with a Deltec Field Tester), and dry root mass (in g by taking a composite soil core sample from each plot at the beginning, middle, and end of season). Data were analyzed in R using the lme4 package and a mixed effects model, where main plot, sub-plot, and date were fixed effects and replication was a random effect. Treatment means were calculated and separated by Tukey test (α=0.05) using the emmeans package.