US Turf Conference review 2019- San Diego
It’s been a couple of months since I got back and a very busy time as many of you know with this tough summer. I apologise for the late posting on this.
I was able to attend the Golf Industry Show GIS in San Diego this year again. A great trip as usual with education seminars and the trade show. I pushed myself quite a bit this year with ramping up my podcast series. For those that don’t know I did some interviews with some US professors last year which can be seen on on our YouTube here. I also continued this this year and will upload the videos soon. As well there will be an audio version coming out shortly which you can download.
Education Seminars
As usual I attended various seminars on the Monday and the Tuesday of the conference. This year I did (with some key points under each one) :
- Successful bent grass management presented by Dr Doug Soldat (University of Wisconsin) and Chris Tritabaugh (Hazletine Golf Club)
Soil testing of P comment- it is useless? Why? they found in trials there was high phosphorous and recommendations to apply were still too high. Some plots tested with 7ppm (MLSN recommends 21ppm) were healthy and no showing no signs of deficient.
Influences on Clipping Yield
- Temperature light
- Organic mater
- Soil compaction
- Traffic
- PGR (plant growth regulators)
- Understanding Turf Fungicides presented by Dr Rick Latin (Formerly Purdue University- retired)
One thing picked up and found interesting:
The fungicide does not kill the fungus. It’s stops the growth and burns the tips of the fungus. Once active ingredient depleted the fungus growth will start again. The fungus is pushed back but only to a certain point. Fungicides are fungistatic and do not kill the fungus 100% and this is why have to repeat applications.
- Plant and Soil Health Supplements presented by Dr Cale Bigelow (Purdue University) and Dr Mike Fidanza (Penn State University- Mr Fairy Ring)
- Sure Fire Ways to Plant Health products edition presented by Dr Frank Rossi (Cornell University), Dr bill Kreuser (University of Nebraska)
All the seminars were well worth it.
The trade show as usual is big but streamlined to say the truth. In the post GFC there are less companies showing product off and taking up less room. The show back in 2007 that I first went was crazy being almost 3 hectares in size and over 20,000 people This year in San Diego drew 14,781 people covering 1.7 hectares of trade show. A few photos from the week appear below.
Lastly Every year college students compete for Turf Bowl this year I was lucky enough to meet and have dinner the winners from Penn State. Thanks to John Kaminksi and Ben McGraw (featured in an upcoming podcast) for inviting me out.
If you missed my VLOG for the week check it out on you tube here.
Day 1