Purdue Students Place 1st at the Eighth Annual Sports Turf Competition

For the second year in a row the Purdue Turf Program has placed 1st in the Student Challenge Exam during the Sports Turf Managers Association (STMA) Meetings held January 10-14, 2012. Eight students traveled out to Long Beach, CA for the eighth annual Student Challenge Exam at the STMA Meetings. The four person team of Zak Peterson, John Thackery, Ben Baumer, and Joey Gerking placed 1st and Purdue’s second team, Steve Vonderheide, Cameron Cox, Zachary Ferguson, and Tyler Macali placed 17th out of 24 teams. Teams from various colleges and universities participated in a written exam on sports turf and sports field topics. The two hour competition included the identification of insects, grasses, and weeds and covered mathematics, soil physical properties, plant physiology, and plant growth and development in addition to questions on athletic field construction, design and maintenance. At the conference, students were able to take advantage of many activities including the student challenge exam, workshops and a student network luncheon.

The STMA is rich with Purdue University tradition as the late Dr. Bill Daniel, long-time Purdue professor and a pioneer in the turf industry, was one of the four founding members. Dr. Daniel is honored each year by an award in his name that honors individuals who have significantly contributed to the sports turf industry through research, teaching and extension.

The teams would like to acknowledge the support they received this year from the Midwest Regional Turf Foundation (MRTF), Agronomy Department, their advisor Dr. Cale Bigelow and graduate teaching assistant, Tracy Tudor. Without Dr. Bigelow, Tracy Tudor, MRTF and the help of the Agronomy Department the students would not be able to compete in the STMA competition.
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Purdue Turf Scholarship Winners



The Purdue Turf Program granted over $15,000 in scholarship funds to nineteen students. These students have shown high academic achievement, outstanding character and a desire to be in the Turfgrass Industry. Congratulations to all of the Purdue Turf students that received scholarships.




Chad Melton, Don Fassnacht Scholarship

C.J. Coy, Jean and Lee Schmidt Scholarship

Cameron Cox, Max Slack Scholarship

John Daniels, W.H. Daniel Graduate Scholarship

Zach Ferguson, W.H. Daniel Undergraduate Scholarship

Tony Feitz, Michiana Golf Course Superintendents Association

TJ Mueller, Hoosier Golf Course Superintendents Association

John Thackery, MRTF Golf Day Scholarship (presented by Syngenta)

Dane Alexander, MRTF Scholarship

Ben Baumer, MRTF Scholarship

Lucas Braun, MRTF Scholarship

Tony Feitz, MRTF Scholarship

Dan Kiermaier, MRTF Scholarship

Aaron Kreider, MRTF Scholarship

Brock Miller, MRTF Scholarship

Zac Peterson, MRTF Scholarship

Quin Stilwell, MRTF Scholarship

Clayton Walters, MRTF Scholarship

Peter Westfall, MRTF Scholarship

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Successful Indiana Green Expo

Last week (January 11-13, 2012) the Purdue Turf Program and the Midwest Regional Turf Foundation hosted the Indiana Green Expo (IGE) in cooperation with the Indiana Nursery and Landscape Association. The IGE is Indiana's most comprehensive green industry educational conference and trade show. It is a time of education, new products and networking with industry members. The IGE featured 90 exhibiting companies from around the country. The 1,700 attendees from Indiana and the surrounding states come from a variety of backgrounds including business owners, managers and staff of wholesale and retail nurseries, landscape management firms, greenhouse growers, golf course superintendents and staff, grounds maintenance departments, landscape design and installation firms, garden centers, consulting firms, educational institutions, suppliers and more! This year’s conference provided education with eight concurrent sessions featuring 60 different speakers including Purdue faculty/staff from Agriculture Economics, Agronomy, Botany and Plant Pathology, Entomology, Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, and Forestry and Natural Resources. The conference was a success again this year and continues to provide information and education among the Midwest turf professionals and the green industry. Mark your calendars for next year’s IGE, January 9-11, 2013.
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Still time left to sign up for Indiana Green Expo to be held Jan 11-13!

The registration deadline is fast-approaching for the Indiana Green Expo and forms must be postmarked by Dec. 31, 2011. The Indiana Green Expo is the largest turf, ornamental, nursery, and landscape conference in Indiana and is jointly sponsored by the Midwest Regional Turf Foundation and Indiana Nursery and Landscape Association. Over sixty experts from across the country are giving over 100 talks on all aspects of the green industry and a tradeshow packed into two days provides an efficient and cost-effective opportunity for educating your whole staff, regardless of what area of the Green Industry where you work. Plus there are huge discounts for bringing more than two employees. Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky CCH’s, GCSAA education credits, and IAH certification units are all available. Full information as well as on-line registration is available at http://www.indianagreenexpo.com/



Contact Jennifer Biehl with any questions.
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Winter Annual Weeds

Four types of broadleaf weeds exist: 1) perennial (those living more than two years), biennial (those living two years), 3) summer annuals (those germinating in the spring and dying in the fall), and 4) winter annuals (those germinating in the fall and surviving the winter and dying the following spring). Since many of these winter annual weeds are now germinated, I thought it might be a useful exercise to review their identification. Below is one picture of various winter annual broadleaf weeds. Be on the lookout for these this fall and next spring.

Annual bluegrass


Catchweed bedstraw


Common chickweed


Corn Speedwell


Henbit


Prickly lettuce


Purple deadnettle


Sheperd’s purse



Aaron Patton, Turfgrass Extension Specialist



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Imprelis Return and Refund Program

On October 17, DuPont began a process to recall and refund Imprelis from Turf professionals. DuPont has contacted distributors, who will be coordinating with turf professionals to ensure that all remaining full and partially full bottles of Imprelis® are returned. Turf professionals have 10 business days to return all Imprelis® product (4.5 fl. oz., 1.0 gallon, and 2.5 gallon bottles) to them after the initial contact from the distributor. After returning the remaining Imprelis® to the distributor, turf professionals will be given either a refund or credits, depending on the distributor’s policy. In this EPA approved disposition plan, the EPA suggests that you maintain records associated with Imprelis®, including but not limited to: 1) quantities used and returned, including product lot numbers 2) application records, and 3) purchase records.


Below are links to documents useful to turf professionals who applied Imprelis® last fall or this spring. More information is available at http://www.imprelis-facts.com/ and at (866) 796-4783.



Information From DuPont:

Imprelis Status Mailer to Users & Dealers (September 20, 2011)

DuPont Imprelis return & refund letter to applicators (October 17, 2011)

DuPont Imprelis return & refund letter to distributors (October 17, 2011)

DuPont Imprelis instructions for return & refund (October 17, 2011)


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Grass Clippings and Herbicides

I have received a few questions recently regarding the use of grass clippings on lawns treated with herbicides. Here is one of those questions: “Our Master Gardener Association will be working on a project in which they hope to use a great amount of lawn clippings to put down as compost in a large area. This will require lawn clippings donated from several different sites. Will they run into a problem with clippings from lawns that have been treated with Imprelis® this year? Would there be chemical residue which remains in the clippings and/or compost which should be avoided?”

The answer to that specific question is that we do not recommend that clippings from lawns treated with Imprelis® (aminocyclopyrachlor) be used in the composting. Even if Imprelis® was applied 6 months ago (applied in April, today’s date October 12) there still could be some Imprelis® residue present in the clippings or the soil. Although any herbicide residue may be minimal from a spring application, we 1) don’t fully understand how long Imprelis® lasts in the soil or the grass clippings and 2) Imprelis® is active at very low rates and thus even if just a little is left it could be enough to cause injury on a susceptible ornamental plant such as tomatoes in the garden or flowers in the landscape.

The Imprelis label states “Do not use grass clippings from treated areas for mulching or compost, or allow for collection to composting facilities. Grass clippings must either be left on the treated area, or, if allowed by local yard waste regulations, disposed of in the trash. Applicators must give verbal or written notice to property owner/property manager/residents to not use grass clippings from treated turf for mulch or compost.”

The Imprelis® label does not state how long not to remove clippings. Eternity, 1 year, 2 months? It simply does not say. Therefore, I recommend not to use clippings from Imprelis® treated lawns in compost.

What about other herbicides? Other herbicides applied to residential turf may have label language as well that restricts clippings from being collected. The Dimension® 2EW (dithiopyr) label also states “Do not use clippings from treated turf for mulching around vegetables or fruit trees.” Like the Imprelis® label, the Dimension® 2EW label also does not specify how long to wait after treating before clippings can be safely harvested. Another herbicide, Drive® XLR8 (quinclorac), states that “Clippings from the first three mowings after application should be left on the treated area”. This label makes it a little clearer when it is safe to harvest clippings. Most labels contain no reference whatsoever to “clippings”.

Therefore, language varies from label to label regarding the use of clippings for mulch or compost following a herbicide application. In most cases I would recommend not using clippings from a lawn treated with herbicide within one-month (approximately 3 mowings) unless the label states otherwise such as with Imprelis®.


Aaron Patton, Turfgrass Extension Specialist

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