Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Summary of Minutes Provided by Marta Pudzianowska (Page 2-7)

Meeting Location: Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, June 19, 2023

General:

•       Project ends in September 2026.
•       New proposal by Fall 2025.
•       Submit report to Alec Kowalewski and Paul Johnson, keep it brief.
•       They prefer to see impacts than activities (impacts on every person in the region).

OSU projects and activities:

•       Clint Mattox (USDA-ARS): collaborated with NMSU on a project focused on alternative herbicides for schools (IPM, glyphosate alternatives, in Oregon only products with caution labels can be used) cornmeal and application methods and timing were also discussed among the group. A journal club among WERA members ran for about 2 years during the Covid pandemic.
•       IPM projects:

o   Alec Kowalewski mentioned Fall timing as undesirable because children are in school,

o   need for incorporating social science aspects in the projects was discussed.

o   perception of turf management (common believes, fears, opportunities for communities)

•       Chrissie Segars: around $75K for collaborative projects from PBI Gordon, IDC depend on $$ for proposal – Chrissie will email Paul Johnson

New project ideas:

•       Water management:

o   Evaluating possibility to expand use of warm-season grasses in Northwest.

o   Paul Johnson brought up the need for invasiveness assessment in such evaluations – problems with ban of bermudagrass in Utah.

o   Alec Kowalewski proposed combining water use and carbon sequestration studies (how reducing water use affects carbon sequestration).

o   Pawel Orlinski suggested different approaches in water management studies e.g., deficit irrigation vs complete restriction of watering.

o   Effluent water use at golf courses and severe water restrictions for golf courses and homeowners, as well as turfgrass removals in Utah and California.

o   Discussion about how long different turf species can stay without water (KBG, bermudagrass, buffalograss).

o   Paul Johnson spoke about irrigation every 4 or 8 weeks and KBG survival and recovery in Utah (Logan area).

o   Pear brought up the question about interaction between drought and other stresses, Paul Johnson mentioned that carbohydrates storage can impact reaction to drought, Shaun Bushman mentioned they are starting measuring carbohydrates levels in insect tolerance.

o   Chrissie Segars brought up lack of scientific studies for how much water we need to put down for the grass for it to come back.

o   Goal:

• writing multi-state SCRI for water management project. That would require seed/sod production aspect; private partnerships. The need for including social scientists was expressed, as well as economic returns evaluation (Yaling Qian).
• Chrissie Segars mentioned SCRI proposal on site preparation for turfgrass, including builders, superintends, etc., considering unique soils in Texas and Florida.
• Clint mentioned land owners options in choosing the landscape – limited choices presented by investors were discussed; top soil issues, grass is cheap to install and maintain (Paul Johnson) – “why people choose what they choose?”.
• Eco-dormant grasses in Oregon (Agrostis castellana).
• Breeding component – producing cheap seed and sod (Nicholas Boerman) – opportunity for collaboration in breeding and seed production.
• Alec Kowalewski mentioned that targeting both turfgrass management and seed production could be good because of importance of breeding/seed/sod industry in the region.
• Keenan Amundsen and Leah Brilman did some work on bentgrass.
• Fei Shuizhang talked about breeding grass as a cover crop in corn and soybean –breeding for grass going dormant in the summer, to avoid competition with the crop.
• Options for USDA participants involvement was discussed by Clint Mattox and Paul Johnson (for USDA in Oregon, Utah and Arizona).
• Need for a leader to coordinate writing
• Combining efforts in breeding, water management, extension and social sciences was discussed (for evaluation why warm-season grasses are not used in NW yet). Chrissie Segars mentioned growers in Oregon interested in zoysiagrasses):
•       forming a group focused on developing lines of one warm-season species, the other group on one cool-season species, another group on management.
•       Breeding for the region vs. sod producers’ needs.
• Clint Mattox proposed starting a shared folder for SCRI proposal.

After break groups split into breeders and management to discuss further.

Breeding group:

•       Longer timeline for breeding than for management part – focusing on species already in the breeding pipelines of participating institutions.
•       What species are the most useful:

o   Drought tolerance as the most important factor.

o   For superintendents (David Phipps): it is hard to have mono stands; expectations regarding color – issue for social science?

o   Color vs heat tolerance?

•       Species: buffalograss, bluegrass, bermudagrass

o   Warm-season:

• Buffalograss?
•       Keenan Amundsen – seeded diploids (shorter dormancy, might not survive harsh winter, but could survive in the summer)
•       Problems with bermudagrass contamination
•       Dormancy as an issue but also opportunity (drought survival)
• Bluemuda? Other mixed systems?

o   Cool-season: Kentucky Bluegrass

• Vernalization is a problem in Washington.
•       How SCRI program can contribute to each program:

o   Water use reduction and affordability – general issue

o   Nebraska (Keenan Amundsen) - adoption, acceptation, fertilization & watering programs

o   Oklahoma – heat and freeze survival issues, seed production.

•       Mowing aspects – “how low can you go?” – testing for different mowing heights.
•       Real cases for establishing lawns – give seeds to homeowners and observe the process.
•       Focus on locally adapted systems with large cooperative trials (with MTAs).
•       Both homeowners and golf industry?
•       Locally adapted systems/species for both homeowners and golf with focus on mowing heights.

o   Branching out into:

• Species that breeding programs already work with + collaboration with management part (mowing, fertilization…);
• Test how far species can go across regions/climates.

 Management Group

Notes from sub-group:

•   Endophytes & Insect Resistance

o   Pear working on Endophyte viability in NTEP trials

o   E+ vs E- on drought in TF 

o   Some work @ Rutgers on bacterial endophytes - could potentially be applied to the grass after it was established…

o   E+ vs E- and alkaloids on herbicide 

o   E+ & ARG - work with ARF - on herbicide resistance ARG

o   Endophytes & Water Use (even association with salt / gray water)

o   NTEP data in August (to simulate drought)

o   Endophytes grass seed production & fungicide use in grass seed production systems (to sustain populations in seed production)

o   What happens to E+ when turf is under drought stress?

• Will we lose E+ if grass goes dormant 
  • Further, when soil & air temperatures go very high in CA…
• Age of lawn - 1, 3, & 5 years age

Tolerance vs avoidance in water stress settings

Carbon Sequestration Component

Eco-lawn mixes & Pollinator Work

o   Frog-fruit (breeding in FL) + Trefoil

Social Sciences

o   Pollinator lawns

o   Why do we have lawns?

o   Potential in TX Tech (Ag communications) / AZ (George)

o   What is irrigated / why is it irrigated

o   ArcGIS - C-sequestration - 

o   Jason Peak - aerial imagery @ GA

• Perhaps mimic that work

o   Effluent water irrigation (+ & - perception) 

Warm Season Grasses & Drought SCRI Grant

o   Breeding for drought tolerance (UGA)

Soil Science Component 

o   Relationship between soil components & turf type

Species List to consider:

o   Bermudagrass (invasive in UT)

o   Zoysiagrass

o   Kikuyugrass (Invasive in most states)

o   TF

o   PRG

o   FF

o   Eco-lawns

o   Highland Bentgrass

Effluent water & use in landscapes

Precision Ag 

o   ArcGIS - C-sequestration - 

o   Historic temperature of urban areas

• Relationship to lawns

The remainder of the meeting on Monday was at the OSU Turfgrass Research Facility and a tour of botanical resources on the OSU campus.

Tuesday’s activity was at the Mountain Valley Seed field day near Albany, OR.

Wednesday’s activity was at the DLF turfgrass field day near Philomath, OR

Thursday’s activity was at the Pure Seed turfgrass field day near Canby, OR.

Outreach Activities:

Colorado State University: The 69th Annual Rocky Mountain Regional Turfgrass Conference & Trade Show, December 13-15, 2022. Attendance 750.

Oregon State University: Winter Field Day and Summer Field Day, February 2023 and August 2023. Attendees 250.

University of Nebraska: Nebraska State Turf Conference, January 4-6, 2023, Attendees 475.

Online Extension Samples: 

https://aggieturf.tamu.edu/

https://csuhort.blogspot.com/

https://extension.usu.edu/yardandgarden/research/turfgrass-cultivars-for-utah

https://horticulture.oregonstate.edu/beaverturf

https://pubs.nmsu.edu/_h/H508/index.html

http://turfgrass.ctahr.hawaii.edu/

https://turfgrass.ucr.edu/

https://turf.arizona.edu/

https://turf.unl.edu

https://turf.wsu.edu/

https://www.uog.edu/_resources/files/wptrc/turf_series4.pdf

Undergraduate Enrollment:

Colorado State University: 8

Oregon State University: 6

University of Nebraska: 19

Current Graduate Students:

Bai, Fanxiao (MS), Colorado State University

Li, Zhou (MS), Colorado State University

Shikhar Hatwal (MS), Oregon State University

Zac Hamilton (MS), Oregon State University

Emily Braithwaite (MS), Oregon State University

Cole Stover (MS), Oregon State University

Pear Intasin (MS), Oregon State University

Grace Tiwari (MS), Oregon State University

Elizabeth Niebaum (MS), University of Nebraska

Michael Morikone (PhD) University of Nebraska

Key Research Outcomes:

Iowa: Tall fescue intercellular void space is as important to traffic tolerance as it is in Kentucky bluegrass. Traffic tolerant tall fescue had wider leaves and lower plant density than traffic intolerant tall fescue.  Summer dormant bluegrass species show great promise as perennial groundcover for maize production to provide ecosystem services with minimal grain yield reduction. 

Nebraska: Advanced 17 separate buffalograss populations with enhanced tolerance to chinch bugs and resistance to leaf spot disease. Evaluated 24 vegetative buffalograss lines for sod strength in comparison to Prestige and Legacy, industry standard entries; 19 performed as good as the checks for sod strength, 15 lines performed as good as the checks for quality, and 14 performed as good as the checks for spring green up. In each rating category, there were advanced breeding lines that outperformed the industry checks.

Oregon: The typical Oregon golf course uses an average of 180-acre ft of water annually, which costs an average of $57,786. Therefore, if golf course managers started planting tall fescue in rough areas and did not irrigate the grass to prevent weeds like annual bluegrass from establishing (core innovation produced by key project 1) they would save half of the water applied to the average golf course. As a result of this core innovation, OSU was asked to provide a webinar to the members of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America on tall fescue. For this webinar OSU highlighted golf courses in Oregon (Oswego Lake Country Club, and Oregon Golf Club) that have made the switch to tall fescue to reduce water use.  Furthermore, homeowners and municipality managers that use tall fescue in place of other turfgrass species, and do not water the turf, would generate significant water savings.  Research findings and extension material produced by my program have helped propel the public popularity of tall fescue, which has gone from being a minor component of the Oregon grass seed production system to having more production acres than any other grass seed crop in just 5 years (2017 to 2022). 

Utah: The Water Check program has continued since our last meeting and has now been under my administration for 18 years and operating in the state for a total of 24 years. At this point, we’ve conducted more than 20,000 residential audits and several hundred commercial, industrial, and institutional audits.

Sample publications:

Berndt, W. L., & Gaussoin, R. E. 2023. Predicting Munsell color for turfgrass leaves. Crop Science, 63, 1566– 1580. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20843

Bateman, C., Willette, A. R., Kaur, N., Dorman, S., Buckland, K., & Anderson, N. P. (2023). Symphylan Control in Grass Grown for Seed, 2022. In Arthropod Management Tests. Oxford Academic.

Kowalewski, A.R. C.J Schmid, E.T. Braithwaite*, B.C. McNally, M.T. Elmore, C.M. Mattox, B.W. McDonald, R. Wang, J.G. Lambrinos, G.S. Fitzpatrick, and H.M. Rivedal. 2023. Comparing Methods to Quantify Cover in Turfgrass Research. Crop Science. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20908

Lindsey, A.J., A.W. Thoms, N.E. Christians, and B.W. Pease. 2022. Evaluation of hollow-tine core aerification recycling on a sand-based putting green soil properties and playability. HortTech 32(6):529-533. doi:10.21273/HORTTECH05116-22 

Stahnke, Gwen K.; Rieke, Paul E.; Cookingham, Pete O.; Shearman, Robert C.; Gaussoin, Roch E.; Kopec, David M. 2022. James B Beard: The father of contemporary turfgrass science. International Turfgrass Society Research Journal. June. 14(1): p. 1-11

Sukor, A., Qian, Y.L, Davis, J. G. 2023.  Organic Nitrogen Fertilizer Selection Influences Water Use Efficiency. Agriculture 2023, 13, 923-927.  https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13050923

Thoms, A.W., and A.J. Lindsey. 2023. Advances in maintenance practices of turfgrass in Achieving sustainable turfgrass management. Fidanza, M. ed. Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing. Chapter 6. ISBN-13: 9781801460194

Yuhung Lin, Fanxiao Bai, Jizhou Li , & Yaling Qian.  2023. Comparison of Soil Nitrate and Phosphorus Concentrations Prior to and Five to Eleven Years after Recycled Water Irrigation. Sustainability in Environment. Vol. 8. No. 2. http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/se.v8n2p12