By Bruce Clarke

Turf Bowl Competition:

Three teams of undergraduate students (four students to a team – including Tyler Astor, Greg Benz, Michael Chikos, Ryan Daddio, Nicholas Delmar, Kyle Genova, Kenneth MacNish, Mike Monzon, Jianlong Sun [Jason], Yuanshuo Qu [Henry], Lingcheng Zeng [Aaron], Lorabeth West,) from the Rutgers Turf Club competed in the 2013 Turf Bowl Competition at the International Golf Course Superintendents Association of America Conference and Trade Show in San Diego, CA on Thursday, February 7, 2013.

The Rutgers Teams placed 6^th, 14^th, and 48^th out of 68 university teams from throughout the United States and Canada.  Rich Hurley (Adjunct Professor, Plant Biology and Pathology), Sabrina Tirpak (Principal Lab Technician, Plant Diagnostic Laboratory; Plant Biology and Pathology) and Bruce Clarke (Extension Specialist, Plant Biology and Pathology; Director, Center for Turfgrass Science) assisted the Rutgers teams prepare for this year’s competition.  This was the first time that a Rutgers Team has cracked the Top 10 of this prestigious academic competition.  CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2013 RUTGERS TURF BOWL TEAMS!!!!

Source: Read More on the Rutgers Turf Blog

By Jim Murphy

The Rutgers Wear Simulator being operated on the 2006 National Tall Fescue Trial.

Hope your winter is going well.

We recently published on the web a fact sheet update on Tall Fescue Varieties for New Jersey Sports Fields.

This fact sheet discusses the characteristics of traffic tolerance, turfgrass quality, and susceptibility to brown patch disease (caused by Rhizoctonia solani). Traffic tolerant varieties are more persistent under the combined stresses of wear and compaction, which are very common on sports turfs. The variety recommendations in this fact sheet are based on research conducted at Rutgers University on the 2006 National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP) Tall Fescue Test. Data from other locations was also used for these recommendations.