A summary of precision management resesarch
We have been exploring the use of sensors and precision management for turf for several years, and have found many useful applications, as outlined in some of our previous Updates and articles. We have summarized our research to-date in this field in a poster presentation that we will give at the Crop Science Society of America meetings this week in Houston, TX. You can view and print the poster here, though it is a fairly large (2.4 MB) pdf document. Key cooperators in these studies were PACE Turf members Leif Dickinson (Del Mar Thoroughbred Club), Sandy Clark (Barona Creek Golf Club), and Jeff Beardsley (Big Canyon Country Club).
Overall, we found that soil moisture and turf quality sensors were powerful tools for characterizing turf performance, and for managing turf. But we also found that in their current form, the equipment was difficult to use, with complex data management and interpretation. Equipment manufacturers are now working on more practical versions of the sensor arrays, so that they will be more useful in turf management, hopefully in the near future.
Posted 10/19/08
