Eric Watkins

Learn more about our research! A new, open access article by Joan Barreto Ortiz, Candice Hirsch, Nancy Jo Ehlke and Eric Watkins has been published in Plant Methods. This paper describes a method to quantify turfgrass inflorescence properties using computer imaging to provide a faster and less subjective way to phenotype, which can aid in plant breeding.

Barreto Ortiz, J., Hirsch, C.N., Ehlke, N.J. and Watkins, E. 2023. SpykProps: an imaging pipeline to quantify architecture in unilateral grass inflorescences. Plant Methods 19:125. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13007-023-01104-z [Open Access] 

Members of our team will be giving talks at Northern Green, a trade show and conference dedicated to green industry professionals. Consider attending this worthwhile event!

Northern Green
January 23-25, 2024
Saint Paul RiverCentre

Register for this event 

This year’s presentations from our team include:

Dr. Eric Watkins has been awarded a 2023 CSSA Fellowship by the Crop Science Society of America.

Learn more about our research! A new, open access article by Yang Wang, Chengyan Yue, Eric Watkins and Chase Straw has been published in the Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics. The researchers surveyed golf course superintendents and looked at how their attitudes affected their adoption of precision irrigation technologies.

Learn more about our research! A new, open access article by Ross Braun, Eric Watkins, Andrew Hollman, Aaron Patton has been published in the journal Crop Science. This research demonstrates that fine fescues are truly low-input as they require less fertilizer and pesticides, while maintaining turf quality, compared to traditional turfgrass species.

Braun, R. C., Watkins, E., Hollman, A. B., and Patton, A. J. 2023. Assessing the fertilizer and pesticide input needs of cool-season turfgrass species. Crop Science, 63:3079–3095. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.21046 [Open Access]

Learn more about our research! A new, open access article by Florence Breuillin-Sessoms, Dominic Petrella, Nancy Ehlke, Donn Vellekson and Eric Watkins has been published in the journal Crop Science. This article discusses the research in which several cultivars of Chewings, hard and strong creeping red fescue were interseeded with spring wheat to examine the potential of this method for seed production in northern Minnesota. Unfortunately, this cropping system did not seem optimal for fine fescue seed production so more research is needed. 

By Eric Watkins

Check out our team’s latest efforts in educating the public about our work. Eric Watkins was interviewed for an article in Better Homes & Gardens. Read What Is a Bee Lawn? Plus How to Plant One by Anne Readel to learn about planting and maintaining a bee lawn.

The Turf & Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) and Project EverGreen awarded Dr. Eric Watkins the 2023 TOCA Environmental Communicator of the Year Award!

Check out our team’s latest efforts in educating the public about our work. An article on bee lawns for Sierra, the magazine for the Sierra Club, features comments from Eric Watkins.

See Inside the Rise of Bee Lawns by Anne Readel on the Sierra Club website for the full article!