Dominic Petrella

Check out our team’s latest efforts in educating the public about our work! 

Read the April 2026 issue of MGCSA's Hole Notes for an update, Aurora green: managing turfgrass photoinhibition in the northern light by Dominic Petrella, or listen via the Hole Notes Podcast.

The goals of this study were to determine which component of DEET bug spray causes damage to turfgrass, quantify the level of damage, and determine the ability of turfgrass to recover. Learn more: N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET) exposure produces rapid and permanent damage in turfgrass.

This article was originally posted on the WinterTurf project blog.

By Dominic Petrella

Learn more about our research! A new, open access article by Eric Watkins, Dominic P. Petrella, Trygve Aamlid, Dominic C. Christensen, Sigridur Dalmannsdottir, Andrew P. Hollman, and Gary Deters has been published in Crop Science. The authors tested five different turfgrasses for their ability to survive under ice. 

I’m excited to introduce myself as the newest member of the University of Minnesota Turfgrass Science group! My name is Dr.

Learn more about our research! A new, open access article by Florence Sessoms, Dominic Petrella, Gary Deters, Jillian Turberville and Eric Watkins has been published in Crop Science. Their study examined turfgrass mixtures and how the mixtures performed after short drought and recovery periods.

Breuillin-Sessoms, F., Petrella, D., Deters, G., Turberville, J., & Watkins, E. (2025). Response of cool-season turfgrass monocultures and two-way mixtures to sequential acute drought periods. Crop Science, 65, e21385. doi.org/10.1002/csc2.21385

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 Florence Sessoms and Dominic Petrella

Snow mold is a famous early spring disease affecting many turfgrasses in particular annual bluegrass and creeping bentgrass. This disease is a concern for golf course superintendents as a lack of correct application of fungicide in the fall results, during the following spring, in the loss of green, tee or fairway areas. An alternative to chemical application is focused on improving the winter hardening of turfgrass species through the use of artificial lightning as further described. 

Learn more about our research! A new article from our group has been published in Plant Methods. This research found that layering photoselective filters results in more accurate simulations of foliar shade and offer advantages over neutral density shade cloth in research.

Petrella, D.P., Breuillin-Sessoms, F. & Watkins, E. Layering contrasting photoselective filters improves the simulation of foliar shade. Plant Methods 18,16 (2022).