Florence Sessoms

Learn more about our research! Two new research articles from our group have been published in Crop Science. Florence Sessoms and Eric Watkins have published an article on heat stress in cool season turfgrasses, and Dominic Petrella and Eric Watkins have published an article on the differences in shade responses in the fine fescues.

By Florence Sessoms

In the first part of this series, I described what arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are and how they can benefit plants. In this post, I will discuss how AMF might benefit turfgrasses. Cool-season and warm-season grasses are both able to be infected with mycorrhizal fungi. A quick literature review showed that several benefits of AMF were observed with turfgrasses such as improved biomass, nutrient content, decrease in weed incidence and disease severity (Table 1). 

By Florence Sessoms

What are they?

Arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (AMF) are soil microorganisms able to form mutualistic symbiosis with most terrestrial plants. Spores that are present in soil germinate, infect the root system, and form arbuscule structures inside the cells (Figure 1). Arbuscules are the site of nutrients exchange between the plant and the fungi. Another characteristic of this symbiosis is the presence of a large mycorrhizal network around the root system.

By Florence Sessoms

Cool-season turfgrass seed production in Minnesota is localized in Roseau and Lake of the Woods counties in northern Minnesota. Perennial ryegrass is the primary turfgrass being produced for a total of 55,000 to 60,000 acres. Perennial ryegrass is intercropped with spring wheat to allow a better survival during the harsh winter months present up north. Also, the presence of another cash crop, such as spring wheat, allows the farmer to get some income from the field in the first year while the grass is establishing as described in Figure 1.

The Turfgrass Science team from the University of Minnesota was well-represented at this year’s ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting held on November 10-13, 2019 in San Antonio, TX.  Seven people gave oral presentations and five people presented posters. Additionally, congratulations go to two members of our group who placed in the graduate student oral presentation contests:

By Dominic Petrella

It is a common misconception that turfgrasses respond the same to neutral and foliar shade conditions. However, this is not true, and even some of the best turfgrasses for shady areas exhibit contrasting growth under these different types of shade. Let’s define the two types of shade:

By Eric Watkins

By Florence Sessoms

The presence of lawns in urban environments is sometimes viewed negatively: too many chemical inputs that result in environmental pollution. I also have observed a popular misconception about irrigation on home lawns: irrigation is compared to the Danaides’ barrel (Figure 1), a bottomless pit where water is forever added and lost.  However, lawns can provide tremendous ecosystems services such as decreased soil erosion, absorption of dust and particle pollution, reduced heat island effect, and increased mental and physical human health.

Check out our team’s latest efforts in educating the public about our work!  We have a podcast and several upcoming presentations at regional conferences.

Parker Anderson was featured on the Frankly Speaking podcast on 02/11/2019. He discussed the Science of the Green Initiative, a research partnership between the USGA and the University of Minnesota, and the sustainability of golf. 

The Turfgrass Science team at the University of Minnesota was well-represented at this year’s ASA and CSSA Annual Meeting held on November 4-7, 2018 in Baltimore, MD. Read on for a summary of the wide variety of topics covered by our researchers and be sure to check out the links with the full poster content.

A novel inoculation technique for integrating the endophyte Epichloe festucae into perennial ryegrass

By Garett Heineck, Brooke Ashbrenner, Michael Miller and Eric Watkins