CTRF Announces 2012 Funding / Launches Website

The Canadian Turf Research Foundation (CTRF) Board of Directors voted to support two turf research projects for 2012 funding totaling $43,000. Total project value to completion is $68,000 over two years.

University of Guelph Dr.'s Goodwin and Hsiang's project titled 'Defense Activators as an Alternative to Pesticides for Controlling Turfgrass Diseases' is valued at $25,000 per year for two years. The purpose of the work is to investigate an organic control strategy for turfgrass diseases by stimulating the inherent ability of plants to resist pathogen attack. Past research has found that resistance can be induced in susceptible plants by microorganisms and their metabolites or by synthetic analogs of natural products. The benefits of such an approach could be enormous as the industry and society trends away from traditional synthetic pesticides.

Tompkins, Fry, Ross and Anderson of the Prairie Turfgrass Research Centre based out of Olds College will build on previous winter turf survival work through a project called 'Evaluation of Ventilation Systems under Winter Covers to Prevent Injury from Anoxia on Annual Bluegrass Putting Greens' valued at $18,000. The project stems from testing done at the Glendale Golf Club where clever systems have been installed (in winter) using roof turbines to blow air through pipes laid under impermeable covers on greens to mitigate any toxic gas build-up. The goal is to develop a simple and inexpensive system that can be used at all courses that have chronic ice damage issues.

Also, the CTRF website is now active (www.turfresearchcanada.ca) adding a new resource to communicate both past and current research efforts to all Canadian Turf Managers. The CTRF reached a deal with Naylor Publishing that included both the website and an annual magazine to be circulated throughout the golf and turf industry. Additional content will be added as time permits.

The Canadian Turfgrass Research Foundation (CTRF) is a partnership between Golf Canada, the Canadian Golf Superintendents Association, the Western Canada Turfgrass Association, the Saskatchewan Turf Association, the Manitoba Golf Superintendents Association and the Turfgrass Research Foundations of Alberta, Atlantic, Ontario and Quebec. The CTRF funds research projects at different Canadian universities and research facilities designed to answer the research needs of the Canadian golf and turf industry.