MSU field day hosts turf professionals

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Turfgrass requires more labor and inputs to thrive than most vegetation, but it can be grown in a sustainable and environmentally conscious way.

The Mississippi State University Turf Team, a multidisciplinary collaboration of faculty, students and staff, works toward this purpose year-round. In late summer, 260 turfgrass industry professionals saw its exhaustive on-farm research on numerous varieties of the state’s most grown specialty crop in person, as well as the team’s work to refine turfgrass weed control.

The 2025 Turfgrass Research Field Day was held Sept. 18 at the R.R. Foil Plant Science Research Center. The MSU Extension Service, Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, and the MSU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences showcased their ongoing research projects to turfgrass managers, lawn care operators, golf course superintendents, sod producers, turf and landscape students, and landscape architects during the event.

The field day also featured a vendor trade show with spray drone and technology demonstrations from the MSU Agricultural Autonomy Institute.

Spearheading the annual outreach event is MSU Extension turfgrass specialist Jay McCurdy, who is also a professor in the MSU Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, or PSS.

“Research is conclusive that people are happier and healthier when surrounded by green plants or nature in general,” McCurdy said. “Turfgrass is not necessarily natural. It’s a curated type of landscape, but it is prolific in modern society and fairly cheap to maintain. It also has some ecosystem services beyond just the benefits of health and recreation.”

Not counting residential turf acreage, the state has roughly 2,000 athletic fields and more than 100 golf courses consisting of professionally maintained turf. Like any crop, turfgrass varieties -- zoysiagrass, St. Augustine grass and Bermuda grass, to name a few -- compete with unwanted weeds -- including dallisgrass, crabgrass and goosegrass among others -- in many residential lawns.

MSU researchers conducted several dozen weed control trials this year and currently maintain 13 acres of turfgrass research plots on site at the center, also known as North Farm.

“Around 80% or 90% of homeowners’ lawn problems are annual weeds that are recurring year to year from seed. Short of removing that soil seed bank, the next best option to prevent those weeds is to apply a residual herbicide that prevents those weeds from germinating and establishing,” McCurdy said. “Preventatively controlling annual weeds has now gotten us to the point where we’re really having to start focusing on how we control perennial weeds or weeds that are escaping preventative practices.”

Chris Thomas, a spray technician with Olive Branch-based lawn care service Master Lawn, said events like the turfgrass field day are excellent educational opportunities for residential lawn care providers.

“When you can learn more about chemical applications and options that can reduce potential stress to turf and learn to do the things we’ve always done more efficiently, you can eventually get better results for your clientele while lowering your input costs,” Thomas said. “I think getting to see this research up close is a way to get better at balancing costs, efficiency and effectiveness.”

Precision applications and turfgrass variety breeding are major components of MSU turfgrass researchers’ work. This includes flying over and mapping weeds and making targeted applications to eliminate weeds without affecting the surrounding desired grass, all while reducing pesticide inputs.

“Post-emergence technology is rapidly evolving,” McCurdy said. “We’ve got more post-emergence herbicides and combinations of herbicides that are becoming available to us in our industry because of crossover from the row crop industry, so we’re constantly evaluating new products and new ways of applying those products.”

Presenters at the field day also included PSS associate professor Barry Stewart, PSS professor and turfgrass breeder Marta Pudzianowska, MSU Extension vegetable specialist Pawel Orlinski, MSU Extension Pesticide Applicator and Recertification Program manager Gene Merkl, MSU Agricultural Autonomy Institute Associate Director of Research Madison Dixon and PSS graduate student Amy Wilber.

For tips on turfgrass establishment and care, refer to MSU Extension Publication 1322, “Establish and Manage Your Home Lawn,” online at https://extension.msstate.edu/publications/establish-and-manage-your-home-lawn.