Turf Grass Management - Bert McCarty

Turf is a major economical impact of state citizens of South Carolina. Hi my name is Bert McCarty Im a professor of horticulture for Clemson University and beautiful Clemson South Carolina. I specialize in turf grass science. My job is to keep grass green. In the state of South Carolina we have over 400 golf courses and each of these golf courses has an operating budget between a half and one million dollars a year and the majority of that is going towards personnel. So, obviously golf and other turf entities are major economic driving impacts to the state and citizens of South Carolina. Our major grass growing in the summer is bent grass. Ben grass suffers when you get to the heat and moisture stress of the summer conditions in SC so I try to figure out ways to make that grass stay green with less input. Another major economic impact in the state of Sc are playing surfaces for sport fields, athletic complexes, etc. WE have in this state over 800 that we know of sport fields. Each one of those has their own economic inputs in the states economy. These sports fields especially at the college level and higher are specially built. Death Valley here at Clemson University is built on pure sand and has an underlying drainage system, sand cap and it has a tip way of 419 Bermuda grass of turf on it. The sand is because it has to be able to drain when you have a major sporting event. Most sports fields have some kind of modification so that drainage is a major consideration to try to get games in on time. A major source of information for citizens who have more interest in turf grass in south Carolina and how to grow them can be found at our website here at Clemson university .clemson.edu/turfornamental/ also we have textbooks at Clemson one is called Best Golf Course Management Practices which I am senior author of as well as many co-authors here at Clemson University there are also publications on how to manage sport fields, how to grow good yards or lawns and also how to go into sod production. So, we have a vast knowledge for those who are interested in this area.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Clemson University
• PSA
• Public Service
• turf
• Golf Course Management