Greetings to each of you brave souls attempting to manage turfgrass here in the Transition Zone. I am appreciative to the folks at W.S. Connelly for allowing me this opportunity to share some words of wisdom (or more frequently, lack thereof... about my experiences from the turf research world. You can expect an update from me on this site roughly once a month. My goal is to provide some timely information about current research, hot topics, or any other novelties I think may be of use. I may even venture out of my little turf disease bubble and try to lean on my fellow VT Turf Team members to find out what's up in their worlds.

For those of you who do not know me, I am the sick individual that actually gets excited when turf starts to head south for one reason or another. My role as Turfgrass Pathologist at Virginia Tech is simply to find new and improved ways of keeping grass alive when diseases and other stresses arise. My career at VT began in 1997 working under the late Houston Couch. I had this neat opportunity for a summer job that would get me out on golf courses and athletic fields for a few months. That lead to another summer... then a year round position... then grad school... then a technical position... then a research appointment... and here I am.

Most of my current work is in collaboration with a number of Agrichemical manufacturers, with the common goal of developing new products that have a positive impact on our industry and the environment. I work on most of the usual suspects (like brown patch, dollar spot, anthracnose, etc.), as well as any new and emerging diseases. Rather than treating acres at a time like many of you, most of my applications are small plots that are typically no more than 36ft2. While this isn't "real world", it gives me the best opportunity for side-by-side comparison of multiple products. My rough guestimation on the number of individual plots sprayed each year is somewhere around five thousand.

Most research findings that I provide in this arena will be based on my first-hand data, with occasional postings about exciting news from other pathologists from around the country. I am a firm believer in letting the data speak for itself, and do not intend to endorse any specific manufacturer (or distributor). When I get animated about a product, it's because I've seen how it performs and acknowledge the impact it may have on the industry as a whole.

My first real bit of information should be ready for you within the coming weeks. Field season is quickly winding down for me so it is about time to start making sense of my mounds of data. In addition to some research notes, I'll try to provide a few extra thoughts and observations on fall recovery and a quick primer on our annual Turf Nerds meeting held in October.

David McCall
Virginia Tech
Turf Pathologists