Welcome

Research Interests

We are a research lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences Department specializing in:

  • Population genetics of New England populations of Sclerotinia homoeocarpa, causal agent of dollar spot on turfgrass, to better understand population dynamics of fungicide insensitivity
  • Management of fungicide resistance in dollar spot on turfgrass
  • Classical and molecular breeding of disease resistance in Lolium and Agrostis spp.
  • Mapping of disease resistance quantitative traits in Lolium and Agrostis and comparative genomics analysis in Poaceae species
  • DNA fingerprinting of Kentucky bluegrass and bermudagrass
  • Nanotechnology for plant pathogenic fungi

Extension and Outreach Focus

In addition to research, our group is involved in extension work through:

News

2012 Snow Mold Applications

Snow mold applications were made in five locations from Nov 14-28th. This year we will evaluate the affect of turf pigments on snow mold recovery and spring green-up. The picture above shows some of the experimental plots after pigmented treatments were applied at the Ponemah Green Family Golf Center in Amherst, NH.

More Disease Updates

Our Research Associate, Jay Popko has been sending disease updates regularly through the UMass TurfTalk email list to members of the turf community in New England.  These brief reports will keep the reader up to date on management, forecasting, severity, and general information on turf diseases throughout the season.  To get on the email list, email us at: turf@psis.umass.edu


Brown Patch on colonial bentgrass

The most recent update is available here…
Date: July 8, 2011
Category: Diseases
Subject: Dollar Spot, Brown Patch and Dollar Spot Resistance Assays

2011 Snow Mold Fungicide Trial

The 2010-2011 Snow mold fungicide trial report is now available.

This year we had excellent disease pressure and the trial was conducted in three states with four locations: Queensbury, NY; Manchester, VT; Pittsfield, MA and North Adams, MA.