Bigfoot is baaaaack!

It’s Thursday night, and I’ve been in Las Vegas a little more than 24 hours. We have a wimpy signal here at Mandalay Bay, and my computer kept timing our before I could connect last night, so I finally gave up and went to sleep. So, why am I here, and what does that have to do with Bigfoot?

Those of you who attended GIS may have seen Bigfoot on the trade show floor. Bigfoot was in Las Vegas last night to welcome a few dozen folks to “Turfgrass Madness!” the program is a clever play on the NCAA’s March Madness. Valent, the company that brought Bigfoot to GIS, is educating its distributors, some superintendents and a few editors about its latest offerings. Last night we all got to know each other and Bigfoot, but the work started in earnest first thing this morning.

Valent’s Scott Todd started off with a group discussion of the perfect fungicide. What would you like in a fungicide? Low use rates? Longer effectiveness? No re-entry restrictions? One product that would control all the fungal diseases and pythium diseases as well? The wish lists from the group were long.

Bruce Martin, Ph.D.,  professor of plant pathology at Clemson University, gave an overview of turf diseases caused by fungi (and by Pythium, which is not actually a fungus). He also discussed the various categories of products available for treating these diseases and their effectiveness. Some of the newer products answer some of superintendents’ fondest wishes, but certainly not all. Since this is a Valent meeting, a lot of the conversation centers on the company’s newest fungicide offerings, Tourney (which has a very low use rate) and Stellar, a combination of two active ingredients.

Valent’s Jason Fausey, Ph.D., informed the group about the various programs for using Velocity to rid your fairways of Poa annua.

The afternoon was devoted to insects and insecticides, and Dave Shetlar, Ph.D. (aka “the BugDoc”), from Ohio State led the charge, telling the group a lot more than we ever wanted to know about some insects. Did you know that grubs are very clean, constantly grooming themselves to remove bacteria and other agents of disease? Shetlar recommends grubs as a “clean” snack -- but he didn’t say anything about their taste. I suppose it comes down to individual preference.

Just as there are a vast number of turf insect pests, so there are a large number of different types of insecticides and numerous products, including Valent’s latest offering, Arena, which was actually introduced a couple of years ago by Arysta, although the active ingredient was developed by a third company.

It’s been a long day.  I’ve learned what some superintendents would like to see in the perfect fungicide and the perfect insecticide, and what one company is offering to try to fill those wish lists. Tomorrow, we will be forging ahead with more information on insecticides to cope with a few more of the numerous species of insects.