TURF EDUCATION DAY
A comprehensive day of education on lawn care, products and resources.
The Must Attend Event for All Turf Care Professionals
ILCA and the Chicago Botanic Garden have come together to present this comprehensive day of education on lawn care education, products and resources. Lawn care is a big part of many of our businesses and organizations. Whether you choose to subcontract some of those services, or provide them in-house, it is critical to your profitability and customers’ satisfaction to stay informed about the latest turf care products and practices.
Attend education sessions to broaden your knowledge and visit our sponsors to see what exciting products are available.
ILCA Advocacy Update – From Grass to Grassroots
8:30 AM – 8:45 AM
Scott Grams, ILCA
Room: Alsdorf Auditorium
ILCA Executive Director Scott Grams will provide a brief update on state and local political issues that impact the lawn care industry. Peer into the regulatory process the ILCA employs to protect the industry and understand your vital roles as licensed applicators and practitioners.
Diagnostic Tips for the Problem Lawn
Richard Buckley, PhD, Rutgers University
Room: Alsdorf Auditorium
Turfgrass problem solving is a necessary skill for all turf managers. Every turf manager needs the tools to quickly rule out possibilities and narrow focus to solve problems. This one-hour lecture will review basic plant pathology concepts and emphasize how to use these ideas to accurately diagnose turf problems in the field. A step by- step diagnostic process using visual cues and environmental clues will be discussed.
Pick Your Poison
Mike Reed, Synatek
Room: Linneaus
Many people believe that some pesticides are safe, while others are dangerous. Actually, the words “safe” and “dangerous” are misleading. Any chemical, including any pesticide, can pose risks to people, pets, or the environment. Understanding pesticide risk will help you take steps to minimize it. The risk of a pesticide depends on two things, exposure (how much?) and toxicity (how poisonous?). Mike will discuss these to help you decipher “What’s in the bottle?”
Session sponsored by:
Sports Turf Management at Northwestern University
Zach Simons, Northwestern University
Room: Pullman
Join Zach as he shares his maintenance techniques for the athletic facilities at Northwestern University. Zach will share how he applies best practices to the natural turf fields and synthetic sports turf.
Session sponsored by:
Turf Disease: Pick Your Best Defense
Richard Buckley, PhD, Rutgers University
Room: Alsdorf Auditorium
This one-hour lecture will cover the most common turf diseases in landscape turf. Several diseases will be profiled with up-to-date research-based information. The biology of each causal pathogen, the predisposing conditions that lead to disease outbreaks, diagnostic tools, and integrated control programs that include all cultural, biological, and chemical management strategies will be discussed.
Session sponsored by:
IDA Regulatory Update
Description coming soon!
Debunking the Top 3 Myths in Mosquito Control
Kurt Vandock, PhD, Bayer Environmental Science
Room: Pullman
This interactive presentation will focus on an integrated approach to mosquito control focusing on best practices for surveillance, monitoring, and intervention methods in both residential and commercial settings. During this session, Dr. Vandock will emphasize three main strategies for success while highlighting many of the common pitfalls in this growing segment.
Session sponsored by:
Building a Turf & Ornamental Care Program Using the 3 E’s
Mike Reed, Synatek
Room: Alsdorf Auditorium
Even lawn care has a responsibility to be good stewards to the environment. This seminar will focus on the tools that will allow you to choose pesticides that are efficacious and gentler on the environment, applicator and home owner. Attendees will learn how to use an EIQ calculator to evaluate the environmental impacts on pesticide usage. After reviewing results, they will formulate a turf care program that is environmentally friendly.
Session sponsored by:
Doing More with Less
Doug Soldat, PhD, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Room: Alsdorf Auditorium
This talk will focus on the fundamentals of turf grass fertility in the context of increasing fertilizer, labor, and fuel prices. We will review the essential nutrients required for a healthy lawn, examine ways to determine appropriate fertilizer requirements, and compare the economics of various fertilizer materials.
Fertilizer of the Future
Craig Shepherd, Advanced Turf Solutions
Room: TBD
Fertilizer has drastically improved for the better. Fertilizer Producers are using better raw materials to get more nutrients into the grass plant. This short talk is to hear the process into what physically goes into a bag of fertilizer and how this affects plant growth, labor usage, cost, and efficiency.
Session sponsored by:
Grass Selection 101
Doug Soldat, PhD, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Room: Alsdorf Auditorium
This talk will cover the basics of the turf grass species and cultivar selection. We will review the characteristics of the common species used in lawns and landscapes that draws upon decades of research at the University of Wisconsin and elsewhere. We will also explore a new web-based tool for choosing grass cultivars best suited to your specific needs.
Session sponsored by:
ILCA Advocacy Update – From Grass to Grassroots
8:30 AM – 8:45 AM
Scott Grams, ILCA
Room: Alsdorf Auditorium
ILCA Executive Director Scott Grams will provide a brief update on state and local political issues that impact the lawn care industry. Peer into the regulatory process the ILCA employs to protect the industry and understand your vital roles as licensed applicators and practitioners.
Diagnostic Tips for the Problem Lawn
Richard Buckley, PhD, Rutgers University
Room: Alsdorf Auditorium
Turfgrass problem solving is a necessary skill for all turf managers. Every turf manager needs the tools to quickly rule out possibilities and narrow focus to solve problems. This one-hour lecture will review basic plant pathology concepts and emphasize how to use these ideas to accurately diagnose turf problems in the field. A step by- step diagnostic process using visual cues and environmental clues will be discussed.
Pick Your Poison
Mike Reed, Synatek
Room: Linneaus
Many people believe that some pesticides are safe, while others are dangerous. Actually, the words “safe” and “dangerous” are misleading. Any chemical, including any pesticide, can pose risks to people, pets, or the environment. Understanding pesticide risk will help you take steps to minimize it. The risk of a pesticide depends on two things, exposure (how much?) and toxicity (how poisonous?). Mike will discuss these to help you decipher “What’s in the bottle?”
Sports Turf Management at Northwestern University
Zach Simons, Northwestern University
Room: Pullman
Join Zach as he shares his maintenance techniques for the athletic facilities at Northwestern University. Zach will share how he applies best practices to the natural turf fields and synthetic sports turf.
Session sponsored by:
Turf Disease: Pick Your Best Defense
Richard Buckley, PhD, Rutgers University
Room: Alsdorf Auditorium
This one-hour lecture will cover the most common turf diseases in landscape turf. Several diseases will be profiled with up-to-date research-based information. The biology of each causal pathogen, the predisposing conditions that lead to disease outbreaks, diagnostic tools, and integrated control programs that include all cultural, biological, and chemical management strategies will be discussed.
IDA Regulatory Update
Description coming soon!
Debunking the Top 3 Myths in Mosquito Control
Kurt Vandock, PhD, Bayer Environmental Science
Room: Pullman
This interactive presentation will focus on an integrated approach to mosquito control focusing on best practices for surveillance, monitoring, and intervention methods in both residential and commercial settings. During this session, Dr. Vandock will emphasize three main strategies for success while highlighting many of the common pitfalls in this growing segment.
Building a Turf & Ornamental Care Program Using the 3 E’s
Mike Reed, Synatek
Room: Alsdorf Auditorium
Even lawn care has a responsibility to be good stewards to the environment. This seminar will focus on the tools that will allow you to choose pesticides that are efficacious and gentler on the environment, applicator and home owner. Attendees will learn how to use an EIQ calculator to evaluate the environmental impacts on pesticide usage. After reviewing results, they will formulate a turf care program that is environmentally friendly.
Doing More with Less
Doug Soldat, PhD, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Room: Alsdorf Auditorium
This talk will focus on the fundamentals of turf grass fertility in the context of increasing fertilizer, labor, and fuel prices. We will review the essential nutrients required for a healthy lawn, examine ways to determine appropriate fertilizer requirements, and compare the economics of various fertilizer materials.
Fertilizer of the Future
Craig Shepherd, Advanced Turf Solutions
Room: TBD
Fertilizer has drastically improved for the better. Fertilizer Producers are using better raw materials to get more nutrients into the grass plant. This short talk is to hear the process into what physically goes into a bag of fertilizer and how this affects plant growth, labor usage, cost, and efficiency.
Grass Selection 101
Doug Soldat, PhD, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Room: Alsdorf Auditorium
This talk will cover the basics of the turf grass species and cultivar selection. We will review the characteristics of the common species used in lawns and landscapes that draws upon decades of research at the University of Wisconsin and elsewhere. We will also explore a new web-based tool for choosing grass cultivars best suited to your specific needs.
Organizer: AnneMarie Drufke
Click here to contact [email protected] for further information about this event.
THANKS TO OUR PREMIER SPONSOR!
THANKS TO OUR LUNCH SPONSOR!
THANKS TO OUR BREAKFAST SPONSOR!
THANKS TO OUR TABLETOP SPONSORS!
