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Associate Professor John Cisar, left, and postdoctoral researcher Dara Park take a sample of water collected beneath a turfgrass plot at UF’s Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center.
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Florida’s 5 million acres of home and commercial lawns may need fertilizer, but its water resources don’t — so University of Florida researchers have embarked on a landmark study to verify the effectiveness of current state lawn-care recommendations.
Funded by the state Department of Environmental Protection, the five-year, $3.5 million study is UF’s largest turfgrass research project ever, said Laurie Trenholm, an associate professor with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences and one of the study’s principal investigators. The research focuses on nitrogen and phosphorus, essential plant nutrients that pose significant threats to Florida’s water quality.
“We’ve known for years how to produce beautiful turf, but now we’re determining how to do it with the smallest amount of fertilizer,” said Trenholm, who is also head of the Florida Urban Turfgrass Program. “When we’re done, we’ll have proven recommendations that are right for almost any landscape situation.”
The study is based at three UF research facilities — in Gainesville, Fort Lauderdale and near Pensacola — and addresses a variety of grass species, soil types and growing conditions, she said.
Laurie Trenholm, ltrenholm@ifas.ufl.edu
Tom Nordlie