turfgrass

Turfgrass is the name for mown vegetation of grasses, plants in the Poaceae family. Turfgrass is part of humanity’s cultural and biological landscape. Turf gives people and other animals healthy outdoor surfaces to move around, cleans and recharges groundwater, develops and conserves soil, and sequesters carbon. Grassy meadows remind us of our intimate connection to a natural heritage and give our communities sense of place.

Ready, set, spray

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A good spray job looks simple: a boom glides across the field, spray sweeps down, a pest is controlled, and turfgrass is healthy. But if one simple thing goes wrong, results can be awful. Bad herbicide spraying can cause turf

Goosegrass (Eleusine indica) control with Revolver (foramsulfuron)

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Busey, P. 2004. Goosegrass (Eleusine indica) control with foramsulfuron in bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.) turf. Weed Technology 18: 634-640. Abstract Field studies were conducted to evaluate foramsulfuron for postemergence control of goosegrass in bermudagrass turf as a possible replacement for MSMA.

Scientific publications

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Below are listed citations of refereed scientific papers and book chapters authored or co-authored by Philip “Phil” Busey from 1971 to 2024, sorted by authors and years. Here is also a larger list of publications including non-refereed scientific papers and

Off-types in bermudagrass

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Off-types in bermudagrass—genetically distinct patches differing in color, height, or texture—disrupt turf uniformity and performance on golf courses and sports fields. While sometimes called “mutations,” most off-types I’ve observed in 49 years of Florida turfgrass research are likely contaminations from

Pros and cons of synthetic athletic fields

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(Comment: This is adapted from a 25 Sep 2013 letter that I wrote to the Mayor and Commissioners for a friend concerned about her city’s plans to replace natural turfgrass fields with synthetic. I have since been engaged in consulting

Goosegrass suppressed by turf canopy

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This month, I published a scientific paper in the journal HortScience showing that canopy light gaps in bermudagrass turf, in the form of divots, stimulate goosegrass seed germination and growth. It is only common sense that maintaining dense turfgrass canopy