All 3 sessions will cover the same material. Please attend the session that is most convenient for you.
Locations, Dates, and Times:
Wednesday January 29, 2025 – 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Sussex County Extension Office (Carvel Research Station)
16684 County Seat Hwy
Georgetown, DE 19947
Friday January 31, 2025 – 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Kent County Extension Office
69 Transportation Circle
Dover, DE 19901
Friday February 7, 2025 – 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
New Castle County Extension Office
461 Wyoming Rd
Newark, DE 19716
Seminar Agenda (Same for all counties)
8:00 – 8:50 – Registration and Breakfast
8:50 – 9:00 – Opening remarks
9:00 – 9:50 – John Emerson, University of Delaware
10:00 – 10:50 – Matt Elmore, Rutgers University
11:00 – 11:50 – Lunch
12:00 – 12:50 – Carl Schimenti, Cornell University
1:00 – 1:50 – Jill Pollock, University of Delaware
1:50 – 2:00 – Closing remarks
Registration will begin at 8:00 a.m. Please arrive early to ensure a prompt check-in!
Breakfast and lunch will be provided. If you have any dietary restrictions, please be sure to answer the last question on the registration form.
Register here
If you have any questions, please call or text John Emerson at 859-621-0500 or email him at jremer@udel.edu
Breakfast: Coffee and Donuts
Lunch: Capriottis
Cost: $60.00/person
******Payment will be taken the day of the event you attend. Please, bring your form of payment with you. We will accept cash, check, or card. Make checks payable to ‘University of Delaware’******
Speakers, Titles, and Abstracts:
Best Management Practices for Lawn Care – the Good, Better, Best Approach
Implementing best management practices (BMPs) for lawn and landscape care is often perceived as a daunting task, with lengthy checklists that leave managers unsure of where to begin. This presentation will introduce a practical approach to adopting BMPs, structured around a “good, better, best” framework. Starting with simple, low-effort BMPs that yield immediate benefits, we will discuss how to progressively incorporate more advanced practices that, while requiring greater effort, can significantly enhance the value of turfgrass. Attendees will learn to prioritize and scale their BMP adoption, make the the process more approachable, manageable, and impactful.
Mr. Carl Schimenti – Carl is an Urban Environmental Scientist at Cornell University who studies the value of turfgrass in urban areas, and how management practices affect that value. His extension work focuses on promoting best management practices, and his research aims to provide tools to turfgrass managers to help optimize their resource use.
Integrated Management of False-Green Kyllinga and Yellow Nutsedge
This presentation will discuss the power of combining herbicide programs and turfgrass management to provide long-term control of various weeds, particularly sedges and false-green kyllinga. Identification, life cycle, and susceptibility to herbicides will be discussed. Research-based results showing the power of combining optimized herbicide programs synced with turf management practices such as seeding, fertilization, and mowing will be discussed. For example, false-green kyllinga research has been conducted by the presenter to evaluate various herbicide products; when kyllinga is most susceptible to these herbicides, how the herbicide efficacy can be improved with practices such as fertilization and turfgrass seeding, and the ability of kyllinga to establish from seed. This evidence-based approach will be discussed so attendees can augment existing sedge management programs with strategies for kyllinga and nutsedge control.
Dr. Matt Elmore – Matt Elmore is a faculty member and Associate Extension Specialist in Weed Science at Rutgers University. His research program at Rutgers focuses on weed control in turfgrass with a focus on integrated strategies for weed control in cool-season turf. Matt earned his B.S. in Turfgrass Science from Penn State University before moving south and earning an M.S. and Ph.D from the University of Tennessee in 2014 with an emphasis on turfgrass weed control.
UD Plant Diagnostic Lab Yearly Update and Pest Management Trivia
In the first part of this presentation, we will briefly cover the distribution of samples submitted to the diagnostic lab as well talk about pest trends seen throughout the year. In the second part, Jill and John will host a game show style event where attendees will answer trivia questions pertaining to pesticide label comprehension, basic math calculations, pest identification as well as biotic and abiotic stresses found in turfgrass and ornamental systems.
Ms. Jill Pollok – Jill Pollok has been the Plant Diagnostician at the University of Delaware since 2020, diagnosing problems of around 800 plant samples annually. Prior to UD, she was a plant pathology research specialist at a Virginia Tech research station. She received her master’s degree from Virginia Tech in Plant Pathology, and she received her bachelor’s degrees in Agroecology and Biology from Penn State.
Indexing the Soil Nutrient Status of Turfgrass Systems in Delaware: What Does the Data Tell Us?
Historic methodologies for how nutrient recommendations are derived is seen as flawed and often lead to unnecessary fertilizer applications that result in no improvement to turfgrass quality. The Minimal Levels of Sustainable Nutrition (MLSN) guidelines were an answer to this problem, but critics suggested that the soil test data set used in the development of MLSN was either not robust enough or too general to determine regionally accurate guidelines. Over the last 1.5 years I traveled the length of the state and collected 435 soil samples from good performing turf to build a data set that is specific to Delaware. In my talk we will cover flaws in traditional soil testing and fertilizer recommendations and highlight what the preliminary data from my research is suggesting.
Mr. John Emerson – John has been the Turfgrass Extension Agent at the University of Delaware since 2020. His time is split between the Nutrient Management Program and Pesticide Safety and Education Program. He earned a B.S. in Plant and Soil Science (Turfgrass Management) from the University of Kentucky and will complete his M.S. in Plant & Soil Science from the University of Delaware in 2025. His research is focused on the relationships between soil testing and nutrient recommendations for turfgrass systems. Prior to his time at UD, John was a golf course superintendent, turfgrass consultant, and a LCO business owner.
Continuing Education Credits:
Nutrient Management and Pesticide credits will be requested from DE, MD, NJ, and PA. Credits will be attributed as they are approved.