This time of year, many golf courses become home to some unwanted visitors: crabgrass and goosegrass. Both are annual weeds that germinate in the spring and thrive in the heat of summer. They do best in sparse turfgrass that is mowed short, which is why greens are especially susceptible. The weeds find plenty of room to grow and soak up the sun in this close-mown turf. 

Experienced turfgrass managers know that "growing grass" ends up being a small part of their job. Managing people and budgets and the politics of their positions consume far more of their time than actual turfgrass management. With all the distractions, it’s easy to forget some of those simple practices that can have a big long-term impact on turfgrass performance.

This year’s seed update is a little different from the past few.

Not many of us would have imagined the drought conditions across the state of Michigan recently. With many of us receiving plenty of rainfall this week, we finally have a minute to catch our breath and refocus on how we plan to make it through the remaining “drier months of summer.” 

Advanced Turf Solutions added seven new products in the second quarter of 2023. Keep reading to find out what’s new.

Despite their pleasant-sounding names, doveweed and dollarweed can be real pests in warm-season lawns. This blog post will explain how to identify and control them both with pre- and post-emergent solutions.

Grubs are relentless but relatively easy to control if you take certain considerations before determining the application product and method.

Are you guilty of making these two common mistakes when treating lawns in the summer?

Mosquito control is a valuable service to consider adding to your lawn care offerings. This blog post will discuss the main disease-carrying mosquitoes in the United States and some effective methods to control them.

Water management on golf courses is more than simply budgeting your water use for the year.

As we move into the heart of the summer, we need to be mindful of how we can better prepare ourselves to battle the stresses the summertime temperatures can bring.

Green Industry Pros recently honored Nikki Hendrickson as one of the winners of the 2023 Women In The Green Industry Award. Nikki Hendrickson is a sales representative at Advanced Turf Solutions. 

Sod webworms are the larvae of “lawn moths” that eat grass blades at night and live in silk-lined tubes or “webs” in the thatch and soil layers. The first generation of sod webworm generally emerges in mid-May to early June. The grass is healthy and growing fast at that time, allowing it to grow out […]

It’s not too late to get a crabgrass or goosegrass invasion under control. With this arsenal of post-emergent herbicides, you can reclaim any lawn from the summer weeds that infest it.

Pythium is a devastating disease that progresses rapidly and often causes damping-off in turfgrass seedlings, especially in the summer. Pythium thrives when nighttime temperatures and relative humidity add up to at least 150. This is one reason why we discourage installing lawns in the summer, but sometimes a summer lawn installation project is unavoidable. 

Yellow nutsedge and kyllinga are two weeds that are sometimes confused with each other. Keep reading to learn the similarities and differences of the two, as well as how to control them both.

With spring finally giving way to summer heat and drought conditions appearing across much of the Midwest, pump stations, wells, and irrigation systems are being pushed to their limits as water shortages start to occur.

Between the December freeze and the ongoing drought since the fall of 2022, we’ve observed immense stress on plants, leaving them weakened and vulnerable.

You may have heard about poison hemlock in the news recently, as it’s making headlines for its aggressive growth in the United States this year. The invasive plant is spreading throughout the country, and with it, concerns about the severe risks it poses.

Infield testing is an important part of field management. Understanding infield test results allows you to adjust the composition of your field accordingly. In this blog post, we’ll explain the basics of collecting a sample for testing and interpreting the sand, silt, clay, and gravel content results.

The biggest issue that has been affecting our landscapes this year is from the winter, which most feel we never had! 

There’s nothing worse than walking into a mess first thing in the morning on your course and, if you discover ant mounds on your greens and/or tee boxes, a mess is what you will have.

From heat and drought to traffic stress, summer is hard on golf course greens. To help, we’ve put together some recommendations for cultural practices and products that support summer greens management.

We asked Aaron Hathaway, Nufarm Technical Services Manager, a few questions about yellow nutsedge. Learn when the weed begins to appear, how to identify it, what conditions create a perfect environment for it, challenges we face when trying to manage it, and how to effectively control it.

Grow Together is one of our core values at Advanced Turf Solutions. That's why we offer FREE education events to support green industry professionals throughout our territory.

As temperatures rise, so does the threat of heat stress. Turfgrass in lawns and residential properties are at risk of damage from high temperatures and the often low rainfall accompanying them. Managing heat stress involves both cultural practices and products to help, both of which we’ll discuss in this blog post.

In the transition zone, the warm summer months are ideal for growing warm-season zoysiagrass on fairways. Zoysia will thrive in the summer heat and has relatively few pests compared to cool-season grasses. However, several key management practices and product applications should be done to make it shine.

If you own a lawn care company, you know it’s about much more than yard work. In “The Business of Lawn Care” series, we discuss topics related to managing and growing a company in the lawn care industry.

Perhaps the best-known turfgrass species, Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis) is popular for lawns, golf courses, and sports fields.

Aphids are a well-known pest among vegetable gardeners, but did you know they can also damage ornamental plants?

This year has been especially challenging for warm-season turf managers. What initially looked like a mild winter in the South has turned into many courses and field complexes dealing with winterkill on fairways, greens, and fields.

Advanced Turf Solutions has 24 locations that proudly serve customers in 15 states. Our Monroeville location first opened in 2010, relocating to a new building down the road in 2016. Since then, the Monroeville operation has grown so much that it now occupies both the old and new buildings, with 25,000 total square feet of space.

As a lawn care provider, you have many tools in your arsenal to get the job done. What if some of these tools were taken away?

Will Uzzell is the field manager at Republic School District in Republic, Missouri. The district has nine athletic fields, which Will manages with the help of just one part-time mower. All but one of the fields are natural turfgrass. They’re home to the district's football, soccer, baseball, softball, and even lacrosse teams.

Find out how to complete successful preventative applications for red thread & pink patch, snow mold, summer patch, take-all patch, Pythium root rot & dysfunction, dollar spot, brown ring patch, and fairy ring on your golf course.

As if there is not enough stress on your turf throughout the season, cart damage can be that thorn in your side you could do without. Like the weather, it is unavoidable. However, there are ways to mitigate the wear and damage.

For busy superintendents, plant growth regulators (PGRs) are allies in the fight for efficiency. Not only do they reduce labor needs, but they also help turfgrass make the most of its limited resources through stressful conditions.

Yes, we’re talking about the common cereal crop most often used in the production of baking flour. Sadly, wheat plants frequently show up this time of year in lawns that were meticulously planted the previous fall. 

Spring means a lot of rapidly changing weather patterns and conditions, leaving golf course superintendents often feeling like they're on a roller coaster.

An often-overlooked, and arguably the most important, ingredient affecting successful product applications is water.