SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/306114
14 SportsTurf | May 2014 www.sportsturfonline.com Field Science landscapes. The USDA NOP was developed to create stan- dards for organic farming and administer organic certification – which verifies that a farm or handling facility complies with the USDA organic regulations and allow the sale, labeling, and representation of a product(s) described as organic. To meet USDA NOP certification requirements for crop production, organic farmers are prohibited from applying non-conforming substances to the land for three years before the harvest of an organic crop. This requirement, albeit rigor- ous, preserves the integrity of products labeled organic and drastically contrasts with a recent effort to develop standards for organic land care (including lawns) that allows applications of non-organic materials under an 'Emergency Non-Organic Rescue Treatment' provision. The standards, developed by Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA), emphasize that emergency non-organic rescue treatments must be rare, must only be undertaken as a last resort, and must be approved by the client (www.organiclandcare.net/accreditation/stan- dards). Where a pest population exceeds a pre-established threshold (established by the turf manager and/or client) and a synthetic pesticide is used reduce the pest population to an acceptable limit, the management system should be character- ized as IPM. In its broadest sense, organic turf management seeks to apply the principles of organic crop management to the maintenance of turfgrasses. A primary tenant of organic man- agement is the emphasis on systems-based management as opposed to product-focused management. Synthetic pesticides and fertilizers are commonly applied using a calendar-based approach; organic-conforming products can be applied in a similar manner by simply removing the synthetic product from a calendar program and inserting an organic product. Organic philosophy discourages this type of simple input substitution as it is inconsistent with broader systems-based models that emphasize soil preparation, proper establishment methods, turfgrass selection, and cultural practices that favor healthy, competitive turfgrass. Per USDA NOP guidelines, synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, irradiation, and genetic engineering may not be used in organic agricultural systems. "Materials for Organic Crop Production" (NOP 5034-1), currently in Draft Guidance form, lists materials (including some synthetic) that comply with USDA organic regulations (www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getf ile?dDocName=STELPRDC5103311). Additionally, Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) is a nonprofit organiza- tion that provides organic certifiers, growers, manufacturers, and suppliers an independent review of products intended for use in certified organic production, handling, and processing (www.omri.org). The OMRI Products List is a directory of all products OMRI has determined are allowed for use in organic production, processing, and handling according to the USDA National Organic Program. To preserve the integrity of an organic turf program, turf- grass managers should confine their product choices to those that are OMRI-listed or can be found on the "Materials for Organic Crop Production" list. All too often, confusion arises over what materials are allowable as part of organic manage- ment. Restricting product use to those products that appear on OMRI and USDA NOP lists provides a level of validation that the system is being managed in a manner that can legitimately be characterized as organic. An example of non-organic materials readily mischarac- terized as organic involves 'organic-based' fertilizers. These fertilizers will often contain one or more natural organic fer- tilizer sources (e.g. bone meal, blood meal, feather meal, etc.) allowable in organic production but also contain synthetic nitrogen (N) sources and/or biosolids. Synthetic N sources and biosolids are prohibited for use in organic production; thus, when these materials are applied to turfgrass, the management system should not be characterized as organic. Because there is no national organic program for turf man- agement, the validity and integrity of an organic program is the responsibility of the turf manager, whether the manager is directly employed by the property owner (i.e. school or town) or working as a contractor. ConClusions The underpinnings of successful IPM, synthetic pesticide free, and organic turf management programs include sound agronomic decision making, as opposed to simply figuring out what products can be applied and when (including Minimum Risk Pesticide, organic-approved products, etc.). Examples of systems-based management include utilizing construction methods that preserve topsoil quality and if necessary amend- ing soils with compost to improve soil organic matter; timely establishment and selection of the best adapted turfgrass species and varieties that have demonstrated lower disease and insect susceptibility; and properly executing all cultural practices including raising mowing heights to encourage more competitive turf and returning clippings to recycle nutrients. Systems-based management strategies for sports fields include the aforementioned in addition to frequent cultivation to alleviate soil compaction on native soil fields; aggressive over- seeding to account for voids in the turf cover caused by traffic; supplying ample fertilization to ensure active turf growth and recovery; and using growth blankets to promote seed germi- nation and turfgrass growth when soil and air temperatures discourage turfgrass physiological activity. ■ Brad Park is Sports Turf Research & Education Coordinator, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ; a member of the Sports Field Managers Association of New Jersey Board of Directors; and a member of the STMA Editorial Communication Committee.