When superintendent Kevin Hutchins at Mission Viejo Country Club in southern
As Hutchins puts on these purple-tinted stress-detection glasses, which are manufactured by Underhill International, he’s ready to “see into the future” and the problems that are cropping up.
“The TurfSpy glasses have become an integral part of our course management program and help us detect diseases like brown patch before they becomes serious,” Hutchins says. “Our irrigation team also uses them to identify ‘hot spots’ on the greens before they get worse.
“We’ve been using them for several years with positive results,” Hutchins says.
The flashy purple TurfSpy lenses work by blocking out the green spectrum reflected from chlorophyll in healthy vegetation. Stress conditions, such as disease, drought, pests or poor nutrition, are revealed with glowing colors, typically as red, coral or pink. These conditions can be detected two to 10 days before they are visible to the unaided eye.
“The glasses have also been very helpful in detecting pests on our eucalyptus trees, such as long horn borers and lerp psyllids,” Hutchins says. “These pests stand out like a sore thumb with the glasses and we can
treat them before they become a real nuisance.”
Superintendents who use the glasses report they can identify the early signs of diseases like fusarium patch, pythium blight, yellow patch, brown patch and anthracnose, along with Poa invasions.
Turfgrass researcher Todd Blankenship, who worked as a superintendent at Wisconsin River and Big Fish Golf Clubs in
Under the auspices of the GCSAA, Blankenship is testing 10 new cool weather turf varieties from Scott Seed and Pick Seed in a two-year program.
He brings the glasses along on his daily site inspections.
“I do a visual analysis in the morning to evaluate conditions, looking for brown spots or uneven irrigation. In the early afternoons, I come back with TurfSpy, which always confirm my suspicions.
“The glasses show in broad detail any problems that the naked eye can barely detect,” he says.
Blankenship has found the glasses especially useful with turf interns to help them recognize turf problems caused by inefficient irrigation, a broken sprinkler or in locating weeds for pesticide application.
With technology developed by NASA and the USDA, TurfSpy glasses are designed so that plant stress “explodes” in brilliant colors from a gray/black background. The lenses are constructed from shatter-proof polycarbonate and feature a wrap-around style with adjustable nose piece.
The Sapona Country Club crew in
“They’ve been very helpful in detecting the first signs of burning or brown spots, dollar spots and patch disease,” says Larry Beck, a crew members at Sapona.
“It’s been a great way to keep the greens healthy and playable.”