Jeremy Murdock

Jeremy Murdock
EM America
Davis, Ca. USA

Jeremy Murdock has 8 years experience in organic farming and began working with EM while farming in Tucson 7 years ago. Currently he works for EM America, the company for sales and marketing of the original EM products in North America, as their agricultural specialist and for CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers) as an Organic Farm Crop and Livestock Inspector. Areas of EM expertise and project experience include turf management, field crops, tree crops, and compostinng.

Presentation
Saturday, September 9th, 2006 / 18:00 – 18:20

EM for Golf Course Greens

EM1® has been used by numerous golf courses in California to help maintain optimal turf health on putting greens while reducing pesticide dependency. In recent years municipal pesticide reduction mandates and public pressure have paved the way for non-toxic turf treatments. Regular EM1® applications on golf course greens have consistently resulted in reduced incidence of many common turf diseases. In particular, pink snow mold (Michrodochim nivale), which is possibly the most troublesome putting green turf disease, has been almost eliminated by using EM1® as a preventative treatment. EM1 is much less expensive then the common fungicide treatment for pink snow mold.
Conventional pesticide treatment also adversely affects the soil and make healthy turf regrowth difficult and time consuming. EM1® is applied with a boom sprayer on golf course greens in 10-14 day intervals. Treatment schedules are often modified so applications occur before high stress weather patterns such as periods of prolonged rain, fog, or extreme heat. The City of San Francisco has been using EM1® for 4 years and the Superintendent at the first Golf Course that instituted an EM1® golf course greens treatment was awarded an environmental stewardship award from the CA. State Department of the Environment. Recently, the Superintendent of this golf course was promoted to the Harding Park S.F. Municipal Golf Course when it began preparation for its first PGA (Professional Golf Association) tournament. EM1® treatment began at Harding Park two years prior to the PGA tournament held in October of 2005. The use of EM1® peaked the interest of USGA (US Golf Association) agronomists that worked with the PGA in preparing Harding Park Golf Course and the USGA is currently planning on conducting EM1® research on golf greens.

Keywords: Effective 0icroorganisms (EM1®), turf, golf greens