208 - Midwest Grows Green Technical Assistance Program: Improving Soil Health with Organics
Ryan Anderson, Community IPM Outreach Specialist, IPM Institute of North America, Inc.
Growing evidence indicates that dense organic matter materials can increase turfgrass field performance. In this session, Midwest Grows Green natural lawn care (NLC) technical assistance program (TAP) team members Ryan Anderson and Vytas Pabedinskas cover soil health principles and how to apply these principles in a sports and recreational field management setting. Anderson and Pabedinskas will detail how the TAP helped local authorities, such as the River Forest Park District, leverage soil health to improve turfgrass performance without synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, despite budget cuts during COVID-19.
Learning Outcomes:
- Learn the practices of compost topdressing, organic fertilization, and other techniques that improve soil health.
- Obtain knowledge and resources to improve soil health this growing season.