Outreach and Education: Collaborating With VT Ph.D. Student in Fungicide Trial

Ellie Kitchin, Precision Agriculture and Plant Pathology Ph.D. student at Virginia Tech, began treatment trials here at Bayville Golf Club for Take-All Root Rot in 2025. Using several different products and even employing the use of a drone for disease detection and data collection, she visits the property once every 30 days to monitor our Burmuda fairway on #9.

Take-All Root Rot (Gaumannomyces graminis), otherwise known as TARR, is a serious soil-borne fungal disease that causes brown, dead, irregularly-shaped patches in warm-season lawns, especially St. Augustine and Burmuda. It attacks roots and stolons in spring or fall when the turf is stressed - namely by poor drainage, compacted soil, drought, excessive shade, or overwatering. Typically spread by moving infested soil or sod (rather than by mowers or foot traffic) the damage is often irreversible once the root system is completely destroyed. Sod replacement is necessary in severely affected areas.

Ellie Kitchin's passion lies in the convergence of sustainability and technology in agricultural systems. Focusing on precision agriculture, machine learning, and plant pathology, her research includes developing machine learning models for automated plant disease detection, assessing the efficacy of GPS-guided sprayers for targeted pesticide applications, and creating user-guided, data-driven decision-support tools for industry practitioners.

We look forward to learning the results of the trial, and are always happy to offer our property to students and extension agents engaging in valuable research for the Green Industry.

Ellie Kitchin, Precision Agriculture and Plant Pathology Ph.D. student at Virginia Tech, and trial plots on #9 fairway